By Caroline O’Doherty

Tuesday, March 30, 2010 The Irish Examiner.

THE brother of a man abused at an industrial school is planning an altar protest during communion at one of the biggest Catholic churches in the country on the most important day in the church’s calendar.

Kevin Flanagan, whose late brother Michael was a survivor of the Artane Industrial School in the 1950s, plans to lead protesters to the altar in Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral during the 11am Mass on Easter Sunday to lay children’s shoes as symbols of the children hurt by priests and religious-run institutions.

Michael Flanagan was 14 when a Christian Brother attacked him with a sweeping brush, breaking his arm. The incident gave rise to a Dáil debate in 1954 after the Brothers refused to let the boy’s mother see him and a local TD asked the then education minister to intervene.

Despite the publicity, there was no inquiry and the Christian Brother who carried out the attack was moved to another school.

The Ryan Report on institutional child abuse last year highlighted the case as an example of the order’s failures towards the children in its care.

Kevin Flanagan said his brother was traumatised after his experiences in Artane and drank heavily, dying alone in England at the age of 59.

He believes the Ryan Report did not go far enough in its criticisms.

He also says the hierarchy have failed to respond adequately to the subsequent Murphy Report into abuse by priests in the Dublin Archdiocese.

“We’re calling for an international criminal investigation into the Catholic Church in Ireland. We need investigators from abroad to come in and get the full story. I have a petition with 5,000 names of people supporting that call.”

Mr Flanagan said his protest would be peaceful but it was intended to be noticed. “I’m asking everyone in the congregation to join in and if people can’t make the Pro-Cathedral, then they should tie shoes to the railings of their own local church.”

The Pro-Cathedral is the parish church of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and his predecessor, Cardinal Desmond Connell, who has yet to speak publicly about the Murphy Report’s criticisms of his time in charge of the Dublin Archdiocese.

The archdiocese said it hoped people’s right to worship would be respected. A spokeswoman said: “The diocese has ongoing discussions with survivors groups and their issues and concerns are well known to us.”

 

34 Responses to “Abuse victim’s brother plans altar protest during Easter Sunday Mass”

  1. maitiu O'Fathaigh says:

    I have just discovered this website by sheer chance.,I wish i had seen it earlier. I Concur with all the posts, The Church should be disbanded, Its Disgraced Ireland to the World. I am ashamed to be Irish, and I wonder now what all those Missionaries were up to across the Globe, were they exempt ? I lived in India in the Sixties and the Going’s On at ”St Joseph’s College” Nanital provence is but the tip of the Iceberg. What kind of Twisted So Called Priests and Brothers did we send abroad. How easy if you were a pedaphile, Just Join some Religious Organisation and you were in Heaven. Prick’s the
    Lot of them. May you all rot in Hell

  2. Paddy says:

    The so called “House of God” reminds me of Animal Farm, by George Orwell, “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others”. If there is a God/Jesus he/she would surely never object to having children’s shoes placed in or around a place of worship. Indeed, Jesus/God wouldn’t have had the palatial surroundings of the Catholic Church in Ireland and around the world. The “craw thumpers” would do well to put CHILDREN BEFORE CHURCH. Paddy.

  3. Rose Gosnell says:

    Blocked from entering the Pro Cathedral on Easter Sunday. I went along with my hubby and sister-in law.It was just awful, Gardai and lay people refusing to let us inside. There was a notice board outside with a few nails on the end of it, so I hung a pair of childrens shoes there. I had no sooner done that when a woman in a red coat tore them down, telling me that I had no right to put anything on ‘private church property’. I spoke to a Lady from Galway. She told me she did manage to get inside the church and lay the shoes but that members of the congregation verbally abused her as she did so. Does their faith blind them to all but what they are told by the church. Could they not have found it in their hearts to show just a SHRED of kindness to the protesters.
    I thought the House of God was open to everyone, but on April 4th 2010 at the Pro Cathedral in Dublin. It most certainly was not.

  4. pauline jackson says:

    Here I am. I escaped from Goldenbridge some time after that I was scared of spending my life in a Magdalene home one of the nuns who beat me up is now dead but the other one is living out her life in comfort she left me an invalid for life as there was permanent damage but I suppose she has now repented, but i wish her all the pain I have had from that day the Jackson girl

  5. Charles O'Rourke says:

    As Peter Tyrell wrote of Letterfrack “Three of the Christian Brothers there would have been hanged” Read his book.

