Feb
7
The John Terry affair, like that of many other sportsmen before him, was sordid. Not only did he betray his wife and children, he also betrayed his team-mate and friend. He’s not the first footballer to behave badly, and expectations are not high when it comes to the off-pitch conduct of premiership stars.
Where it differed from the morass of adultery, dogging, domestic violence and drug-taking stories that have emerged about others in the past, is the masterful handling of the situation by England manager Fabio Capello. Showing true leadership, he demonstrated the consequences of his actions to Terry by stripping him of his captain’s armband. Higher standards are expected of people in positions of authority. You can’t lead a team while behaving treacherously to a team-mate. Loyalty and decency matter. Some things are just wrong and there is a price to be paid. Capello sent out this message loud and clear.
Morality, like ethics, standards and decency, has felt like a dirty word in recent years. The modern generation must tiptoe through a minefield of dilemmas where there are few certainties. But there have been revelations of such horror that collective judgement has been immediate and absolute.
Last year the contents of the Ryan report into child abuse in residential institutions shocked Irish society to its core. We struggled to find an adequate response as the scale and depth of systematic abuse of children emerged. The acts described in the report were of the most heinous nature – repeated rapes, constant humiliation, attempted destruction of children.
The publication of the report was a powerful moment of awakening. It forced the government to reexamine the contemptible deal struck with the religious orders that offered them indemnity against all legal claims on payment of €128m in cash and property. The arrangement, brokered in the final days of the government in 2002, was on behalf of 18 religious orders. Total liability later ran to €1.2bn.
When the disgusting detail of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse came out, the public clamour for more accountability from the religious orders grew to a crescendo. While initially resisting a reopening of the deal they later relented and agreed that it could after all be reopened.
Feb
3
4,200 intellectually disabled ’should be rehoused’
Filed Under Disability Issues, Uncategorized | 6 Comments
The Irish Times – Wednesday, February 3, 2010
CARL O’BRIEN Chief Reporter
ABOUT 4,200 people with intellectual disabilities are living in outdated institutions or group homes which need to be closed down or replaced, a report commissioned for the Health Service Executive (HSE) is expected to conclude.
Officials familiar with the draft findings of a report on “congregated settings” say the process of providing proper community-based care facilities could take years and require substantial resources.
Of the people with intellectual disabilities living in institutional care, some 300 are residing inappropriately in psychiatric hospitals, even though they may not have a mental illness. A further 350 disabled people live in “de-designated” units, parts of psychiatric hospitals that were reclassified as community units about 20 years ago.
Latest international research indicates that the best outcomes for people with disabilities in residential care are for those living independently. However, the quality of support is considered crucial to avoid creating “mini institutions”.
Experts say the numbers still living in institutions in Ireland are out of step with most western European countries which have been shutting institutions for the past 30 years.
Prof Jim Mansell, the author of a major report on the future of residential care commissioned by the UK government, said institutions by their very nature deny people with disabilities their basic rights.
“In the US and Britain at the end of the 1960s and 1970s there was scandal after scandal associated with institutional care, such as concerns on overcrowding, ill-treatment and abuse and neglect … But if you provide the right kind of care in the community, you can transform the quality of people’s lives,” he said.
In a statement last night, the HSE said it was committed to increasing the provision of community-based care for people with disabilities and has been moving in that direction for several years. It said about 4,000 people are already in such settings.
Following the publication of the report on congregated settings, it says it plans to work closely with the Department of Health to finalise plans to increase the numbers of people with disabilities cared for in a community setting.”
Disability experts also say a major change in the culture of residential care is needed where residents are given the opportunity to be involved in the community and in decisions affecting them. Dr Fintan Sheerin, a lecturer in intellectual disability nursing at Trinity College Dublin, said many services need to move on from the “medical model”, which operates on the basis that there is something wrong with disabled people that requires treatment.
Jan
12
Councillor denies call to rename Archbishop Ryan Park
Filed Under Child Abuse, Uncategorized | 10 Comments
The Irish Times – Tuesday, January 12, 2010
PATSY McGARRY Religious Affairs Correspondent
LABOUR DUBLIN City councillor Mary Freehill has insisted that she has not called for the name of Archbishop Ryan Park, better known as Merrion Square in Dublin, to be changed.
She said yesterday that she had proposed a motion at a meeting of the city council on December 7th last inviting comments from people on the name of the park. Her motion was agreed and the council is to place advertisements in the media inviting such comments. She agreed she was prompted to propose the motion following findings of the Murphy report about Archbishop Dermot Ryan.
