PAUL CULLEN, Political Staff

A BRITISH Labour Party councillor has been chosen by President Michael D Higgins as one of his appointees to the Council of State.

Sally Mulready, a councillor in Hackney in London, is a prominent emigrant rights activist in Britain who moved there from Dublin in the 1970s.

A former secretary of the Federation of Irish Societies, she was involved in the campaign to free the Birmingham Six and is currently involved in the Magdalene laundries issue.

Otherwise, lawyers, academics, and NUI Galway feature strongly in the list of appointees.

His choices include a long-time friend and former colleague at NUI Galway, retired history professor Gearsid S Tuathaigh, and retired Supreme Court judge Mrs Justice Catherine McGuinness. She is a former member of the council of state in the late 1980s and currently serves as an adjunct law professor at NUI Galway.

Prof Gerard Quinn of the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at the NUI Galway School of law has also been appointed, along with Prof Deirdre Heenan of the University of Ulster and human rights lawyer Michael Farrell.

Ruairm McKiernan (32), a social entrepreneur originally from Cootehill, Co Cavan, has also been appointed to the council.

During his presidential campaign, Mr Higgins promised that if elected president he would make sure the council was representative in an inclusive sense.

The Council of State is the body established under the Constitution to advise the President in the exercise of his powers.

Presidents can convene the council to consider legislation, but are not bound by its recommendations.

Aside from the seven appointed members, former presidents, taoisigh and chief justices sit on the council, along with ex officio members.

The ex officio members of the Council of State are Taoiseach Enda Kenny; Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore; Chief Justice Mrs Justice Susan Denham, Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett, Seanad Cathaoirleach Senator Patrick Burke, president of the High Court Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns and Attorney General Maire Whelan.

The other members are former presidents Mary McAleese and Mary Robinson, former taoisigh Liam Cosgrave, John Bruton, Albert Reynolds, Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen and former chief justices John L Murray, Thomas Finlay and Ronan Keane.

Outgoing members of the previous council of state who were not reappointed were: Daraine Mulvihill, Harvey Bicker, Anastasia Crickley, Mary Davis, Martin Mansergh, Enda Marren and Denis Moloney.

The council met to consider eight separate pieces of legislation during Mary McAleeses two terms as president.

PRESIDENT’S CHOICE: COUNCIL APPOINTEES

PROF GERARD QUINN

Director of the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at NUI Galway.

The centre is part of a new research institute which researches policy innovation covering age, child and family as well as disability.

A graduate of UCG, he holds a masters and doctorate in law from Harvard Law School. His specialisation is international and comparative disability law and policy.

He has worked in the European Commission and is a former member of the Irish Human Rights Commission.

RUAIRM McKIERNAN

A community activist and social entrepreneur, he is founder of the national youth organisation SpunOut.ie. He is also a founder and organiser of the Possibilities 2011 Social Summit.

A business graduate, he is a recipient of numerous awards including a Social Entrepreneurs Ireland Award, a Net Visionary Award, and a Junior Chambers International Award.

After eight years as chief executive of SpunOut.ie, he recently stepped down to develop new social innovations.

MICHAEL FARRELL

The senior solicitor with Free Legal Advice Centres, Michael Farrell was involved in the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland and is a former co-chairman of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.

He was a member of the Irish Human Rights Commission for 10 years until last year and is currently the Irish member of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance. He is also a member of the human rights committee of the Law Society.

PROF GEARSID S TUATHAIGH

Retired history professor and a former dean of arts and vice-president of the National University of Ireland, Galway.

A former member of the Senate of the NUI and of the Irish-US Fulbright Commission, and a former cathaoirleach of Zdaras na Gaeltachta, Prof S Tuathaigh has published widely in Irish and English on many aspects of modern Irish history.

JUDGE CATHERINE McGUINNESS

Called to the Bar in 1977 and to the Inner Bar in 1989, she was a member of Seanad Iireann from 1979-82 and was previously a member of the council of state from 1988-90.

She served as a judge of the Circuit Court from 1994-1996, of the High Court from 1996-2000 and of the Supreme Court from 2000-2006.

From 2005-2011, she was president of the Law Reform Commission. She is currently the adjunct professor of law at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

PROF DEIRDRE HEENAN

Provost and dean of Academic Development for the University of Ulsters Magee Campus.

She is also a co-founder and former co-director of the Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey, which has become a key statistical resource for schools, academics and policymakers. Her areas of expertise are devolution, education and social care.

