The child abuse scandal

What is the Ryan Report?
The Commission To Inquire Into Child Abuse was appointed by the Government in 1999. The first presiding judge was Mary Laffoy. She resigned in controversial circumstances, slamming the Government, the Department of Education and the Religious Orders for obstructing her work. She was replaced by Judge Sean Ryan. The Ryan Report is by some distance the most comprehensive and damning of all the investigations into Child Abuse in Ireland.

was the Commission appointed?
Historically a cult of Omerta had prevailed in relation to the abuse of children in Irish society. However, the gradual erosion of the control exerted by the Catholic Church on the Irish body politic inevitably led to the breaking down of old taboos. With the rise of feminism and the emergence of a culture of rebellion – broadly associated with the civil rights movement, the influence of rock music, the emergence of students as a political force and a widespread liberalisation of attitudes to sex – people felt free to criticise the church. Victims found the courage to speak out. Equally importantly a new and less deferential attitude in the media meant that it was possible, finally, to begin to publish the truth about what really went on. The complaints mounted. Journalistic investigations intensified. The floodgates opened.

there any particular watershed moments?
In journalistic terms, certainly, we can identify crucial contributions: Mavis Arnold and Heather Laskey’s Children Of The Poor Clares; Julian Vignoles’ radio documentary Magdalen Laundries; Louis Lentin’s TV documentary about Christine Buckley and the abuse in Goldenbridge Orphanage for Girls, Dear Daughter; Paddy Doyle’s book The God Squad; and, most powerful of all, Mary Raftery’s superb three part RTÉ documentary series States Of Fear, which lifted the lid comprehensively on the chronic persecution and abuse of children in State-controlled institutions.

long was the abuse going on for?
The Commission’s remit ran from 1936 onwards and abuse certainly continued into the 1970s and indeed later. Corporal Punishment was banned from Irish schools in 1982 by the then Minister for Education, John Boland with the issuing of a simple regulation instructing teachers that it was banned.

many people were affected?
It depends on how widely you want to interpret the word ‘abuse’. Beating kids up in schools had been routine in Ireland in State-run national schools and boarding schools for the well-to-do alike. It is widely accepted that the Christian Brothers ran the toughest regime and everyone who went to a Christian Brothers-run school is likely to have witnessed varying degrees of brutality. But what happened in the reform schools like Daingean, and in industrial schools and orphanages generally, was far more systematic and more extreme. Religious orders were always at the heart of the action and responsible for the worst of the abuse.

Who was responsible for running these institutions?
There were 18 different religious orders who ran them on behalf of the State, including the Sisters of Charity, the Sisters of Charity, the Presentation Brothers, the Dominican Fathers and the Christian Brothers.

Which children were in the institutions?
Their main shared characteristic was poverty. They were children of unmarried mothers. Of broken homes. Of families that couldn’t make ends meet. Children whose parents were alcoholic. Who were caught mitching. Who were involved in minor misdemeanours. Ordinary kids who happened to find themselves in a little bit of trouble, whether of their own making or not.

What crimes were committed – against the children, that is?
The problem is that the litany is so shocking and horrifying it’d take a week to list them all. The kids were brutalised, beaten, punched, kicked and leathered, had their heads immersed in water so that they couldn’t breathe, were sexually assaulted, raped and buggered, forced to eat their own excrement, thrown out in the freezing cold all night… Do I need to go on? Irish industrial schools and orphanages made Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay seem like a fucking holiday camp.

And was every priest or brother involved?
No, far from it. But a lot were. What’s more it seems impossible to believe other than that even the decent ones knew that terrible things were happening – and kept their mouths shut. Certainly the superiors of the orders knew. They ignored complaints and expressions of concern. They hid the abuse and covered it up. There is no doubt that they bear full responsibility for what happened.

Sexual abuse? By clerics? Are these the same people who tell their flock they can’t use contraception? And who are opposed to gay marriage? And who defend clerical celibacy?
Indeed they are. You might say that the stench of hypocrisy is rank. In the extreme.

You also mention violence by priests, brothers and nuns? Are these the same people who preach Christianity?
Somewhere along the way they seem to have convinced themselves that they were entitled to impose their will and their religion on people by force. Which isn’t all that hard to understand when you look at the violent history of the Church. But the thrust of what you’re suggesting is right: they seem to have entirely forgotten the teachings of Christ

Jaysus, surely lots of people knew what was going on?
Lots of people had an inkling. But that doesn’t mean they knew enough to go after it. Given the culture of the time, ordinary people weren’t in a position to challenge very powerful organisations. Think of East Germans challenging the Stasi and you get some sense of the scale of the task. Some tried, like Frank Crummey of the ISPCC. He was silenced. The terrible truth is that every child was at risk, including those not in the institutions Judge Ryan investigated, and many were molested or abused. But they rarely even bothered to report such incidents as they would not have been believed – and doing so would invite further violence or abuse.

