IRISH NEWS ROUND-UP
http://irlnet.com/rmlist/
Monday/Tuesday, 14/15 August, 2000
(PART 2)
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>>>>>> Institutional abuse victim demands justice
In the 1940s, John Prior was sent to St Joseph's of Tralee by the
ISPCC, never to be checked upon again. He was two years old when
he entered the institutional home for boys and did not leave
until he was 16, making him the longest person ever to stay
there.
As he reflects back on the home, comparing it to a prison, it is
not hard to understand why he isn't very proud of his record stay
at St Joseph's. "The abuse there was terrible," he says, speaking
of incidents that would sicken a grown man but had become part of
his and the other children's daily lives by the age of five.
"There wasn't a day that would go by where you wouldn't be hit."
When he was 15, John says he witnessed a boy of the same age
being kicked to death by the Christian Brothers for not indulging
himself in his supper of bread and water. This was enough to
change John Prior's belief in the Church for which the Brothers
were supposedly acting, but unfortunately, it was only one in a
long line of abusive actions that made his childhood a misery and
will affect his life forever.
The Act of Confession was a joke for John and his fellow
institutional victims. What was said to the priest in that
supposedly unbreakabl confidential sacrament was relayed straight
back to the Brothers who, although not needing an excuse to beat
the vulnerable children, found further reason to 'put manners' on
them.
A couple of years ago, John and two other victims of the abuse in
St Joseph's decided to go public about what had happened to them
in their childhood. They were to be the first to expose the
institutional abuse by the Christian Brothers. When one of the
three committed suicide, the pressure of discussing such
horrendous details in public eye having taken its toll, John
Prior went all out and helped the nation understand what really
happened behind the closed doors of such institutions like St
Joseph's. He appeared on the RTE documentary 'States of Fear'.
After that programme was aired, the Christian Brothers put an
apology in the national press for what went on in their
institutions. But John Prior is sceptical: "They are not sorry
for what they did, but they are sorry they were caught."
Then, along with his apology on behalf of the state, Bertie Ahern
announced that a Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse would be
set up to investigate and bring to justice the perpetrators of
these disgraceful crimes.
The commission was set up last year, consisting of a chairperson
and five ordinary members. One of those 'ordinary members', Bob
Lewis, recently resigned from the committee, as a school in
England with which he was involved was to be investigated for
similar crimes.
Consequently, John Prior wonders about the amount of effort that
was put into appointing the committee members. Justice Mary
Laffoy stated that she had had no experience with child abuse
cases either as a barrister or as a judge, but she was given the
role of chairperson. "If we do not have 100% belief in the
Commission, we have nothing," says John.
This man, who suffered for 14 years of his life at the hands of
the Brothers, does not seem to have 100% belief in the
commission's ability to deliver. He cannot help thinking this
will end up just being a reshuffling of the blame.
The language being used at the Public Sittings is a source of
contention. Although the victims were told in advance that the
inquiry's second public sitting would be dominated mainly by
legal 'jargon', there still should have been some clarity in the
language used, John believes. Despite mentioning that sensitivity
towards the victims would be top priority, Justice Mary Laffoy
seemed quite agitated when dealing with a victim in the crowd who
called for the language to be simplified. "You're talking in this
educated speak," he said, "and we were beaten during our
educational years."
John Prior's feels that the "victims are not being put in front,
but being shoved in the middle between solicitors and judges.
It's the very same as being a dunce; 'Go sit in the corner and
we'll tell you when you can talk'." He gets very bitter when he
speaks of such issues, as this has been the way he feels he has
been treated ever since he first came out and spoke about the
abuse, both sexual and physical.
Despite his reservations, John Prior hopes that the inquiry will
at the very least help bring to justice some of those people who
destroyed Irish children's lives in the 'prisons' that were
insititutional homes.
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>>>>>> Clonard recalls start of conflict
An old newspaper cutting on display at the Clonard in Conflict
exhibition during the West Belfast Feile had the headline
'Belfast's Peace Line Only Temporary'. And quoting the British
army commander of the time the paper says, 'We don't want a
Berlin Wall in this city".
That however is what the people of Clonard, and indeed other
parts of Belfast ended up with, a Berlin Wall.
At Bombay Street the backs of the houses are just yards from the
'peace line', but in the past 30 years peace is the last thing
the nationalists from this area have experienced.
The backs of the homes are encased in wire mesh and steel cages,
some of the homes bear the scars of attacks from loyalists
launched from the other side of the wall, on one house there are
the pock marks of a couple of bullet holes.