In 2008-9 she worked as a policy adviser in the Norths Office of the First and Deputy First Minister. Last year she was appointed by Minister for Health, Edwin Poots, to assist with the Review of Health and Social Care Services in Northern Ireland.

SALLY MULREADY

Born in Dublin, she moved to Hackney in London with her mother in the 1970s and has made a large contribution to the Irish emigrant community in Britain over many decades.

A Labour councillor in the borough of Hackney since 1997, she is a former secretary of the Federation of Irish Societies.

She is also a founder member of the Irish Womens Survivors Network and director of the Irish Elderly Advice Network.

She was prominently involved in the campaign to free the Birmingham Six and is currently active in the Magdalene laundries issue.

THE COUNCILS ROLE

The Constitution of 1937, Bunreacht na hIireann, provides that the President should have certain discretionary powers. These include the appointment of up to seven people of his or her choosing to the Council of State.

The council is composed of the Taoiseach, the Tanaiste, the Chief Justice, the president of the High Court, the Ceann Comhairle of Dail Iireann, the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad, the Attorney General, and former presidents, taoisigh and chief justices who are able and willing to act on the council. Aside from the seven appointed members, the current ex officio members of the Council of State are Taoiseach Enda Kenny; Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore; Chief Justice Mrs Justice Susan Denham, Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett, Seanad Cathaoirleach Senator Patrick Burke, president of the High Court Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns and Attorney General Maire Whelan.

The other members are former presidents Mary McAleese and Mary Robinson, former taoisigh Liam Cosgrave, John Bruton, Albert Reynolds, Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen; and former chief justices John L Murray, Thomas Finlay and Ronan Keane.

The President can convene the council to consider legislation. After consultation, the President may refer any Bill to the Supreme Court for a decision on whether it contains anything repugnant to the Constitution.

Christine Buckley for Freedom of Dublin City

I will bring this to the Fine Gael Group and propose the granting of this signal honour to a remarkable woman. I will ask Enda Kenny to support this also.Dr. Bill Tormey

I’ve been asked by a number of people who contribute to this website to put this letter seeking to have Christine Buckley given the Freedom of the City of Dublin into this format to allow them to add their comments. i’ve copied and pasted the letter from the original link. It was written by Carmel McDonnell-Byrne – a close friend of Christine’s and a co-worker at the Aislinn Centre. Paddy.

