While the mainstream media is busy overanalyzing every little step Obama makes, they are blatantly ignoring a lot of very important stories and refusing to discuss any of them at length. The story of the year thus far has got to be the report released on May 20th by the Irish government’s Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, commonly referred to as the “Ryan Report” (after presiding judge Seán Ryan), yet I’ve seen hardly any mention of it on any American television news station since the 20th and only a few articles here and there by their respective websites. Thankfully, I rarely receive my news from cable news programs, but millions of other Americans do, so I am appalled that this is not getting the attention it deserves. The 2002 clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston was covered and debated for months on end, so much so that it left a permanent scar on the Catholic Church’s credibility and drove many away from that abominable organization. The sick and disturbing findings of the Ryan Report make the Boston scandal look like a minor hiccup in the Church’s history, so where is the outrage? It is palpable in Ireland, and rightfully so, but almost everyone I know has never even heard of the Ryan Report. To right this wrong and spread much-needed awareness, I’m writing a three part series on the Ryan Report, starting with this post, which will explain what the report is and what the CICA found.
The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse was formed by the Irish government in 1999 to investigate child abuse throughout Ireland, specifically in orphanages, schools, and institutions run by Catholic organizations in conjunction with the Irish government and the Department of Education from the 1930s until as recently as the 1990s. This report was delayed for years by the Catholic Church through several lawsuits, particularly by a group called the Christian Brothers, because they feared prosecution for crimes they had long assumed they had gotten away with or wished to cover up the names of those already prosecuted. Corrupt government officials also helped to delay the findings, and a culture of silence lasting 70 years had built up around the abuse. While many Irish citizens knew what was going on, anyone who talked about it was often regarded as a liar, and even though thousands were victimized, very few spoke out about it publicly.
Now that the silence has finally been broken, counseling and help lines have been inundated with stories of survivors, many talking about their experiences for the first time. The report gathered evidence from over 2,000 witnesses, victims, and religious leaders, and more than 800 nuns, priests, and brothers were implicated in their investigation. More than 170,000 children were sent to these Catholic orphanages, industrial schools, reformatories, and hostels because they were judged as petty thieves, truants, or members of dysfunctional families (re: their mothers were unwed) simply because they were poor. The government saw this as a way to clean up the streets and keep “unwanted” children out of their hair and busy working menial jobs no one else wanted, so consistent complaints and reports of abuse were purposely ignored and systematically covered up. If any priest was removed because of problems with sexual abuse, he was simply placed in another institution to do it again (an all too familiar story).
So what kinds of abuse are we talking about? Speaking on a general level, the crimes are horrific enough – daily beatings, starvation, inedible food, forced labor, unhealthy working hours and conditions, habitual sexual abuse and rape, neglect, humiliation, ridicule and belittlement, unfit living situations, a climate of constant fear, etc. But when specific victims relate their stories, that’s when it really starts to sink in. One victim tried to tell nuns how he had been molested, only to be stripped naked and beaten by four nuns with canes. Boys were lined up and made to walk around naked while brothers flicked their genitals. A slow learner had his head slammed onto a desk until he bled from the face. One woman still wakes up at night, hearing the screams of children down the hallway who were randomly taken from their beds and beaten or molested. A man detailed how he was tied to a cross and raped by a priest as others watched and masturbated. Every article I’ve read tops the last, and each story makes me sicker and sicker. Some have called this “Ireland’s Holocaust,” and I’m inclined to agree. Sure, they weren’t shot and thrown into mass graves or burned alive in ovens, but the fact remains that thousands of children were methodically abused and mentally ruined by decades of mistreatment and neglect. The word “holocaust” means “a great or complete devastation or destruction” and “any reckless destruction of life.” I would not throw this term around lightly, and I can say without hesitation that this horrifying situation more than fits the bill.
I suppose you can now see why I’m so upset by the lack of controversy and debate here in the States. I guess when it happens in other countries, we really don’t think it affects us like the Boston scandal did, or maybe the media has gone soft with its criticism of the Church. Either way, this story is one that needs to be told, especially to every Christian who thinks nothing of leaving a few dollars on the collection plate every week. Think about where your money is going, and more importantly, who it’s really helping. In part two, I will delve more into what is being done by the Church and the Irish government since the report has been released (spoiler: not very much) and the bold and heartwrenching reaction of the Irish people.
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Hi, Congratulations to the site owner for this marvelous work you’ve done. It has lots of useful and interesting data.
I agree with you, I keep up with what is going on in the media regarding the Vatican and the Catholic Hierarchy. If this doesn’t
bring the story back in the spotlight, I don’t know what will.
Soul Murder is what comes to mind when addressing this painful
crime. I think there are not enough people in this country willing
to state their opinions, and outrage. I am a first generation Irish
American, but have not been a practicing Catholic for over 25 years
I remember renting the movie “The Sisters of Magdalene” detailing
the abuse that went on in these institutions and could not get those
visuals out of my mind. These were not stories we were ever aware
of about Ireland, but then again secrecy, hypocricy and a lack of empathy and compassion seem to be, sadly, part of this ancient culture .
