27/07/11
EDUCATION MINISTER RUAIRÍ Quinn was due to meet with religious congregations today about bridging the gap of an estimated €350 million in compensation to victims of abuse in residential institutions.
He invited 18 religious congregations who were implicated in the Ryan report to discuss their offers towards the bill.
However a statement on the Sisters of Mercy website states that the Sisters “declined” an invitation to the meeting.
It also said the Sisters believe:
that they have been misrepresented and demonised in recent years and that their Congregation has been portrayed in a way that seeks to undermine their voluntary service to this country and beyond.
They said that they wanted to state the Commission “did not make a recommendation that the State’s expenditure upon the commission and the redress scheme would be borne 50:50 between the State and 18 religious congregations”.
They also say that “here has never been an agreement between the State and 18 religious congregations that the costs of the Redress Scheme would be borne on a 50:50 basis”.
It has been wrongly suggested that the Congregation has disadvantaged the State in that it has failed to honour a debt. The Congregation has met and will continue to meet all of its commitments to former residents and to the State.
Sister Coirle McCarthy, the Congregational Leader, said:
In making the offer in December 2009, our first priority was the well-being of all the former residents of our industrial schools. It is for the benefit of all former residents that we offer €20m to an independent fund together with a number of properties valued at €11.5m.
The Sisters of Mercy said their 2009 offer included properties offered to the State valued at December 2009 at €80,856,80; properties offered to the voluntary sector valued at December 2009 at €15,060,000.
The Sisters said they “regret that the Government has determined that the Statutory Fund for former residents will not benefit from the properties offered to it or even from their proceeds of sale”.
If the State does not accept these properties, five of them will be offered to local county councils and two significant properties will be sold and the proceeds will go the new National Children’s Hospital.
The Sisters say that in the last 10 years they have donated cash and property in excess of €1billion to ensure that these voluntary services continue.
Sister Coirle concluded by emphasising that “our Congregation will continue to care for those who were with us as children” and added “we take this opportunity to, again, offer our heartfelt apology to all those who were hurt and damaged in our institutions.”
Why didn’t the sisters of mercy go to the meeting they always turned up to meeting us little girls to give us beatings with leather straps and canes and rulers
I didn’t know my grandparents and uncles and aunts or for that matter my father ! The reason,I now understand ,after painstaking research into my roots is that the family disntegrated ….reason still unknown ,but heavily hinted at by a document referring to my father dated 12 May 1908 .It simply says” found wandering with no apparent guardian” and the law was duly applied to an uncle and an aunt who were aged 10,7,4 years old ….my father being the 7 yr old. They were charged by a magistrate and shipped off to Industrial school ,until they reached the age of 16yrs.My aunt was in the Lurgan Industrial school with the Sisters of Mercy until 1919 and my father until 1916.Dad never saw his father and two other brothers ever again !He was a man of few words so I never knew ,in his lifetime ,his story ….I never was able to hug him and tell him i understand what he had been through (having read “In Fear OF THE COLLAR” I will never know the truth of his misshapen childhood,but I can only empathise with those unfortunates in other families! What has upset me most is that IT IS NIGH ON IMPOSSIBLE to obtain information about his years of incarceration from the Sisters of Mercy and the Christian Brothers …..all I want to know is how he did in his schooling ,did he play games , was he in the Artane band,who his friends were……how suspect is their reaction to such simple requests of someone seeking to find and understand My Roots !
I am now 67 Yrs ,but still want some closure on this chapter of my familys’missing chapter. Thank goodness for the 1901 and 1911 online Ireland census,just seeing them listed in Artane census report made my heart leap!
I live in hope and pray that a more open and honest approach will prevail so that closed archives (closed for 100 years)might be opened to reveal more pieces of the family jigsaw!
When i read the conditions of the staturary fund some things really shocked me. because of the way everything is directed towards residential schools. including reformatory schools. but it also includes almost everybody in care. this part is hiding the fact that the industriel schools existed.even hospitals are mentioned. but there isint enough money in this fund for a long term organisation. so why are thay speaking as if it was. its employing people. some have been sitting on pedistales for years and havent even the vaguest idea what its like struggling along alone. its time the church stopped the breast beating anout mia culpa and so forth.the victims are alive. its no good them wanting to be tarred and feathered. its a real solution thats needed.