I urge you to please read this:
I would like to nominate Christine Buckley for THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY AWARD and am not sure what procedures and measures I need to take to ensure that this may be possible; although I am aware as Lord Mayor you can nominate people for Freedom of the City. Christine will be 65 years old next year and I think it would be very fitting for her to receive this most prestigious award after 26 years fighting for justice for the most marginalised in Irish society; survivors of institutional abuse.
Last year Christine won the Ireland Involved Award which is part of a European-wide initiative to recognise the work of volunteers. Christine as Irish Volunteer of the Year then went on to represent Ireland at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Saturday 5th December 2009 on International Volunteer Day. She was awarded the Trophee Europeen du Benevolat in the European Parliament in Strasbourg along with the title “European Volunteer of the Year” in recognition of the years of work to raise awareness of institutional child abuse. She gave a most powerful speech and I was very proud to be part of that most momentous occasion.
As you are aware Christine has campaigned tirelessly on behalf of victims of institutional abuse for more than 26 years and is truly a remarkable selfless woman. Christine spoke privately about these atrocities in 1984, and then went public in 1992. Dear Daughter (Louis Lentin) was televised on 22nd February 1996 and yet again Christine spoke of the horrors. In 1999 we had States of Fear (Mary Raftery). Prior to this Christine had attended meetings with Bertie Ahern and the then Minister for Education, Micheál Martin.
Further meetings followed which culminated in An Taoiseach’s (Bertie Ahern)apology on behalf of the State and the people of Ireland to all victims of institutional abuse on the 11th May of 1999. This was followed by the establishment of a nationwide counselling service, a Commission of Inquiry into Institutional Abuse and the establishment of the Redress Board. From that first meeting with the former Taoiseach, it was obvious that not only did Bertie Ahern listen but more importantly, he believed everything Christine had said.
In 2000 during a further meeting with An Taoiseach, Christine explained the difficulties survivors were encountering in trying to access records to help them find their parents, siblings and extended families. Again, Bertie Ahern listened attentively and in 2001 Origins- a tracing service was set up by Barnardos. This has led to numerous survivors being reunited with siblings who poignantly were separated at the time of their incarceration. In some cases, survivors have been reunited with their mothers.
Centres have been established such as Aislinn Education and Support Centre in Dublin and Right of place in Cork together with others in the UK and again Bertie Ahern played a pivotal role in that regard.
In 2004 following another meeting with An Taoiseach Christine expressed concerns about vulnerable survivors receiving compensation without adequate supports, Bertie Ahern provided the solution when he advised the Redress Board to institute measures with the Money Advice & Budgeting Services (MABS) centres to assist survivors in vulnerable situations on how best to use their monies. I strongly believe without Christine’s intervention none of the above would have happened. I do believe it is high time she is recognised for her pivotal role in changing society hopefully for the better. We as survivors are so lucky that she is such an advocate working on our behalf, and we should acknowledge her role as a person who always puts fellow survivors before herself. (Neither myself or Christine have had time to get our papers ready for Redress)
There aren’t many people in Ireland who wouldn’t recognize Christine particularly in the current climate since the Ryan Report. She has devoted so much time and effort to this cause to the detriment of her health, family and not forgetting her education. She had been attending University and had to leave before she completed her degree. This was not an easy decision but things became so hectic in the last few years she had no choice but to abandon her love and desire to pursue a degree. I am sure you can empathise with Christine’s dilemma. (I also found myself in the same situation I was attending Trinity Access Programme and I too had to abandoned because of pressures running our centre,
My own sister died 3 years ago aged 50 years. It was shocking and I am still trying to come to terms with it. I have now lost 3 members of my family due to so called institutional care. We know only too well the scale and extent of institutional abuse in Ireland has not been properly addressed, it has scarred almost an entire generation and must be acknowledged. There isn’t enough money in the world to reclaim our stolen childhoods! But I think if Christine was to receive THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY it would certainly make all of her efforts worthwhile, and it would be a way that her husband and children could celebrate her huge achievement and bravery for telling her story over 26years ago. I think it is important that she receives her award while she is in relatively good health.
As children our innocence was stolen, we were robbed and deprived of our childhoods, so many of us were told every day that we were worthless nobodies and unwanted, beaten, sexually abused and tossed out on the streets when we reached16. So many of our people left these hell-holes were illiterate and Christine has always had this passion to have a centre were fellow survivors could meet and feel a sense of belonging.
She fought doggedly to get a centre to enable survivors’ avail of an opportunity to get the education they so justly deserve, and in the early days she battled cancer and still continued to be actively involved in the centre. She would attend the centre attached to her drip! What a women were does she get her inner strength? I sincerely hope it does not go unrecognized.
Christine’s courage has enabled thousands of people to feel free – free from untruth, free from the cowardice that characterised relations between church and state. There is a huge sense of freedom from the scarring of the emotional – the physical and sexual abuse, at last the awful shame so many feel is slowly shifting. I think the time has come when we have to award Christine the accolade she so justly deserves THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY.
Redress to be Extended/Magdalene’s to be Included
On another note I would urge that the Redress Date be extended in the light of the revelations of The Ryan Report. We have had so many who have asked us why was there a closing date before the report was COMPLETED, some didn’t know anything until after Report, so many are illiterate and so many fled this country and did not know about The Commission until it went out on international news. The Magdalene Laundries should have been included as some of these women were incarcerated for years and years against their will.
I anxiously await your reply.
Yours sincerely
Carmel McDonnell-Byrne
353879175105
(Fellow Survivor and Co-founder & Director of The Aislinn Centre)

The Irish Times – Friday, November 4, 2011

PADDY AGNEW

ANALYSIS:

Decision to close our Vatican Embassy represents a major “cooling” in the once close and intimate Dublin-Rome relations

THE DECISION to close the Irish Embassy to the Holy See clearly represents good housekeeping but, equally, it has huge historical and political significance.

At the end of a summer marked by unprecedented tensions between Ireland and the Vatican over the Cloyne report, the decision represents a significant “cooling” in the once close and intimate Dublin-Rome relations.

Asked last night if the Holy See considered itself “offended” by the Government’s decision, senior Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi declined to comment. Such decisions, he said, were a matter for the Government. While the Vatican spokesman went out of his way to acknowledge the economic considerations underpinning the Irish decision, the reality is this is a move that has serious political implications.