  6. Charles O'Rourke says:

    And what year was that beating and where are those nuns now and so on, you see it is questions like this that gets the ball rolling.

  7. Charles O'Rourke says:

    Where is this Jackson girl now?.

  8. Charles O'Rourke says:

    Nolongersilenced, your bravery inspires me, and keep remembering.This can not simply pass. There is no doubt in my mind that violence in these child prisons was taken to its ultimate level.It is vital that those who remember tell of this now.

  9. Raymond says:

    Hello Nolongersilenced.

    Thank you for writing here. I don’t remember seeing your name before (sorry if it’s an oversight on my part) and I’m glad you can come here and trust you will not be “pushed aside”. It is terrible things indeed which were done to you, to little babies and so many others who never got the chance or the strength to tell their story, or rather, who were dismissed and no believed.

    I want to include some others too, the Nolongersilenced, the Kathy’s, all those who DID speak up, vehemently if not always with great success, but were “pushed aside”, discredited and outcast.

    JUST AS A CHILD ALWAYS TELLS THE TRUTH, I believe that these people also expressed THEIR own experience of THEIR tragic Reality. There is NEVER SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE. I hope this is abundantly clear, now that the House of Cards is crumbling, and VINDICATION for EVERYONE.

    PLENTY OF ROOM ON THE BOAT OF JUSTICE.
    ALL WELCOME ABOARD.

    Nolongersilenced ! May you wake up at a respectably late hour tomorrow morning, in a warm room, to the sound and scent of tinkling china and fresh rashers and coffee; propped up in your feathery bed while the radio plays your favourite music or program; knowing that Others are thinking of you now. No need to go pray for your wishes. We’ll do that for you too….And if it’s not all like that yet, well, step up a gear in your dreams.

    Raymond

  10. Charles O'Rourke says:

    This is the one area that frightens the orders to death. Can it possibly be revealed that children were murdered in those places?.They have had decades to prepare them selves for this eventuality. They have the answers ready, they have covered their tracks well. It is now time to reveal these hidden murders and this can only be done by survivors telling what they know. Time is running out and soon there will be silence.

  11. nolongersilenced says:

    Hi Paddy, I have to write this . Deep in my memory which keeps surfacing of a child dying in Goldenbridge, I tried to bring this up, I described what happened BUT I was pushed aside they talked down to me as though I was dirt on their shoe and told It did not happen the way I described Another time I remembered that I looked straight at the eyes of a young girl who was in a terrible state and promised her that One day I would tell what they did to her, When I got the chance many years later They said she died from meningitis, and they had on file to prove it I tried to ask if that was the case WHY were the rest of us NOT given Antibiotics and why was she left in bed under the window ,there were NO curtains but Bars on all the windows which were high and she was right under it where the Light would have effected her and caused terrible suffering. Pardon me but when I got my file most of it was blacked out, they even got the year I was detained wrong and didn’t have any medical records there wasn’t any they said, Yeah RIGHT? if their was they were burnt by mistake >Yeah Right<???,All Industrial Child Prisons land should be searched with Modern Technology,to find out if any children are buried ,perhaps by now there might be houses built there But As we were all only known by number and NO BIRTHDAYS how could anyone NAME every child +date's of Birth to check if anyone is missing in those terrible days anyone one of us could be replaced all they had to do was get another child and give them the number as young frightened hard-worked starved Abused ,Battered children who had to work always in silence would we notice if anyone was missing The answer is YES.The Brutality in Goldenbridge was FIRST Reported by the Uncle and Aunt of one of the Jacksons who complained to the head Brute of a Nun and the Garda, But They were banned from any Further visits ,and this Jackson girl was nearly killed by Sister X and Sr F we all thought she was dead blood was pooring out of her nose and ears she lay on the floor out cold after the severe beating and the Nuns were still bashing her with sticks.Because her Uncle and Aunt had made an Official complaint about the Brutality that the children were suffering in that place , THE UNCLE AND AUNT SHOULD HAVE BEEN GIVEN A MEDAL GOD BLESS THEM<RIP Not Forgotten. How come Mrs Buckley has not mentioned this ??? she knew the Jackson girl .Many in Goldenbridge had a far worse time of it than Mrs Buckley believe me. May you might remember a baby boy who was found at the gate , Well fed and well dressed with a note pinned to him with his name .???wonder where they sent him, I was very young then but it is in my memory. Oh the nightmare ,6 0 clock mass in the freezing dark mornings with no food in our bellies,I have not been to mass since. Freedom Of Speech for Survivors.