Bombay Street has become synonymous with the legend, "Out of the
Ashes of '69 arose the Provisionals" and the street burnt to the
ground by loyalist mobs, backed by the RUC, is seen as birth
place of the modern IRA.
However the street has a long association with republicanism. Tom
Williams, executed in 1942, was captured in Bombay Street after a
shoot out with the RUC.
On the gable wall of the house rebuilt on the site of that house
is a mural; the mural says, 'No to decommissioning' while also
remembering Fianna Volunteer Gerard McAuley the first of many IRA
personnel to die in the phase of conflict.
Fian McAuley was shot dead by loyalists as he defended the
district during the 1969 pogrom.
Now Bombay Street has been chosen as the site of a brilliant
memorial garden that is to be officially opened on Sunday 20
August.
Against the back drop of the 'peace wall' the plot for the
memorial garden was a patch of over grown waste ground, now
reclaimed the structure is to become a modern symbol of the price
paid by local republicans in the struggle against British rule in
Ireland.
The names of 25 Fians and IRA Volunteers as well as the names of
58 civilians, going back to the 1920s, will be inscribed on the
memorial.
The organisers, the Greater Clonard Ex-POWs Group, also intend to
inscribe the names of ex-POWs from the 20s on the memorial.
The group's chairperson Albert Allen, said the memorial garden,
which is 90 feet by 30 feet, was paid for by money raised by
local people and through donations from local businesses, "all
the work was done free of charge by local people".
A march will leave Conway Street at 1pm on Sunday 20 August and
go to Bombay Street for the opening of the memorial.
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>>>>>> Success for Ardoyne commemoration project
The Ardoyne Commemoration Project held a highly successful public
meeting as part of the Ardoyne Fleadh in the Jamaica Inn, Ardoyne
on Wednesday 8 August.
Speakers on the night included Tony Doherty of the Bloody Sunday
Campaign, Paul O'Connor of the Derry based Pat Finucane Centre,
Clara Reilly of Relatives for Justice and Roisin Kelly of the
Loughgall Truth and Justice Campaign.
Among the audience in the well filled hall was Professor Brice
Dickson of the Human Rights Commission as well as the relatives
of the 83 nationalists who have died over the last 30 years,
mostly at the hands of the British crown forces or their agents
in the loyalist death squads.
Sam McLarnon whose father was shot dead by the RUC in 1969,
almost 31 years to the day was also there.
Chairing the discussion was Tom Holland of the Commemoration
Project who stressed that the Ardoyne project concerned that all
the dead of the conflict are remembered regardless of the
circumstances, "everyone's grief is the same ......... there is
no hierarchy of victims", he said.
Central to the discussion was the need to get to the truth behind
the deaths of people killed by the state and it's agents
especially as so many nationalists from Ardoyne have been killed
by the crown forces in what is described as, 'disputed
circumstances'.
It springs to mind that the phrase disputed circumstances has
become a euphemism for cover up.
When Roisin Kelly spoke of the death of her brother Patrick she
said that initially she just accepted the general view that
Patrick, an IRA Volunteer in the Tyrone Brigade, was caught in a
gun battle and killed.
Eight Volunteers and a civilian motorist were killed that night
in Loughgall by the SAS.
It wasn't until the inquest and the discovery that the crown
lawyers had information the families' lawyers didn't when the
families realised the extent of the cover up and media campaign
that the RUC were involved in to distort the facts about the
killings in Loughgall.
"We thought they were caught red handed .... it wasn't until the
third day of the inquest that we realised our barrister was being
lied to", said Roisin.
Roisin then told the audience of her shock when one day she saw
in an Eason's book shop a copy of the book Big Boy's Rules (about
the SAS in Ireland) and in the book was printed photos of her
dead brother, "no one asked my families permission to print those
photos".
Thursday evening saw Chris McGimpsey visit Ardoyne. McGimpsey a
UUP councillor and assembly member from the Shankill Road was
there to discuss the question; Equality: Can Unionism Survive it?
The debate, the Frank McCallum lecture, is named after the late
Frank McCallum who was a stalwart of the Ardoyne c community and
the Fleadh. It was chaired by Brian Keenan who was held captive
in Beirut and on whose behalf McCallum campaigned tirelessly.
Somewhat predictably McGimpsey claimed that unionism would
survive equality and countered saying that anyone posing the
question were themselves expressing sectarian sentiments.
His fellow panelists included Michelle Gildernew of Sinn Fein who
is the party candidate for the Fermanagh and South Tyrone
constituency in the next Westminster election. Alex Attwood of
the SDLP and David Alderyce of the Alliance Party.
In his address Alderdyce continuously referred to "tribalism"
asking can we survive tribalism.