In practice, there are two types of Holy See ambassadors – those who have their own embassies in Rome and those who work out of the embassy in a neighbouring country such as France, Switzerland or Malta.

Senior Vatican diplomats point out that as far as the Holy See is concerned, the former are Serie A ambassadors, while the latter are most distinctly Serie B. Put simply, if you want to show some proper respect and courtesy to the Holy See, then you had better maintain a separate embassy to the Vatican in Rome.

Ever since the 1929 concordat, the Vatican has mounted a zealous guard on the independence of its 100-acre, landlocked sovereign city-state enclave in the heart of Rome. First time Irish visitors, on discovering the Irish State runs (or ran) two diplomatic missions in the city – one to the Holy See and the other to the Italian state – often express surprise. Surely, they ask, a small country such as Ireland could make do with just one embassy which would handle relations with both the Vatican and Italy?

However, the point about the dual missions in Rome (and many other countries have two embassies here) is that they owe their existence to the Holy See’s desire to separate itself from the Italian state. It is the Holy See that refuses to accept an ambassador who is working out of the same building as the ambassador to Italy.

To some extent, the question goes back to first World War days when there was only one national embassy in Rome. When both Austria and Germany, then at war with Italy, withdrew their diplomatic representation, the Holy See found itself without German or Austrian interlocutors. In its finely tuned Jesuitical thinking, the Holy See objected to ambassadors being withdrawn because, while Italy might have been at war with Austria and Germany, the Holy See was not.

Countries which, whether through political choice or financial constraint, opt not to have a separate Vatican embassy usually end up “tagging on” Holy See responsibilities to their ambassador in a neighbouring country. The Holy See takes a dim view of this practice and the ambassador in question is very much a second-class citizen on the Vatican diplomatic circuit.

All of this was something the post-war Irish ambassador to the Holy See, Joseph Walshe, understood all too clearly. He inherited an embassy close to the central railway station where lorries, trams and trolley buses trundled by on a 24-hour basis. Mr Walshe in 1946 reported to Dublin that Ireland should upgrade its quarters, quoting the opinion of then US special representative, Myron Taylor, who said: “Ireland has a very special position in the Catholic world and in Rome and should have an Embassy worthy of Ireland.”

Given the green light, Mr Walshe came up with the goods in the shape of the splendid, 17th-century Villa Spada on the Gianicolo hill overlooking Rome. It has played its part in some intriguing chapters in Italian history, given that Garibaldi had used it briefly as his headquarters in 1849 while in more recent years it was home to the Agnelli (Fiat) family during the second World War.

Bought for $150,000 in 1946, Villa Spada is now worth millions. It functions not just as the residence of the Irish Ambassador to the Holy See but also houses the mission’s offices.

Logic decrees the Embassy to the Italian state would move into Villa Spada, thus saving on the heavy rent paid for the premises rented for that embassy. This move was confirmed last night, along with a decision to have the secretary general at the Department of Foreign Affairs act as Ambassador to the Vatican, servicing it from Dublin.

Other European countries, including Sweden and Estonia, have their ambassadors to the Vatican based in their national capitals.

In answer to a parliamentary question in 2009, minister for foreign affairs Micheál Martin reported that the two Embassies in 2008 had cost €2.4 million (Italian state) and €800,000 (Holy See). The much greater expenses incurred by the State Embassy are explained by the rent, while Villa Spada’s expenses are limited to personnel and upkeep.

This cost cutting measure, however, comes at a price. Not only does it highlight a cooling in relations with the Holy See but it also means Ireland is cutting itself off from one of the modern world’s best “listening posts”, given that the Vatican has an unparalleled and extensive worldwide network of contacts, intelligence and information.

In the current economic climate, however, the Government clearly feels that this is a regrettable, but acceptable sacrifice.

The Irish Times – Friday, November 4, 2011

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

ANALYSIS:
The closure of the Irish Embassy will be seen in the context of a decline in relations following the reports into clerical child sex abuse

NO MATTER how it is put, money-saving exercise or otherwise, the decision to close the Irish Embassy to the Holy See will be seen in the context of a deterioration in relations between Rome and Dublin since the publication of the Murphy report in November 2009. The third of four statutory reports on the abuse of children by Catholic clergy in Ireland, it followed an inquiry into the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations in the Dublin archdiocese.

On its publication the Irish public became aware for the first time that the Vatican did not acknowledge correspondence from the Murphy commission. It also learned that subsequent correspondence by the commission with the papal nunciature in Dublin was also ignored. Such was the outcry that then minister for foreign affairs Micheál Martin summoned the papal nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, to Iveagh House.