Last April 17, 2008 when the Pope apoligized to the five victims
of clergy abuse, all we heard on the media was this story, ( as if an
apology) means it is over. I do believe it was a step for him to address this monumental crime. Along with the Pope on Shepard
One, the story dissappeared , buried, simply vanished. Now that
is Power , or abuse of power. Media, Church, and Government.
I appreciate your concern for keeping this report out there, it
is very important to the soul of the innocent child. Even though
my heart and soul is an advocate and connected to the innocent child, I believe without an understanding of how the “little child within” the predators became that way and without an understanding of how the”little child within” theVatican,&Bishops
could keep a centuries old tradition of orchestrating the destruction of so many men’s sexual identity we will be unable to
truly heal from this.
The Boston Globe did a great job covering the story, there were
a few different law suits going on at the time. My Brother Bernie McDaid was one of the men who sued the Catholic Church. He was instumental when it came to appearances on the local and national
news.
He along with some of the other Survivors made history speaking
out and standing up to the church. In order for more history to
be made not just the advocates and Survivors need to speak up
but all of us who value the protection of children, justice,and
treatment as first class citizens.
Rose M. McDaid
Advocate and Psychotherapist
Bernie is in the process of completion of his memoir
ALTARED-BOYS. It is a story that needs to be told.
What about the childern of the men and women that were housed in these horrific industrial schools, my father Michael and his two brothers John and Joseph were sent to Artane and their sister Kathleen off to another industrial school, all had harsh lives, my father and his brother John were raped and could not deal with it, my father left his wife and childersn in Waterford when I was five and we never seen him again. He was killed in an accident in 1953.
Run over by an American drunk soldier, he had serious problems dealing with married life, he was a soft man with his children, but abusive to his wife, my mother Agnes and she died young of TB, she was 32. After Arthane my father joined the Iriah Army for nine years, and I wounder why? His brother John went to England after leaving Artany, but not before he was sold to a farmer in the North of Ireland, worked for no pay and was treated like a slave, he had one daughter and could not show any affection, he never returned to Clara County Offaly, simply the because the pain memory of Ireland was too much to deal with.
My aunt Kathleen went to England and raised her family and would not speak about her experieance at the hands of the nuns, she did not show affection, to her children and I wounder why, but she loved her children, and she married an Englishman much older than she and she never returned to Ireland.
My uncle Joseph was put out for addoption to a family in Scotland and he never knew he had two brothers and one sister and he never returned to Ireland, all are passed on now, but thier children bear the scar of the life in the instutions.
Mry father at age seven was a tailor, and he made top coats for the Brothers and Fathers, but his children went bare and without, no doubt he loved his children, but he did not know how to show it.
He ended up a tailor in the Army, could not find work in Ireland, who would hire a young man that lived in Artane.
Fifteen children in all, no love from their fathers and their children did not get a chance to show love to these parents!
My grandmother Molly had to get me out of Waterford in 1953, since the church, police and social worker wanted to send me to an Industrial School in Dublin, yes you guessed it it was Arthane.
I ended up in America in 1958 and I never wanted to leave Ireland, but I had to, it is a long and painfull jurney for this son of a man that was abused in Artane, I made my way, asked for no handouts, served seven years in the American Armed Forces, 1960 to 1967,
went to University on the GI Bill. But American is not Ireland.
There are hunders if not thousands of us children scattered around the world and where is the sorry to us? I just had to vent again at age 68!
This is the “collateral damage” few people think about. Thank you very much for your powerful story, Denis. As I have known many people, mostly women, who have survived physical and sexual abuse, I’ve seen firsthand what it can do to someone and the affects it has on their families and loved ones…the suffering never ends with just the victim. The shockwaves from this will haunt every generation of the Irish people, and it’s good that people and finally starting to talk about it openly, but it is being largely ignored by the rest of the world. A simple Google search for the Ryan Report really doesn’t turn up as much information as you’d think, and the American press gives more time to idiots like Michael Jackson than to real issues like this, as we mentioned in our last podcast.
Your pain is not forgotten by those of us really paying attention, and I planned to do a follow-up post to this series, so I’ll be sure to include your story as well as Rose’s. Again, I can’t thank you both enough for commenting, as it affirms why me and my cousin run this site – to get to the heart of the REAL issues and expose injustice wherever it may be. I only wish those responsible would feel even a fraction of the pain you have endured, sir.
Hello. I hav only this week come to hear of this reported abuse as I left Ireland back in 1971 and hav only returned on odd visits while my parents, who retired there, were alive. I was sent to a school called St. Dominics Convent in Cabra, Dublin in 1954 as my parents worked in Nigeria and there were no good schools there at that time. I was a 6yr old and suffered much abuse by the nuns in many forms. I was made one of the few altar boys and hav vivid memories of the priest who may hav been the only one employed there as mass celebrant. I believe there is a hand written note of mine still in existance within my remaining Irish relatives, which was sneaked out of the school by a day pupil. In it I pleaded to be taken home and it refers to my beatings. I eventually ran away an simply hopped on a 22 bus I recall clearly telling the conductor I had no money and my story. I got to my aunt, a Bank of Ireland official in College Green. She had me put on weekly boarding! I can clearly relate many moments of extreme cruelty and wud now be happy to do so if given the opportunity and the proper authorities address. I have lived here in Kenya since 77. Regards. Mike Bowen