I refuse to beleive that the irish Government especially Mr Ruari Quinn head of the dept of Education will get away with their criminality they held SECRET meetings where they decided with i beleive Mrs Buckley present to agree with them to Take all the money of many Millions that was handed over by the Sisters of Mercy to compansate the Survivors of their brutiality in Industrial Schools run by them in collaboration with the irish State keeping the money in their Statuary Trust Fund run by it seems Ruari QUINN himself he knows full well the Real Survivors will never get any benefit from that fund.those who will benefit are The dept of Education >Ruairi QUINN HOW DARE YOU COME BACK TO IRELAND BRINGING DOWN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, This is what BERTIE AHERN CREATED he knew very well that (All )those who grew up in Industrial Schools were badly effected and DISTURBED and what was needed WAS PROFESSIONAL HIGHLY TRAINED STAFF TO RUN THOSE SERVICES But NO Bertie being a clever Conman knew that to Put an EX Industrial school person in charge of the services their will be total division and infighting IDEAL SITUATION FOR A BIG COVER UP by handing over multi million punt offices and huge funding to the hand picked special few who no doubt became his friend this was sure to be a disaster and the very Survivors that the whole thing was supposed to help and be about in the first place would soon find themselves totally OSTRACIZED Condemed if they dare return ,Condemed if they dare try to speak out,I am delighted the Sisters of Mercy refused to meet QUINN they can see he is a total CROOK meanwhile Survivors are cut off in different countries from any services many suffer from Illhealth ,Poverty, Homeless,hearing problems ,Teeth problems, mental problems,psychological problems ALL CAUSED FROM THE BRUTAL ABUSE THEY SUFFERED AS CHILDREN At the hands of the Catholic Church and THE IRISH STATE, Every person needs a sense of PLACE AND ROOTS all of which has been stolen FROM THEM as children ,many still have no contact with their siblings,nor Roots ,Nor Lost Families ,They don’t even have a country ,AND THE TRUTH IS THE IRISH GOVERNMENT, AND THOSE WHO BERTIE AHERN APPOINTED AS GROUP LEADERS none of them care a Fig about other SURVIVORS as long as the Government their employers keep throwing millions at them until the rest of survivors are DEAD., I then ask how will anyone know other survivors have DIED ??and who were they ,when there has been NO contact or comminication between the so called services ,I know of some who have already DIED are those services still using their names on their greedy lists for funding to continue . THE SO CALLED SELF APPOINTED EX INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL GROUP LEADERS REMAIN HAPPY WITH THEIR FAT BANK ACCOUNTS. >ONE DAY IT WILL ALL COME BACK ON THEM YOU GET BACK WHAT YOU GIVE OUT>MARK MY WORDS.THEIR FUNDING IS BLOOD MONEY MARKED WITH THE CRIES OF PAIN AND HUNGER OF THE LITTLE CHILDREN . Ireland is Crying for her lost children.
Great comment Nome De Guerre, how’s about us voting our Northern Cousins to rule our Plastic Republic. The Irish Catholics can then kiss their posteriors and lick ours. That must be the Publick in the fickle Repulsive Republic. Bet that Quinn will come up with some Funding for them, and have his lips permanently sown to their asses. I wonder Mr Quinn, when each night, you bed down with your Crooked Irish Establishement and its Houdini funds. I doubt that trash like you, could ever lie straight in bed. Although currently, not a lot we can do and if ever your beloved Catholic state, goes the way of the Arab states. You had better, practise you running and it will have to be record breaking event. Twisted Oliver.
So minister Quinn is yet again dismissed by the orders. That same day the Northern Ireland Executive has announced the start of an inquiry that will be robust and compel the orders that ran institutions to hand over documents and attend questioning by the inquiry. The legislative frame work is being drafted to send a message to the RC that obstruction and stonewalling will not be tolerated. The executive has already announced that such behavior as witnessed in the ROI by the RC will be awarded with fines and prison terms of up to six (6) months. What an irony that N Ireland will achieve what the so called Republic failed to do so dismally. Take notice of this Minister Quinn as we appraise your job performance and contrast it with your counterpart in N Ireland. He is not in the humor for dismissal by anyone except the citizenry.
Holy Hell, how on earth did a Number of these Franchised convents, industrial schools in the name of God, accumulate such wealth. We are talking about one Order, Sisters of Mercy, maybe nearing Two Billion euros. Holy Cow, sorry, I mean Vow, well, it seems that we slaves were a good imvestment. The Vatican and the Irish Catholic Church motto is and I can prove it ” To Accumalate, We Must Speculate”. Found this upon a letterhead of Artane Christian Brothers, in a Latin to English dictionary, that I “borrowed” from a Bros bookcase. Brothers and Sisters, its official, slavery pays really well. As for you Mr Quinn, so does your Education racket and for the third time. It also seems that the Mercy Order has refused to “hand over the dough” to fund your self perpetuating Education ruse. Twisted Oliver ps. Shucks!! Mr Quinn, your new lesson is and” no honour amongst thieves” ho! Ho! HO!.
This idea of wanting to care for the victims. Well fine give the money to the victims themselves. thay are acting as if thay have suddenly discoverd maternal instints. we are not children but people who have taken care of themselves all thier lives.Nothing has changed for most of us so why now.
The sisters have been misrepresented and demonised? Most of them got away with it. They didn’t even pay the bill for what they were caught for thanks to a fix put in by devotees of her church through the Indemnity Deal. The Sister is just gloating over a successful conspiracy aided by the PR wing of the church. They didn’t agree a fifty fifty deal with the State. The children they set about destroying didn’t agree to anything but the nuns still made them pay dearly.
The Sisters of Mercy and all of the other religious orders should not be involved in the ‘care’ of anyone, especially those ‘damaged’ in their institutions. Is that Sr. Coirie for real? Is it arrogance or ignorance? I can’t decide.
Who still allows these religious orders to be involved in ‘caring’ for vulnerable people? Seriously, is that not madness? It must be a lucrative business for them (as we know it’s money that they really care about). Cut off their funding and see how ‘caring’ these religious orders are. Reading the above, it just makes me want to scream. Has Irish society learned nothing?