Two months later Archbishop Leanza refused to appear before the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs to explain Rome’s non-cooperation with the Murphy commission.

His refusal was described at the time as “scandalous”, “deeply regrettable” and “incomprehensible” by current Minister for Justice Alan Shatter. It rested there.

On July 13th last the Cloyne report was published. It revealed that when the investigating commission wrote to the papal nunciature in Dublin on this occasion, Archbishop Leanza replied – but to say he was “unable to assist” it.

The Cloyne report accused the Vatican, through its opposition to the Irish bishops’ 1996 guidelines on handling clerical child sex abuse, of giving comfort to dissenters in the church who did not want to implement them. In a secret 1997 letter to the Irish bishops, Rome described the 1996 rules as “merely a study document” and not official.

Once again Archbishop Leanza was summoned to Iveagh House, this time to meet Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Eamon Gilmore. He was told by Gilmore that Vatican intervention in Irish affairs was “totally inappropriate, unjustified and unacceptable . . . even within the context of the arrangements of the church itself”. The effect was that the “the abuse of children in this country was not reported to the authorities”, he said. He asked for an explanation.

That same day, July 14th last, Taoiseach Enda Kenny described the Vatican’s approach to clerical abuse inquiries in Ireland as “absolutely disgraceful”.

Six days later, on July 20th, he delivered his extraordinary address to the Dáil on Cloyne.

The report had “brought the Government, Irish Catholics and the Vatican to an unprecedented juncture,” he said. It exposed “an attempt by the Holy See, to frustrate an inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic . . . as little as three years ago, not three decades ago.”

The report excavated “the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism . . . the narcissism . . . that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day”. Far from “listening to evidence of humiliation and betrayal . . . the Vatican’s reaction was to parse and analyse it with the gimlet eye of a canon lawyer”, he said.

Five days later Archbishop Leanza was recalled to Rome. He has since been posted to the Czech Republic.

On September 3rd the Vatican issued a 25-page response to the Cloyne report and comments by the Tánaiste and Taoiseach, rejecting claims it had interfered in Irish affairs or inquiries.

That response was described by the Tánaiste as “highly technical, highly legalistic, very much dancing on the head of a pin”.

The Taoiseach said his criticisms of the Vatican “still stand”.

Currently there is no papal nuncio in Ireland, or to Ireland.

The Government has decided to close Ireland’s embassies to the Vatican and Iran as well as its representative office in Timor Leste.
In a statement this evening, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said that the decision followed a review of overseas missions carried out by the Department of Foreign Affairs, which gave “particular attention to the economic return from bilateral missions”.
Mr Gilmore said that the Government was obliged to implement cuts to meet targets set out in the EU/IMF rescue programme.
He said the closure of the three embassies would save around €1.25 million a year.
He said that while the embassy to the Holy See was one of Ireland’s oldest missions, it yielded no economic return, and that Ireland’s interests could be sufficiently represented by a non-resident ambassador.
He said the Government will be seeking the agreement of the Holy See to the appointment of a senior diplomat to this position.
Speaking this evening, Mr Gilmore said the closure of the embassy in the Holy See was not related to the recalling of the Papal Nuncio from Ireland earlier this year.
The Tánaiste said the Government would not be selling Villa Spada, the Irish embassy in the Vatican. Instead, staff working in embassy to Italy in Rome, which is a rented premises, will be transferred to Villa Spada.
Responding to the decision, the Primate of Ireland said he wished to express his “profound disappointment” at the closure.
“This decision seems to show little regard for the important role played by the Holy See in international relations and of the historic ties between the Irish people and the Holy See over many centuries,” said Cardinal Seán Brady.
The Vatican also issued a statement this evening in which it said noted the decision. It said every state was “free to decide, on the basis of its possibilities and its interests, whether to have an Ambassador to the Holy See resident in Rome or in another country.
“What is important is diplomatic relations between the Holy See and states, and these are not in question with regard to Ireland.”
The prestigious Villa Spada is the most valuable property owned by the diplomatic service.
A spokesman for Mr Gilmore said that it was for the Holy See to decide the manner of its representation here.
The Vatican was among the first states with which the newly independent Irish Free State established full diplomatic relations in the 1920s.
He also said the move would allow for the relocation of six staff to offset losses elsewhere in the diplomatic service.
The changes announced today are expected to come into force in the New Year.
In his statement, Mr Gilmore said that trade volumes in Iran had fallen short of expectations, leading the Government to close the embassy in Tehran and to seek Iran’s agreement to a non-resident accreditation.
The office in Timor Leste had been opened in 2000, to administer a bilateral aid programme, and while this programme would continue, Mr Gilmore said, it was no longer necessary to maintain a resident office in Dili.
Ireland’s ambassador in Singapore will continue to be accredited to Timor Leste, he said.
Mr Gilmore said that the Government would continue to review Ireland’s network of diplomatic and consular missions “to ensure that it reflects our present day needs and yields value for money”.