  12. Charles O'Rourke says:

    If the Irish police are unable to carry out forensic research in the area around Letterfrack then other police forces here in Europe do have that ability and experience as has been demonstrated quite often. This seems to develop into an issue for Amnesty and other human right groups. One thing is sure this is not going away. The time has come to break the silence and liberate the dead children.

  13. Charles O'Rourke says:

    Thank you Angry for your writings. No doubt the Irish Christian Brothers have shown interest also. The thing about the graves at Letterfrack keeps surfacing in the most unusual ways, almost as if it has a life of its own. I’m fascinated as to why the question seems to be killed every time it appears and then it pops up again.

  14. Martha says:

    Dear Seanie,

    Thank you for your post. I wish my mother had been as courageous as yours; unfortunately she wasn’t. Whenever I complained to her about the violence the head nun inflicted on me, my mother would march me back up to the school (south-city Dublin) and make me promise I’d be a “good girl” for that dangerously psychotic nun.

    Its about time we Irish rid our country of Rome. We cannot claim to be a Democratic country when we are effectively ruled by The Vatican, i.e., the Catholic Church STILL has control of over 90% of our national schools!!!

  15. FXR says:

    Religious Abuse Truth would like to thank Paddy for posting the article and all the people who have made comments.

    If you can be at the Pro Cathedral Sunday between 9.30 and 10 am (Mass starts at 11am) you can help with the hanging.

    Hold on, calm down, I’m talking about baby shoes..on the railings.

    If you can’t be there try to get someone nearer to go. We have over 700 pairs of baby shoes which should be all tied with black ribbon by Sunday ready to go up.

    The last time we hung less than 300 and they made an effective display. They stayed up for three days. A lot of people saw them and some people had started to turn up with their own. If people start hanging shoes in their own area it will spread.

    The more visible signs there are that ordinary people will no longer tolerate the crimes of the Catholic Church, despite its choke hold on politics, it’s army of PR advisors, high paid lawyers and secretive society’s, the more it will weaken.

    Click the link below to see a photo and other photos by John Ayres.
    http://babyshoesremember.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=announcements&action=display&thread=78

  16. christy says:

    HI PADDY
    I HEAR THAT THE CATHOLIC GROUPIE LEADERS ARE UP THE NORTH KISSING THE RING OF
    THE CHILD RAPISTS PROTECTOR BRADY,SO ONE CAN ASSUME THEY WILL BE HAVING A FINE SUPPER WITH SEAN, LETS HOPE Its THEIR LAST SUPPER THEY ARE NOTHING BUT A LOAD OF MONEY GRUBBING
    BASTARDS THE LOT OF THEM.
    COME TO THINK OF IT THEY SHOULD BE WELL VERSED IN THE ART OF RING KISSING AS THEY DID
    MORE THAN THEIR FAIR SHARE IN ARTANE,FERRY HOUSE ETC ETC.
    TELL YOU WHAT PADDY THAT POLICE FORCE IN IRELAND ARE WELL NAMED GUARDS AND GUARD THEY DO,THE POLITICIANS, THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, THE BISHOPS, THE CARDINALS, THE GROUPIE LEADERS, ANYBODY BUT THE PEOPLE WHO PAY THEIR WAGES, THE TAXPAYER.
    I NOTICED THAT THE THREAT OF LITIGATIONS AGAINST BARRY CLIFFORD FROM THE GROUPIE LEADERS HAS NOT MATERILISED, A BASIC PRINCIPLE OF LAW YOU CANNOT PROSECUTE THE TRUTH! ISN’T THAT RIGHT MISTERS WATERS, O’BRIAN, KELLY AND BARRY?

    THE PERSONIFICATION OF CHRISTIAN BROTHERS THE LOT OF THEM!

    CHRISTY

  17. Charles O'Rourke says:

    Sean, a big hug to you for your writings. We are making history on Sunday.

  18. Angry says:

    Hey Christy , where in da name a jasus did you get threepence from .?? WERE YOU POSH OR WHAT.

    Us “poor” children had to try and get away with putting washers in the box.?

    Regard`s Angry

  19. Angry says:

    Kevin Flanagan`s Brother, like so many former child prisoner`s of the brutal Irish religious prison`s died alone. No one there. No one to reach out to. There are many, many hundred`s of men of the Irish Gulags who went that way.

