After spending several years in Kerry I had come to realize then and now that it was a country within a country and deserves to be called the kingdom. It’s rural landscape have given it more than a feeling that all politics are ‘local’. A place of squinting windows, and tight knit parishes that never quite gets the larger picture of a changing Ireland, and ruled by cunning farmers with dodgy comb- overs and leprechaun hats. Somewhere far into the future, it will. For now, the recent trial of a ‘gombeen’ bouncer from Meen, in Listowel found guilty of raping a woman had predictable results.

The parish priest waded in suggesting doubts with the evidence, late middle aged and elderly pensioners wished the rapist well, and this Sunday all will celebrate Mass together. No doubt some of those prayers will be for the rapist, some for clerical child abusers, and the rest for their own immortal souls. A very different future has been left for the victim .

She has been convicted in the court of local opinion of being a liar, a fallen woman, and faces being shunned by the same parish. Her sentence will be for a lifetime with no chance for parole.

Barry Clifford
Oughterard
Galway
18 dec 2009

PLEASE allow me to send a Christmas message to our public representatives.

On behalf of the Horsman Hogan household I’d like to thank them for all of the beautiful Christmas cards we’ve received.

Indeed not only were we impressed and beholden to them for sending the cards, but we were suitably impressed by the high quality of those issued. We were also slightly overwhelmed by the number of local councillors and TD’s who knew us, never having met or spoken to the majority of the senders.

But unfortunately, I have to confess to a slight fiscal embarrassment.

As a clinical nurse manager employed by the HSE, while I personally welcome the taxes and levies imposed on my salary in the national interest, unfortunately it means I can no longer afford to buy cards to respond to their largesse. As a self-employed accountant, ditto for my long-suffering and hard-working spouse.

We did turn to our adult sons to ascertain if they could provide the necessary funds but, as a student garda and a student scientist, they also reported a sad lack of finances.

So as polite taxpayers who would love to reply to our well-intentioned representatives, we have no alternative but to turn to your newspaper’s well-read ‘Letters’ page to respond to their kindness this Christmas.

Florence Horsman Hogan

Irish Independent

With regards to Florence Horseman Hogan, letter, Irish Independent, Tue 16 Dec 2009
While Florence Horseman Hogan is concerned this season with having enough money to pay for Christmas cards even though she and her husband are employed, and been offered no help from her working children, I began to ponder her dire circumstances. I hoped instead she might ask forgiveness from victims of institutional abuse that for over a decade she has insulted at every opportunity, apologise to Cardinal Connell for believing his lies, and explain where her stand is today with regards to the terms, ‘false memory syndrome’ and ‘mental reservation’. Is there any L.O.V.E. left for victims or indeed Mr. O Connell on ‘mature reflection’.
Total cost: one phone call, one letter, and one moment of clarity along with honesty.

Yours very sincerely.
Barry Clifford

Oh yes, the Church had the secret knowledge and used it to enslave us sheep- in the hope that we would remain docile forever.

“cult of the Sacred Heart and Our Lady”

So it is a CULT when it pertains to females.!

“centralised culture of ecclesiastical secrecy of unaccountability to civic and criminal law was identified in the report by Judge Yvonne Murphy as the root cause of church cover-ups of paedophile priests.”

That secrecy of unaccountability is still alive and well in Government agencies like the HSE and our court system. Judges still quote the Catholic doctrine to women in courts about their place in Ireland. Who are the advisor’s to the courts and judges?

Exactly.

The secret family courts, the secret witch trials to remove property from women- it is all happening Paddy, as you well know.

As for “His Holiness” or hollyiness as it is supposed to be…..who made this guy holy?

It is the foolish brainwashed peasants of the planet who have to have someone to worship, instead of realizing that most are far more pious that the Patriarch in Rome who demands obedience to his God.

But who is “His God.” and how do uneducated people know that they are worshipping the same God as him.?

When one looks at the whole picture world wide of millions of people paying money to the Vatican in the hope of it being dispersed among the poor and needy- instead it is spent on lives of luxury by men only.

You know Paddy, all the wealth in the Vatican would feed and clothe and shelter the whole planet of human beings forever.

That is not the work of the Church Corporation of course- its only mission is to conquer and control in any way it feels like. The rapes of innocent children mean nothing to the men of the corporation.

These men of “G-d” will hang on like drowning men though as they are so predictable.