The Irish Times – Saturday, October 8, 2011

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

AN E-MAIL sent recently to Ireland’s 28 Catholic bishops invited them to each make a €500 personal contribution to a farewell gift for departing papal nuncio Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza.

When asked to confirm whether the amount suggested was €500, a spokesman for the bishops said the “bishops have been invited to contribute towards a farewell gesture for Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza”.

The bishops, including auxiliary bishops, are expected to attend an evening prayer service at St Patrick’s College Maynooth tomorrow evening with the departing nuncio.

The event is being organised at the bishops’ initiative to mark his leaving for a new posting in the Czech Republic.

The spokesman for the bishops said this was “normal procedure for an outgoing apostolic nuncio”. He said the prayer service “is a private initiative of the bishops and is not hosted by St Patrick’s College Maynooth”.

Archbishop Leanza has been in Ireland since April 2008, following the announcement of his appointment here in February of that year.

He was twice called to meetings with ministers for foreign affairs following publication of the Murphy report in November 2009 and publication of the Cloyne report in July of this year. He declined to appear before the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs in February 2010.

Following Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s Dáil speech on the Cloyne report on July 20th last, Archbishop Leanza was recalled to Rome for consultation. Some days later it was announced he was being appointed papal nuncio to the Czech Republic.

He is currently undertaking a round of farewells to Ireland, notably to President Mary McAleese last Monday.

Paddydoyle.com bigger than Vatican City

The Irish Times – Wednesday, February 23, 2011

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

TWO GERMAN lawyers have initiated charges against Pope Benedict XVI at the International Criminal Court, alleging crimes against humanity.

Christian Sailer and Gert-Joachim Hetzel, based at Marktheidenfeld in the Pope’s home state of Bavaria, last week submitted a 16,500-word document to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at the Hague, Dr Luis Moreno Ocampo.

Their charges concern “three worldwide crimes which until now have not been denounced . . . (as) the traditional reverence toward ‘ecclesiastical authority’ has clouded the sense of right and wrong”.

They claim the Pope “is responsible for the preservation and leadership of a worldwide totalitarian regime of coercion which subjugates its members with terrifying and health-endangering threats”.

They allege he is also responsible for “the adherence to a fatal forbiddance of the use of condoms, even when the danger of HIV-Aids infection exists” and for “the establishment and maintenance of a worldwide system of cover-up of the sexual crimes committed by Catholic priests and their preferential treatment, which aids and abets ever new crimes”.

They claim the Catholic Church “acquires its members through a compulsory act, namely, through the baptism of infants that do not yet have a will of their own”. This act was “irrevocable” and is buttressed by threats of excommunication and the fires of hell.

It was “a grave impairment of the personal freedom of development and of a person’s emotional and mental integrity”. The Pope was “responsible for its preservation and enforcement and, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of his Church, he was jointly responsible” with Pope John Paul II.

Catholics “threatened by HIV-AIDS . . . are faced with a terrible alternative: If they protect themselves with condoms during sexual intercourse, they become grave sinners; if they do not protect themselves out of fear of the punishment of sin threatened by the church, they become candidates for death.”

There was also “strong suspicion that Dr Joseph Ratzinger, as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of his church and as Pope, has up to the present day systematically covered up the sexual abuse of children and youths and protected the perpetrators, thereby aiding and abetting further sexual violence toward young people”.

By Caroline O’Doherty

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2011

THE Catholic Church in Ireland is on the brink of collapse and must be resigned to continuing as a minority culture, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said.

The country’s second most senior cleric said sacraments had become social events rather than celebrations of the Church and it would have to relinquish control of primary schools.

He hit out at his peers, claiming there was a lack of proper thought and debate about how the Church should deal with its present difficulties, but, in an extraordinarily frank admission, he also said he had failed to lead the Church in the changes it needed to make to survive.

