Will we ever tire of pointing the finger of blame?

SIR, I’m at a loss to fully understand the reasoning for the ferocious campaign against the Pope’s visit to this country.

It’s precisely 39 years this month (August 27) since John Paul II arrived here to a rapturous welcome, yet child abuse was as relevant then as now.

Have the victims of abuse got enough now? Will they move on and let the Pope do his thing about it? I think they just don’t get it, its quite clear that Pope Francis has got it.

He has made a commitment to repair the damage done, he has made a firm and decisive decision to pursue the truth and justice. He sorted out the Vatican Bank, he addressed that and dealt with it very decisively when it was widely reportedly that he never would.

Yes the Church did wrong but how many more were involved in this whole dreadful circle.

Never forget you had The State, they funded the whole operation. Those Nuns that worked in those Homes and Laundries never drew a single penny as it all went to the Orders. They were treated as employees of the State. Where are the doctors who must have known that this sad, barbaric episode was going on in those institutions? What happened with their reports on the signs of malnutrition on those children that were sent to the Government of the day, what action was taken on those reports? Where are the State officials that oversaw all those institutions and where are their reports? Where are all the lay people, delivery men and women etc. that were constantly in and out of them, did they all suffer visual impairment that they didn’t acknowledge what was happening? They certainly were all involved in the cloak of secrecy and cover up of crime of the highest order.

Where are the priests that were in and out of those places? Why, why didn’t some one of them speak out then? Where were the Gardaí in all this? Surely they had an ear to the ground, pardon the pun, when at the time they knew what time you went to bed and got up, they were so plentiful.

The parents of those young girls who put them into those homes and laundries in order to save face and preserve their moral high standing in their local communities. That stigma, a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, is still as strong as ever today. Many were transported to these places in the dead of night in order to conceal it from their neighbours.

It was those parents who helped to create this cruel and barbaric part of our history, not just the nuns or priests who were associated with it. Where are all the co-producers of those little children that were ‘ buried’ in septic tanks? Those children were not conceived by the Holy Ghost – are their fathers still alive and well?

Furthermore, many boys and girls were sent off to become priests, brothers and nuns. Some had no more had of a vocation than the stray cat but they were send off anyway to raise the family status, and we sadly reaped the rewards.

The institutions have seen a lot of poverty and poor little children suffered. Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich. Today it is very important for women and girls to speak up about what you see wrong, in your world, in your life and don’t let this ever happen to women again. Always remember that no man however prominent or powerful, or no gang however unruly or boisterous, is entitled to defy a court of law.

Is it surprising that the country today is riddled with mental illness? Sincerely,

Michael O’Sullivan, Cahermore, Castletownbere.