    Nothing has changed, these stigma`s and conditions STILL exist, NOW, THIS VERY MINUTE. The suicide rate of former inmates of these hell hole`s is inordinately high, those living STILL suffer, still live alone, still traumatised, while we have so called group leaders, or as they are now known , bishop groupies, HAVING TALKS WITH THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR THESE ABUSES. ?????

    These sadly deluded MUMPER`S who think they can interface with these religious on a HIGHER PLANE, merely indicate`s the mental aberration`s they suffer from. These MUMPER`S merely add MORE PAIN to genuine survivor`s as we witness these MUMPER`S in their pathetic attempts to buttress the hierarchy`s many and ongoing attempt`s to suppress their grave dishonesties to cover their action`s AS ENABLER`S OF PAEDOPHILE`S. IT`S THE GARDAI WE WANT TO HEAR OF GOING FOR “” TALK`S”” WITHESE BISHOP`S, NOT IDIOT`S.

  20. Angry says:

    Tony Duggan.

    Tell me what church in London you will be hanging shoe`s on , and I`d be proud to join in with you .

    Regard`s Angry.

  21. Angry says:

    Letterfrack, like Artane has yet to give up it`s secret`s. Letterfrack was and is, a large cemetery. Many unanswered question`s remain about Letterfrack, indeed not just Letterfrack and Artane, but in every institution run by these fakir`s and zealot`s who masqueraded as “”wise men and women”” doing god`s work.

    Within the Ryan report are many clue`s to the “anxiety” constantly felt by these christian brother`s whenever the question of Deaths in Letterfrack arise`s. No better example of this “anxiety” can be found than in the “evidence” given by the brother DAVID GIBSON as the “representative” of Letterfrack stuck up by his congreation to the Ryan Commission. A bad choice. For them, that is.

    A study of his “evidence” shows the futility of his mission to introduce mirror`s and smoke. Gibson state`s that the cemetery was “active” until 1942, whereupon it was closed to further burials, no reason being given for this. It later emerged that a young boy had been buried some five hundred metre`s from the cemetery, this burial having taken place in 1935, and pointed out by the brother of this child who had returned to Letterfrack to establish why this burial had taken place in the wood`s , despite the cemetery being still actively facilitating burials. Gibson is on record as stating that there are MANY BOY`S BURIED IN “”VARIOUS SPOT`S”” AROUND LETTERFRACK, but these “”VARIOUS SPOT`S””, according to Gibson are UNMARKED.??. No record exist`s of the “”VARIOUS SPOT`S”” or who the children in those grave`s are. Gibson is not even sure of JUST HOW MANY DEATH`S OCCURED IN LETTERFRACK. He give`s the figure of ONE HUNDRED AND ONE children buried in the cemetery, and some TWENTY FOUR CHILDREN buried in “”VARIOUS SPOT`S” in and around Letterfrack. Of course, the duality of such nonsense serve`s the christian brother`s well, in that if a “body” was accidentially unearthed at , or in around the ground`s of Letterfrack, then this “body” would be termed as one of those unfortunate children buried outside of the cemetery.? And as the christian brothers have no records of the location`s of these “”VARIOUS SPOTS”” containing the bodies of children, then such an “”accidential find”” of a child can be easily explained away.?

    Surrounding the “official” cemetery at Letterfrack is a small wood which close`s in on the cemetery from all three side`s. It was, and still is a separate entity from the cemetery proper. Within that small wood, there were many small wooden cross`s denoting the burial spot`s of children. Some of these cross`s were in good condition, some in bad condition. Gibson himself authenticate`s the existence of those cross`s being in that wood. Some of those cross`s were actually made from the spokes of cart wheel`s. Gibson , in his “evidence” state`s that ALL of these small wooden cross`s vanished in early 1961 due to HURRICANE DEBRA “visiting” Letterfrack, as “”HURRICANE DEBRA”” made her way through the wood`s, SHE plucked ALL THESE CROSS`S FROM THE EARTH and hurled them into space…. The remaining cross`s, Gibson states, WERE EATEN BY A WANDERING COW.? IT`S TRUE, READ HIS EVIDENCE FOR YOURSELF.

    From September 1958, to May 1959, I was tasked with sweeping the path`s in the cemetery, doing a bit of weeding and generally looking after the Cemetery. It`s on record as part of my job, it`s all there. It was IMPOSSIBLE not to notice these small cross`s as you went through this small wood adjoining the Cemetery, and as ANYBODY who was in Letterfrack knows, this small wood WAS OUT OF BOUND`S. From the tool shed at the Courthouse, up to the Nurse`s bungalow, which adjoined the cemetery WAS OUT OF BOUND`s.