Archbishop of Dublin from 1972 to 1984, he transferred ownership of Merrion Square to the city in 1974. At one time the Catholic Church in Dublin had hoped to build a cathedral there. The issue of name change for Archbishop Ryan Park was discussed on Joe Duffy’s Spirit Level programme on RTÉ 1 last Sunday.
However, Ms Freehill felt the park might be more appropriately named after one of the many literary figures who had lived at Merrion Square.
She instanced Yeats, George Russell (AE), Sheridan Le Fanu, Oscar Wilde, as well as Daniel O’Connell.
The Murphy report was very critical of Archbishop Ryan. On abuse allegations, it found that he “failed to properly investigate complaints, among others, against Fr McNamee, Fr Maguire, Fr Ioannes, Fr X, Fr Septimus and Fr Carney. He also ignored the advice given by a psychiatrist in the case of Fr Moore . . . subsequently convicted of a serious assault on a young teenager”.
Jun
19
CAROL COULTER, Legal Affairs Editor
THE RYAN Commission Inquiry into the Abuse of Children in Institutions might not have been necessary if freedom of information legislation existed, according to Information Commissioner Emily O’Reilly.
Speaking at a conference on the Freedom of Information Act organised by Public Affairs Ireland, she asked: “What might have been the outcome if 30 years ago, FoI legislation had allowed the public to rip away the secretive bureaucratic veils that hid the industrial schools and other institutions from clear view and exposed the practices therein?
“Leaving aside the abuse itself, a money trail might have uncovered the commercial exploitation of the children and the mismatch between State funding and the actual amounts parcelled out to the children by way of food, clothing and education.
“Other records would have revealed the complaints made and ignored, the low levels of educational attainment and other issues that took until the year 2009 to emerge into the daylight.”
She said the administration should draw very wide lessons from the Ryan report and consider how the Act could be improved. Referring to the exemption of the Garda, she pointed out that UK police were not exempted from the FoI legislation in that jurisdiction. “What harms have occurred in the UK as a result of
the police being subject to FoI?”
Read more
Jun
19
MARY MINIHAN
THE LABOUR Party has published a Private Members’ Bill that would cater for victims of abuse previously excluded from compensation by the Residential Institutions Redress Board.
The party’s education spokesman Ruairí Quinn said that some people had “very legitimate reasons” for missing the deadline for applications for redress.
“This issue has particularly been raised with us by groups in Britain who represent people who simply did not know about the existence of the redress board or who were simply too ill or traumatised to be able to apply,” Mr Quinn said. He added that some people were excluded because they were abused in institutions which were not listed in the schedule to the Redress Act.
May
27
Secret Deal Between Church and State
Filed Under Uncategorized | 2 Comments
It would appear that the findings from the recently released report on
child abuse in Ireland is having positive impacts with the media,
politicians and maybe even those responsible for years of organised,
ongoing abuse.
The issue now appears to the be to achieve equity. One of the main ways
to achieve this is payment and amount of damages to be paid by those
responsible.
A settlement between Church and State, previously arrived at, is now,
at last seen by most as completely flawed, forcing politicians and
others in positions in power to backtrack on what they achieved in
their “Secret Deal”.
Can someone explain how the original amount was calculated in the above
mentioned document and if so, was the level of abuse known or fully
understood?
Did some civil servant sit in their office, making calculations on the
perceived value of a rape, a beating or even a death?
Did the rate for these vary, depending on the frequency of one of these
events?
Did the costs vary from institution to institution?
We can’t move forward or consider what the payment level should be
until it is known how the original figure was calculated.
In addition, we need to know the schedule of repayments agreed was
adhered to and honoured by the organisations responsible for this
immovable slur on Ireland.
If property was not handed over at the time of the agreement, then have
these religious authorities have gained value from the then increasing
values for property and land prices, possibly even to the extent of
removing much, if not most of the financial penalties they incurred for
their management of these “centres of pain”.
I know that whatever amount is finally agreed and extracted, can never
make up for each individuals pain and suffering.
It will also never account for the social, health and other economic
costs that have continued as a result of their actions.
Those that pay taxes pay are and will pay for the damage done, directly
or indirectly.
The State misused their position and the Church, through these
organisations abused the public donations, who by their support bought,
paid and maintained these centres.
Martin
See
Secret Deal Between Church and State
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