Archbishop Martin told a gathering at Cambridge University in England that there would be no ordination to the priesthood in his Dublin Archdiocese this year and that Sunday Mass attendances were down to 2% of the Catholic population in some of his parishes.

He quoted reported comments by Archbishop of Boston Cardinal Seán O’Malley, who is conducting a review here for the Pope, that the Church in Ireland had only five or 10 years at most before it could fall over the brink.

“My belief is that in many ways the brink has already been reached. The Catholic Church in Ireland will inevitably become more a minority culture. The challenge is to ensure it is not an irrelevant minority culture,” he said.

Archbishop Martin said the Church’s crisis predated the child sex abuse scandals because for decades the policy had been merely to “keep the show on the road” without thought as to where it was going, and now that the abuses had damaged it further, only radical change would ensure its survival.

“Despite all my efforts I am failing in my attempts to lead such change. Change management may not be my talent.”

He criticised the Government for being “very slow” to offer alternatives to the Church’s patronage of schools. “I believe that there is need for a national forum to debate the issue.”

Addressing his fellow clerics, he quoted Pope Benedict at the beatification of Cardinal Newman when he described Newman as one of the “keen intellects and prolific pens addressing the pressing subjects of the day”. He said the Church in Ireland today was “very lacking” in similar keen intellects and prolific pens.

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Wednesday, February 23, 2011

For generations, the Catholic Church ruled that babies who died before being baptised could not enter heaven – but were relegated to limbo. They were denied funerals and could not be buried in church graveyards. For the families of these babies, though, the grief lives on, writes CIAN TRAYNOR

THERE ARE countless mass infant graves scattered around Ireland, left unmarked, unconsecrated and containing hundreds of bodies.

They are a legacy of Roman Catholic tradition, which stipulated that babies who died before being baptised did not go to heaven, but to an in-between state known as limbo.

Baptism, it decreed, corrected humanity’s original sin in falling away from God. As a consequence, children who died at birth were forbidden to be buried on consecrated ground and denied a funeral service.

Instead they were buried in anonymous plots known as “cillín”. Veiled in secrecy, mired in shame, the burials usually took place in the middle of the night along cemetery boundaries to get the babies as close to sacred ground as possible.

Limbo complicated the grieving process for Eithne Hyland’s stillbirths in 1974, 1977 and 1982, posing insurmountable challenges to her faith.

“When you saw healthy babies growing up, you couldn’t keep your sanity thinking yours were floating around in limbo, as if they were stuck in some maze they couldn’t get out of. That image could torment you,” she says.

A priest said Hyland needed to be “churched” after her first stillbirth, kneeling her down with a hand on her shoulder before saying a prayer to cleanse her.

“I couldn’t understand: why would you need to be cleansed after bringing a life into the world? What has a mother done wrong in giving birth? That still gets me pretty mad. But back then our religion was so staunch that you had to go with what the Church told you.”

Hyland believes the Catholic Church’s attitude towards stillborns was so widely accepted that it made maternity wards unsympathetic places. Parents were not allowed to see or hold a child who died at birth, the logic being that any opportunity for attachment would prolong the grieving.

However, after Hyland’s second stillbirth the sight of her baby, Lisa, left at the end of the bed, tugged at her maternal instinct. “I said, ‘for Heaven’s sake, could you not wrap her up in something?’ The midwife called the student nurse, who came back with a plastic bag and the baby went in with the dirty sheets and everything. I thought, ‘oh my God, did she just throw her out?’” Parents were typically expected to bury the baby themselves. In Dublin, however, the city’s three main maternity hospitals had an arrangement with the non-denominational Glasnevin Cemetery where children were allowed to be buried in mass graves in what was known as the Angels Plot.

After her first stillbirth, Hyland was given the choice of burying her baby or having the hospital take care of it. “Naturally you’re trying to deal with the grief and shock, then suddenly you have to decide what to do. We wanted to protect the rest of the family from the trauma of burying a stillbirth at home but we didn’t know what the procedure was. So they buried our baby, for £5, and nothing more was said.”

Many parents held on to the bill, often framing it, as it was the only memento they had. Custom dictated it was never mentioned it again. “People said, ‘ah sure you’re young enough, you can start again’. After that, you were told to keep it to yourself; otherwise people thought you were looking for sympathy.” It wasn’t until the early 1990s that Hyland “found the courage” to look for her three stillborn babies.

