via Thrill Pier: All Tomorrow’s Parties from Warp Films will play in Dublin on June 20th at 9pm as part of the Irish Film Institute’s Stranger Than Fiction Festival.
It’s tough to watch and tough to read. Not only did horrific abuses happen but those that then testified were 1) told if they wanted compensation they could not go public and 2) They got grilled by barristers as if they were criminals. Your tax money made all of this possible.
Seven barristers.
Throwing questions at us.
Non-stop.
I tri.. attempted to commit suicide, there’s the woman who saved me from committing suicide, on me way down from Dublin, after spending five days at the commission. Five days I spent at the commission. They brought a man over from Rome, ninety odd years of age, to tell me I was telling lies.
What may prove to be a turning point. Michael O’Brien from Fianna Fáil talks about what he went through during the commission:
Mr. Chairman, I’m surprised at the minister there now.
First of all Mr Minister (directed at Minister Noel Dempsey) you made a bags of it in the beginning by changing the judges. You made a complete bags of it at that time, because I went to the La Foy commission and ye had seven barristers there, questioning me and telling that I was telling lies, when I told them that I got raped of a Saturday, got a merciful beating after it, and then stuffed…
… he came along the following morning and put holy communion in my mouth.
You don’t know what happened there. You haven’t the foggiest, you’re talking through your hat there. And you’re talking to a Fianna Fáil man, a former councilor and former mayor you’re talking to, that worked tooth and nail or you, for the party that you’re talking about now. Ye didn’t do it right, ye got it wrong.
Admit it.
And apologize for doing that. Because you don’t know what I feel inside me. You don’t know the hurt I am.
You said it was non-adversarial.
My God.
Seven barristers.
Throwing questions at us.
Non-stop.
I tri.. attempted to commit suicide, there’s the woman who saved me from committing suicide, on me way down from Dublin, after spending five days at the commission. Five days I spent at the commission. They brought a man over from Rome, ninety odd years of age, to tell me I was telling lies.
That I wasn’t beaten for an hour, non-stop by two of them.
By two of them.
Non-stop from head to toe without a shred of cloth on my body.
My God minister.
And could I speak to you (comment directed to Leo Varadkar, Fianna Gael), and ask your leader, would you stop making a political football of this.
You hurt this when you do that.
You tear the shreds from inside our body.
For God’s sake, try and give us some peace.
Try to give us some peace and not to continue hurting us.
That woman will tell you how many times I jump out of the bed at night with the sweat pumping out of me. Because I see these fellas at the end of the bed with their fingers doing that (gestures) to me. And pulling me in to the room, to rape me, to bugger me and bate the shite out of me. That’s the way it is.
And you know what?
You know what, sometimes I listen to the leader of Fianna Fáil. I even listened to the apology. T’was mealy mouthed, but at least t’was an apology.
At least t’was an apology.
The Rosminians said in the report, they said they were easy on us. The first day I went to them. The first day to Rosminians in my home which is Ferryhouse in Clonmel, ’cause its the only home I know. He said “you’re in it for the money”.
We didn’t want money.
We didn’t want money. We wanted the pr… someone to stand up and say “yes, these fellas were buggered, these people were ra…”
Little girls. My daughter, oh sorry, my sister. A month old when she was put in to an institution. Eight of us from the one family, dragged by the ISPCC cruelty man. Put in to two cars, brought to the court in Clonmel. Left standing there without food or anything, and the fella in the long black frock and the white collar came along and he put us in to a van.
Not a van, a scut truck, I don’t know what you call it now. And landed us below with two hundred other boys. Two night later I was raped.
How can anyone…
You’re talking about constitution. These people would gladly say “yes” to a constitution to freeze the funds of the religous orders.
This state, this country of ours, would say “yes” to that constitition if you have to change it.
Don’t say you can’t change it.
You’re the governement of this state. You run this state. So for God’s sake stop mealy mouthing. ‘Cause I’m sick of it.
I’m sick of it.
You’re turning me away from voting Fianna Fáil which I have done from the first day that I could vote. Because. And you know me. You know me Mister Minister. You’ve met me on a number of ocassions. So you know what I’m like.
On that corruption of anger, it is important to look at whether those who did wrong were doing so by instruction from the top, as happens, say, when people overreact and use the words “concentration camp”. In a concentration camp, the instruction from the authorities is to treat people in a certain manner. The children were not treated according to the diktat, rules, regulations and statements of the church and those who did those things were further away from the church than the poor innocent victims.
The competition is the ‘Change Your Life Education Fund‘ – entrants submit a 2,000 word essay with an application form (available from NCI website), and could win a prize package worth €35,000. This is made up of an education fund worth 20K (with NCI), and other supports like mentoring, executive coaching, a laptop & software, gym membership, book allowance and even a personal styling package.
The essay in 200 words or less is the answer to the question: Why do you want to change your life, and how could education help?
So at 5pm this evening a few bloggers and Twitter folks and normal people will be at the IFI where Joe Higgins will be doing a press conference type meeting where he’ll be asked questions on his campaign to be an M.E.P. and other things like that.
You can direct questions to him via his Twitter account if you’re not there and you can also watch and send in questions via uStream. (The vid below will go live around 5pm):
The Report on physical, sexual and mental abuse committed by the Catholic Church in Ireland has been out a few days and there seems to be far more outrage in other countries than here. The various political leaderships seem afraid to make any comment about this, getting spokespeople to comment instead. Now all the talk is about the Church having to pay more money. Cash isn’t justice and it doesn’t help highlight one of the darkest things about Ireland. It is my belief that every time someone does a google search for Catholic Church in Ireland, the abuse report should be front and centre. The Church itself has worked long and hard to bury the atrocities they committed. So if you feel the same way, why not link to the Report with the linking text Catholic Church in Ireland. Many would rather this report be forgotten, I’m not one of those.
Update: A powerpoint version of excerpts from just one section of the report is now online. Please consider embedding on your own blog or sending this to people on Facebook and Twitter.
Clearly the role of the incumbent, eircom, will be important in the context of investment for high speed broadband. I am aware that the ownership of the company is under consideration at the moment. It would not be appropriate for me to comment on any specific proposals that have emerged in this regard. I can, however, indicate that State ownership of eircom is not on my agenda. Nevertheless, the Government does attach very significant importance to eircom given its national telecommunications reach. I want to see an ownership and management in eircom that is focussed on efficient operating structures and on investment for the future. I believe eircom has much to offer an investor with a long term, strategic focus. The company generated revenues of over €2 billion in 2008 and had an operating profit (EBITDA) of over €700 million. However, the short term ownership model that we have witnessed in recent years leaves much to be desired and I would not welcome a similar model again. I would welcome, and indeed I would seek to facilitate in whatever ways I can, an investor who would have the capacity to invest in a long term business model that is bandwidth focussed. Cross platform competition is clearly critical to market development and the policy environment will continue to encourage platform competition. Similarly, open access and consumer protection will continue to be key policy and regulatory priorities. In that context, I believe eircom offers a collaboration minded investor, with a strong commitment to truly open access, a significant opportunity for solid investment. I further believe that the regulatory principles that I outlined above can facilitate eircom, and indeed, all service operators in making the necessary investment on a commercial basis.
Sounds like the State will help an investor out if they guarantee some things. I wonder would the Government do like they did when they bulk bought international bandwidth and resold it at cost?
Posted in Eamon Ryan, irishblogs | Comments Off on Eamon Ryan says No to eircom nationalisation but…