It would do Mr Alderdyce well to contemplate the racism of his
remarks as the concept of tribalism usually refers to the
savagery of the "natives" who by Western civilised standards are
uncivilised and barbaric.
Of course these definitions were used by colonial powers such as
Britain to justify the destruction of native cultures throughout
the world, not least in Ireland. And the brutality of that
genocide should not go unnoticed.
And as an aside to Alderdyce he should also reflect on the
barbarity used by the British state throughout it's 'Empire'
before he holds it up as a model of democracy and liberalism.
While the question posed put unionism on the spot it was pointed
out from the floor that the SDLP, which sided with the Unionist
party to block Sinn Fein's attempt to have a Department of
Equality at Stormont.
A discomfited Alex Attwood parried the point by saying that the
SDLP opposed the idea because the unionists would have nominated
the post and shelved any attempts to push through the equality
agenda and so to have it as part of the 'Department of the
Centre' was to ensure progress.
Michelle Gildernew however asserted that the SDLP were as afraid
of the equality agenda as the unionists and weren't prepared to
push hard on it.
On a disappointing note this debate broke up at approximately
10.30pm. At roughly the same time six houses belonging to
nationalists on the Crumlin Road were attacked by loyalists.
Just prior to these attacks a number of attacks in Denmark Street
on the loyalist Shankill were attacked among speculation that
loyalists were responsible and involved in 'dirty tricks' to
justify attacking nationalist homes.
Chris McGimpsey told the press that he believed nationalists who
had been attending festivals across Belfast were behind the
attacks.
His comments are discourteous given the hospitality and respect
he was shown in Ardoyne.
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>>>>>> Guatemala's missing children
Guatemala's military stands accused of kidnapping and even
trading in hundreds of indigenous Mayan children during that
country's 36-year civil war, which finally came to an end in
1996.
Following a seven-month probe into 86 cases of children who
disappeared during the war, the Catholic Church in Guatemala has
released a report that squarely indicts the armed forces. "What
we have in our hands is the confirmation that children were used
as war booty, that forced disappearance was used as an instrument
of war against those most vulnerable, the children," said Neri
Rodenas, director of the archdiocesan human rights office in
Guatemala city.
The report found that 74 of the children were abducted, the vast
majority by the army but some also by right wing death squads or
left wing guerillas. Up to 400 cases remain to be investigated.
Most of those abducted were Mayans taken during a military
campaign of repression against indigenous communities in the
1980s. The investigators believe the children were specifically
targeted, either to prevent them joining left-wing guerillas or
to sell them into adoption. Only three of the children have to
date been found and reunited with their parents.
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>>>>>> Analysis: Bigotry in Ballsbridge
Last week, the Dublin government capitulated to the demands of a
small group of residents in Ballsbridge, Dublin, that a planned
reception centre for asylum seekers should not go ahead.
The Pembroke Road Residents' Association had mounted a High Court
challenge to the government proposals, supposedly on the grounds
that there was no planning permission for the centre and that An
Bord Pleanala had already refused permission for the retention of
the premises as a guesthouse. These were solid legal arguments,
but a letter signed by a memeber of the residents' association
betrayed a more sinister motivation for the objection.
The letter, circulated earlier this year, stated that the plush
Dublin 4 area was "becoming saturated with unwanted elements who
are a threat to the community". Barrister Paul Walsh, who heads
the association, has since tried to distance himself from the
letter, but he hasn't got very far.
Residents in Rosslare, Co Wexford, have had their legal team
contact the Pembroke Road association since the decision, as they
are also opposed to the use of a local hotel in Rosslare as
another reception centre for asylum seekers, and are looking for
some help from their fellow travellers in Ballsbridge.
So, where do these asylum seekers go? People in Rosslare don't
want them and neither do the elite of Ballsbridge. The answer is
all too predictable.
Working-class areas, especially those ravaged by drugs, poverty
and a whole myriad of related social problems, end up having to
cater for people many of whom have even more social problems.
They haven't got barristers chairing the local residents'
association, nor have they time to create fictitious problems
when confronted with so many real ones.
The objections raised in both Pembroke Road and Rosslare are
based not on planning law loopholes, but on pure, plain,
unadulterated intolerance. Do they not see that they should carry
a share of the burden of compassion in our society, if indeed
compassion has become a burden?
The message from the government cannot allow for any
uncertainties on this issue. They must take the lead in ensuring
that refugees and immigrants are given fair opportunities and
that they are housed according to the facilities available and
not according to the ease with which the well-heeled cappucino
mob can secure a NIMBY (not in my back yard) decision.
c. RM Distribution and others. Articles may be reprinted with credit.
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