“My husband said: ‘Listen, they’re in your heart. Don’t be puttin’ yourself through that.’ But I had this feeling it wasn’t finished and that it needed to be. To me, an unmarked grave was the real limbo.”

It was through Isands, a charity now known as A Little Lifetime Foundation, that Hyland learned she could trace the burials in Glasnevin Cemetery. They had kept exceptional records; all you needed was a name and date.

Ron Smith-Murphy, the charity’s chairwoman, lost a daughter at birth in 1993, as did her parents 29 years before. Like Hyland, Smith-Murphy didn’t know what her rights were as a mother when she was told her baby would live for minutes. That sense of vulnerability inspired her to establish a supportive framework for parents dealing with a similar loss, both past and present.

She constantly hears accounts of babies being snuck into adult coffins so they could be buried in consecrated ground, or unsympathetic priests telling mothers to bury their baby in the garden.

In many cases, she says, parents tend to return to the child they never got to be with once the rest of their family has been reared. “It’s almost like the grief was delayed because it was suppressed. Often when they’re near death, they talk of the baby they almost had. It’s heartbreaking.”

Change has been gradual. Isands successfully campaigned for a stillbirth register in 1995 and their booklet A Little Lifetime is now distributed to all maternity hospitals, offering parents crucial information and support.

Glasnevin’s Angels Plot, where more than 50,000 babies have been buried, with as many as 70 in each grave, has now been restored to include a memory garden and its annual blessings are well-attended.

“I suppose it’s a change in society, a change in the recognition of grief,” says George McCullough, the cemetery’s chief executive. “When I came here 24 years ago, the remains of babies would arrive at nine in the morning in the under-section of the hearse, with no parents, no ceremony and no recognition. It was an Irish solution to an Irish problem. Now you have 40 fathers, mothers, grandparents and children all with an emotional interest in the one spot for a loss from maybe 30 or 40 years ago.”

In 2007, the International Theological Commission announced there was “hope for the salvation of children who have died without baptism”. Though this upheld the concept of limbo, priests were finally allowed to bless limbo graves and bury the unbaptised in church grounds.

Fr Joe Brophy, who is based in Kiltegan, Co Carlow, says there is nothing about limbo in the scriptures and that it evolved from a climate of control. (St Augustine concluded in the fifth century that infants who die without baptism were consigned to hell.)

“The mind boggles,” he says. “Why would a child born without being baptised [not go to heaven]? It’s gobsmacking arrogance that a pope or someone in authority could say, ‘we’re sorry now but that child is not up to scratch for us’. And that’s really what we were saying. Thank God people have grown up a bit and we don’t take that anymore. It was nonsense.”

Smith-Murphy, and many others, feel the Vatican has not gone far enough. She believes parents of children who died prematurely are owed an apology and has campaigned for a plaque to be erected in every Church-owned cemetery to acknowledge those buried in its hedgerows and ditches.

“There are so many aspects of disrespect to these children and their families. Thankfully, we’re coming to a point where we’re acknowledging what they went through. But for a lot of them, it’s too late. My mum believed she would one day be reunited with her daughter, whereas my dad – a holy man who lived by the book – died believing he would never see her. They never got one shred of recognition from the maternity system, the State system or the Church.”

A Little Lifetime Foundation can be contacted on 01-872 6996 or isands.ie

Donegal’s Oilean na Marbh

Oileán na Marbh (Isle of the Dead) is an island off the west coast of Donegal that was used by locals to bury children who died at birth.

In September 2009, the neighbouring community of Carrickfinn decided to have the island blessed and to erect a commemorative stone to recognise the 1,200-plus children buried there.

“It was always thought that something should be done because after our generation, nobody would know anything about it. It would all be forgotten,” says Seamus Peter Boyle, who led the campaign.

Many present at the ceremony had grown up with the sight of mothers and fathers standing on the piers and gazing across the water, not knowing, as children, that what they were seeing were parents pining for their stillborn babies buried on the island.

For Boyle, now 66, one image in particular has stuck with him: a man leaving for the island in the middle of the night with a spade to bury his twins, whom he carried in a shoebox.

The ceremony was so well-received by the town that they repeated the commemoration last September and hope to continue doing so.

“It was beautiful, so it was,” says Boyle. “There was joy and sadness in it at the same time. Everybody’s just pleased that things have changed. It’s very sad that it was left like it was for so long. It never should have happened that way.”

The Irish Times 02/02/2011