    In 1968, I visited Letterfrack, I, along with my Wife went into the Cemetery, the small wooden cross`s were STILL there in 1968, but according to Gibson, they had all vanished in 1961.?

    PETER TYRRELL, IN HIS BOOK, FOUNDED ON FEAR , MADE THE CLAIM THAT THREE christian brother`s , IN HIS OPINION, SHOULD HAVE BEEN HANGED FOR THE CRIME`S THEY COMMITTED THERE.?? I WONDER WHAT PETER TYRRELL MEANT .

  22. sean morrison says:

    A very touching move by michael flanagans brother as tears well as I read. I guess memories are made of this, God only knows why Im still around here in Northern Canada having left the desert in Arizona. When I was about 13 years of age I was beaten unconcious by a brother (Baldy McGuire) headmaster, in Creagh Lane school Limerick, he used the leather and a leg off a chair, my crime was mooching, and borrowing Father Lee’s old bike from outside Barringtons hospital, I did not know whose bike it was and I had to put my leg between the frame to ride it, that would be 1948, after going home after the beating I could not sit down at the table for the usual mackeral on that Friday evening as our mother insisted I do, you see we had not seen our father who was in England and had left us, I mooched in order to work at several jobs, errand boy, helping farmers on market days, selling newspapers, for every 12 I sold the thirteenth was mine. anyway, my mother got angry came around the table and tried to push me into the chair I let out a yelp, she pulled my ganzey up and my pants down and I could hear the breath leave her, who in the name of the holy mother did that to you, I learned that I had welts all down my back and backside, she later told me after getting out of jail, you see Paddy, she took me by the hand the next morning to the school, up the iron stairs to the headmasters classroom. knocked at the door, she had her auld coat on with the deep pockets, Baldy who was over six feet tall stuck his bald head out and rasped, what do you want, before I realised it there was glass showering me, she brought the big milk bottle out of the coat and cracked him over the head and we walked back down the stairs, she was sentenced to three month’s, I was kicked out of the school and was refused entry into Sexton street christian brothers school, turned away by a brother at the door, however, Leamy’s school was not run by the brothers and I still have the letter from them accepting me, you may have read and heard about Leamy’s from Frank McCourts book “Angela’s Ashe’s” both he and brother Malachy went there. I was sentenced to St. Joseph’s in Glin for the crimes as I have mentioned, at this time we had also been evicted from the council house in St, Marys Park, Limerick, we moved into an abandoned butcher shop the same night,my mother and three sisters and young brother. I was the first child born in the Island estate in 1935. In Glin I was further abused, beaten with an old brothers (Kelly) walking stick as I was on my knee’s weeding the onion patch, the onions which the brothers got on their plates, he caught me nibbling one, like a rabbit, he nearly broke my back with the force, thats just some of my experience with the religious brothers, do you wonder why I have tears in my eyes today at this fine old age, and still crying when I read about the abuse. May God have mercy on their souls.

    Regards,
    Seanie.

  23. FXR says:

    To see what the railings of the Pro Cathedral looked like the last time follow this link.
    http://babyshoesremember.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=announcements&action=display&thread=78

    (if clicking it does not work just copy and paste it into your address bar at the top)

    We have about 6 hundred pairs of shoes and lots of black ribbon. The problem is will there be enough people to tie them to the railings. It’s not possible to predict how many will turn up. This country seems to run on everbody hoping that someone else will do something about what they feel really angry about. Its the valley of the squinting windows…

  24. christy says:

    HI PADDY
    I REMEMBER AS A DUBLIN KID HAVING TO BRING 3 PENCE TO SCHOOL FOR A MIRACULOUS
    MEDAL, IT DID NOT DO ME ANY GOOD AS THE RELIGIOUS GOT ME, AND BOY DID THEY GET ME
    MAYBE I SHOULD HAVE GOT A PAIR OF 3D GLASSES
    INSTEAD SO AS TO SEE WHAT WAS IN STORE FOR ME

    NOBODY SPINS LIKE THE VAT I CAN.