So it wasn’t just in the ‘institutions’ that people were abused physically and sexually?
No. There was a pervasive culture of violence in education and an endemic problem with sexually abusive clergy. One of the other watershed moments came when Fr. Brendan Smyth was exposed. He was a Norbertine priest who raped and abused hundreds of kids, over a period of 40 years. Rather than reporting him to the authorities, his order moved him from parish to parish with the collusion of the Church authorities, thus exposing more (and more) children to his crawly paedophile attentions. He was arrested in 1994. Delays in fulfilling an extradition request from the RUC led to the collapse of the Fianna Fail-Labour coalition of the time.

But going back to the institutions, was nobody keeping tabs on them?
In theory the Department of Education was supposed to oversee the system but it failed to do so. Worse, in fact, individuals within the Department over the years were guilty of an extraordinary level of abasement to the princes of the Catholic Church. They failed dismally to protect the children committed to institutional care. Judge Ryan’s report is clear on this: he says that Department officials effectively colluded with the institution’s regimes out of deference to the religious orders. For this reason nobody disagrees with the view that the State is partially responsible too.

What long-term effects were there?
The extent of the personal trauma for the individuals varied, of course, but the cumulative effect and the extent of the emotional brutalisation, and scarring, was horrendous. In many cases victims suffered – and still suffer – an inability to form relationships. Alcohol abuse was common. Many experienced recurring nightmares. There was widespread depression, mental illness, and attempted suicide. People like Christine Buckley and Mannix Flynn, (and Colm O’Gorman in relation to non-institutional abuse) have written very movingly about their experiences.

Why wasn’t something done long ago?
As I already said, there was a culture of denial. The deference to the Church was pervasive. The authorities were willing to sweep it under the carpet and that’s what was done.

Presumably, as soon as it was identified the religious orders came clean…
Not on your nelly. The Church and the religious orders did everything they possibly could to squirm their way out of liability. They resisted investigation with fire and brimstone and, more pertinently, with court action after court action. They behaved without any morals or decency. Their reputation is rightly in tatters as a result.

There’ll be compensation, won’t there?
Yes, there will. A Redress Board was established to which victims have to apply. Others have chosen to go to court. But nothing could be enough. Over 940 million euro has already been paid, so the bill will certainly exceed a billion euro, though that could continue to inflate.

Who will pay for it?
An appallingly ill-conceived deal was done with the Conference Of Religious in Ireland (representing the 18 orders) by the former Minister for Education Michael Woods and rushed through on the final day in Government of the Fianna Fail / PD coalition. The orders agreed to pay a miserable €127 million. Meanwhile the taxpayer ends up footing 90% of the bill. You could say that it was the final act of official collusion. So we all pay for the crimes of these swine…

Ehhhh, CORI… Are they the same people who keep talking about social justice?
Don’t start me on that one. Please. I’m feeling ill…

Why are the Catholic bishops breaking ranks to criticise the religious orders and suggesting that they should pay more?
Well, apparently the bishops have no authority over the religious orders. It seems that the orders report directly to their headquarters and to Rome. The bishops want to distance themselves from the offenders – and also to make it clear that it’s the orders who have to pay up and that the Church won’t. But don’t take what you read at face value: there’s a lot of spin going on. The orders are being advised by PR companies. It is all about damage limitation, I’m afraid, and the institutional Church is up to its neck in that.

So will the orders be forced to give more?
With the current state of the public finances, the Government is scrabbling for cash. They are in a very strong position to revisit the deal on the basis that the orders hid relevant facts that were in their possession at the time the deal was done. There seems to be general agreement that they should pay 50% – at least. It’ll be interesting to see if the Government has the bottle to make them.

Well then, if the orders ultimately report to Rome will the Pope dig into his pockets?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Well, you never know – but that’s very unlikely. Very unlikely altogether. And if he were to, it’d be impossible to see it as other than another PR stunt.

What about nationalising all their assets?
A lot of people think it’s be a very good idea indeed. They should also be swiftly removed from any position of responsibility in relation to education and health. The Government should take the opportunity to nationalise vital infrastructure. It is shameful, in a Republic, that a sectional interest was allowed to control so much.

Shouldn’t the perpetrators be punished? Will anyone even be hauled before the courts?
Yeah, in less tolerant societies they’d be tarred and feathered, dragged through the streets tied to chariots, stoned to death or even hanged drawn and quartered. But we don’t want to see any of that! A lot of them are dead, presumably rotting in whatever hell they believed in. Others are in advanced decrepitude. The Government has made some noises to the effect that if the evidence is there they’ll act. But it seems unlikely, to be honest and we’ll believe it when we see it.