IRISH STATE WHITE WASH

The design for the Government/Irish State memorial as recommended in the http://www.childabusecommission.com/rpt/pdfs/ Ryan Report – Commission to enquire into child abuse in Residential Schools is seeking planning permission.   This premature gesture, in the form of a memorial/monument is more of a crushing blow to truth, transparency and justice than any of the horrendous testimonies contained in the Ryan Report itself.  This pseudo attempt by the State/Government of the Republic of Ireland to address the issues of torture and inhumane treatment of children in its care is an outrage in itself and an insult to those who are continuing to struggle for justice and accountability for the many crimes committed against them in State sanctioned and religious run institutions on the Island of Ireland.

Recently, the First Minister and deputy First Minster of Northern Ireland extended the terms for the http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/historical-institutional-abuse inquiry into historical institutional abuse in Northern Ireland between 1922 and 1995.  This is a Statutory Inquiry.  Many such inquiries have yet to be established throughout the length and breath of Ireland in every parish to uncover the truth of what happened to generations of children at the hands of the most trusted.  The more difficult issues of responsibility, accountability and securing justice for the abused still appear to be a long way off.  Justice is still being denied to thousands of individuals who were brutalised in institutions in the Irish Republic and few of those who did the brutalising have had to face any consequences for their behaviour. While these core matters remain unresolved, erecting this memorial is premature, a folly built on sand.

Memorials are about the past and the issues of physical, emotional and sexual abuse in Irish institutions are not yet historical. Certainly not for the women forced to toil in the http://www.magdalenelaundries.com Magdalene Laundries, nor for the children of the “http://www.indymedia.ie/article/100060 Bethany homes, Mother and baby homes, the trafficked children or those abused in day-schools,or the most recent report into the child prison,http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/1020/1224325505278.html St Patricks Institution Dublin, none of whom have yet had the wrongs done to them acknowledged, heard or redressed.  Until their stories are heard and honoured, erecting a ‘monument’ is, at the very least, insensitive.

Doubly so when it is sponsored by the same State which was a co-accused and a guilty party to their abuse. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/the-indemnity-deal-at-a-glance-1747692.html

 The time to memorialise an issue like this is only when all that can be put right has been put right.  That time is not yet here. 

This memorial is a whitewash and an avoidance of truth by the very people who were engaged in the joint venture of torture and inhumane treatment of generations of children, the Irish State.

“The reports on child abuse highlight how the law did not serve or apply to all members of Irish society equally. Despite the severity of the crimes revealed in the Ferns, Ryan, Murphy and Cloyne reports which range from physical assault to rape, very few perpetrators have been convicted.  The neglect and abuse in these reports can be categorized as torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under human rights law.  The children’s right to be free from slavery and forced labour were contravened.”

Amnesty International Ireland Report, October 2011

What can you do?

Write to Dublin City Council Planning Department and raise your objections to this obstacle to justice, truth and exclusion. The web reference on Dublin City Council  website 1196/12

Email your objections:Planning@dublincity.ie”Planning@dublincity.ie

An inscription of the ‘apology’  of former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern,  is proposed to dominate the tunnel.  This same person is responsible for the indemnity deal between the Irish State and Church. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/the-indemnity-deal-at-a-glance-1747692.html  (See also Bruce Arnold, ‘The Irish Gulag’ page 122  – The Secret Deal)

As you can see from the plans the tunnel is designed to come out at the head of a crucifix in the Garden of Remembrance.  A highly inappropriate symbol to be merged into any memorial to children who have been abused by the State and Church.View the plans of the ‘OPW’ memorial on our site at Essex Street, Temple Bar Dublin.