    CHRISTY

  25. christy says:

    Hi Paddy,

    I have just heard on RTE 1 that visitors to the Turin Shroud are being given 3D Glasses by the Catholic Church so that they could see all of the markings that are not visible to the naked eye. They also went on to say that this was being done despite the fact that the first carbon dating of the Shroud proved that the Shroud was 1,000 years after the death of Christ and when they had a second carbon dating it was said to have been 500 years before Jesus was born.

    JESUS! WHAT A BUNCH OF LYING BASTARDS THEY HAVE CONNED PEOPLE FOR 1500 YEARS AND NOW THEY WANT TO MAKE IT 2,000 YEARS. THE IMPRINTS ON THE SHROUD WAS PROBABLY SOME POOR BASTARD GETTING BEATEN TO DEATH WHILST IN ONE OF THEIR INSTITUTIONS. YOU CANNOT BELIEVE THE LORDS PRAY OUT OF THEIR MOUTH LIARS, CHILD RAPISTS, MURDERERS AND RIGHT OUT OF HOLLYWOOD BUT AN INTERESTING POINT REGARDING THE 3D GLASSES MAYBE WE COULD USE THEM TO SEE ALL OF THE STUFF HIDDEN WITHIN THE RYAN REPORT AND THE REDRESS ACT.

    Christy

  26. christy says:

    HI PADDY
    SORRY TO SAY BUT ALL THE MARCHES, ALL THE PROTESTS WILL DO NOTHING WHAT WE NEED IS LEGAL ACTION AND WE NEED IT NOW.

    ARCHBISHOP MARTINS SPOKESWOMAN SAID ‘THAT THE DIOCESE HAS ON GOING DISCUSSIONS WITH SURVIVORS GROUPS AND THEIR ISSUES AND CONCERNS ARE WELL KNOWN TO US’

    ISSUE 1 WE SURVIVORS ARE NEVER TOLD ABOUT THE ON GOING DISCUSSION WE CAN ONLY THINK ITS ALL ABOUT THEIR FUNDING.

    ISSUE 2 WE THE SURVIVORS HAVE NO SAY REGARDING WHAT THE DISCUSSION ARE ABOUT.

    ISSUE 3 WE THE SURVIVORS HAVE NEVER GIVEN
    ANY ONE THE MANDATE TO HAVE ANY DISCUSSION
    WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

    ISSUE 4 WE THE SURVIVORS HAVE VERY GREAT CONCERNS ABOUT THE VERY PEOPLE THE ARCHBISHOP
    IS IN DISCUSSION WITH AND SO SHOULD THE POLICE.

    CONCERN 1 WE THE SURVIVORS HAVE GRAVE CONCERNS WE ARE BEING SOLD DOWN THE LIFFEY

    CONCERN 2 WE ARE CONCERNED THAT SOME ONE WHO HAS NOT WORKED FOR THE LAST 10 YEARS LIVES IN A BIG HOUSE DRIVES A TOP OF THE RANGE CAR
    AND JETS OFF ALL OVER THE WORLD AND STAYS IN 5 STAR LUXURY.

    CONCERN 3 WE THE SURVIVORS ARE CONCERNED THAT
    THE IRISH TAXPAYER IS FOOTING THE BILL FOR THIS ABUSE.

    CHRISTY

  27. jackson1956@hotmail. says:

    I hope that many shoes will be present and I would like to think that babies shoes wont be forgotten so many of them suffered with the rest of us so good luck to you from Pauline ex 127

  28. Charles O'Rourke says:

    But the Christian Brothers know all to well that many children were murdered at these places by their members. This is the one question they hope will never be raised. If Amnesty raises the question about these hidden graves then things may happen. Many took their lives after they left these places but how many are secretly buried around the fields of Letterfrack?. Slowly it is emerging that there is not only an official children’s graveyard but also secret children’s burial places around Letterfrack.

  29. FXR says:

    If anyone wants to join in I can assure you, you’ll be welcome. On Sunday morning there will be a delivery of 600 pairs of childrens shoes and 700 meters of 80 cm lengths of black mourning ribbon. If enough people turn up the front of the Pro Cathedral will be coverd in childrens shoes tied with black ribbon. That will still be only a tiny fraction of the childhoods destroyed by the Catholic Church and it’s agents in government. The protest is planned for 11am Mass so if you plan to be there arrive at 10 am to start tying shoes.

    Try to be there.
    email grangendub@lycos.com
    Put Baby shoes in the subject line.

  30. Tony Duggan says:

    That’s a good idea, tying children’s shoes to the railings of the churches.

    A very good idea. Mainly because those muppets who still put money in the collection plate every Sunday would have to pass them or the fanatics among them will attempt to take them down.

    This is pretty interesting and I wish everyone would do this on Easter Sunday.

    I’ll be doing this in London.

  31. Charles O'Rourke says:

    If you listen carefully you will hear the voices of the murdered children crying out for justice, Their cries penetrate the walls asking that the living deliver that justice which they were denied. The murdered children of Letterfrack and Artane will have their say on Sunday.

  32. Angry says:

    Will the Garda this Easter Sunday, get their LUMP HAMMER and SIX INCH NAILS out and fix Brady on his own cross, or will Sean do the honourable thing and retire.?

  33. Angry says:

    Artane, the “jewel” in the dented crown of religious education for “wayward boy`s” in Ireland. No “”PETTY GOSSIP BEING THE DOMINANT OPINION HERE”, no, just christian brother`s armed with long handled broom`s going about their “normal” business, breaking arms, legs, skulls, throwing the odd kid or two over balconies, forcing children to lick excrement from their shoe`s, sticking childrens heads out of classroom windows, shutting the windows on their necks and then mercilessly beating them on the bare arse, the normal everday “business” the world has now come to associate with the “christian brothers” of Ireland.

    Artane, from it`s opening to it`s closure, we must NOT forget the good bishop`s who were “patron`s” of this dank and despicable child`s brothel, run on their behalf by the lower class crass ignorant sub-ordinate religious flunkey`s who called themselve`s “brother`s”, but were in essence highly disturbed and psychotically damaged “children” themselve`s, plucked , in the first flush of youth, from rural backwater`s to swell the ranks of these fast emerging cults and sects which have plagued Ireland since it`s inception as a Democratic State.

    Brainwashed into supporting tyranny and the abuse of the young, this made them, and their Master`s, the bishops, an “important” political tool to suppress the many ill`s which faced lamentable “politican`s”, who were to “child care” in Ireland on a par with Hitler`s “concern” for the Jew`s of Europe. While aul Adolf was decimating Europe, we had the “men and women of god”, decimating , through unspeakable atrocities, a whole generation of Irish children. That the church and “politican`s” of the time failed to halt, and obstruct the march of these evil bastard`s to their future apocalyptic nightmare, or to even speak out in a “catholic” voice to the known nightmare`s which were occuring in these children`s brothel`s, is for ever, a lasting stain, through political omission, a phase of Irish “history” which will forever remain a curse on the ringleader`s and supporter`s of CLERICAL SEXUAL TERRORISM, the “religious”, the State, and the bent and corrupted hierarchy.

    Artane, the living embodiment of countless nightmare`s, the cold, hunger, desolation, depression, the setting for so many “heinous crime`s”, as ratzo call`s them, will alway`s remain solidly set in the mind`s of the thousand`s who were unfortunate enough to have been imprisoned there, through a bent and illegal process enacted through the metaphor of something called the “CHILDREN`S COURT`S”.

    Yes, Artane, it can even lead a “normal” catholic into avenue`s of !despair!. Some ten year`s ago I was naive enough to put a “request” up on an Irish website looking for former inmates of Artane to connect with, silly old me, I put my phone number up, e-mail up, and my address up, some of the calls and e-mails I received were “interesting”, hanging, disembowelment, hot pokers up my arse, tarring and feathering, “gracing” the Liffey, confined to a monastery with a “life of prayer”, crawling on my knees BACKWARD`S up KNOCK and begging “forgiveness” , so many bullet`s that I could have opened an arsenal, but by then I resembled a colander, the guillotine was too good for me, had I ever experienced “garroting”, and so on, I think EVERY method of slow strangulation was recommended for me, I wont mention what was deemed “fit and proper” for my children. . However, the ONLY message which has stuck with me came from a “lady” called JENNY FROM DUBLIN, WHO DESCRIBED HERSELF AS A GOOD ” CATHOLIC”, and intoned that “”I WAS, IN HER OPINION, THE UNGODLY ISSUE OF A COUPLING BETWEEN BITCH AND MONGERL”” what a nice way to talk about somebody`s Mammy and Daddy, shame on ya JENNY.? Sad to say JENNY, you have been BESTED, yes, a SCHEMING AND VILE ROGUE SOLICITOR SAID EVEN WORSE. But that`s for a another day JENNY, keep tuned.

  34. Portia says:

    That is music to my ears.