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TAOISEACH SIMON HARRIS has described the testimony given by people who were victims of violence in school in an RTÉ documentary that aired last night as “harrowing”.
Harris commended “all of those who told their stories” and said he is expecting an update on the establishment of a commission of investigation into historical clerical sex abuse.
As well as featuring interviews with victims, the documentary also addressed the lack of documented reports of abuse allegations kept by the Department of Education.
“The publication of the scoping report, and the painful stories that have been told since, have exposed a culture of violence, of calculated cruelty and the abuse of power that victimised and terrorised generations of Irish children who still bear the wounds and have for all of their lives,” the Taoiseach said.
“It is an unbearable burden which we must help lift,” he said.
Harris said he would also “reflect” on a request from survivors that the inquiry be expanded.
“Their voices cannot, and must not, be ignored or unheard,” he said, adding that “this process cannot be rushed because it has to be right, and it has to respect the wishes of the victims who came forward”.
“Their voices which were silenced as defenceless children, even those whose parents tried to stand up against the barrage of brutality, are being heard and their bravery in reliving such terrible memories is testament to a national trauma which must be acknowledged.”
During the documentary, one victim, Peter Kane, said that when he was 12, “every day, there was an element of fear going in.
“He could kick off for the simplest of reasons…on this particular morning, the Brother called me up, ‘get up here’ he says, and the first thing I got was a couple of clatters around the head, my face, I think maybe six or 12 slaps I got off him with a leather strap.”
Poet and author Theo Dorgan described his experience as a student in Cork.
“When the door closes, and you are in a confined environment, it’s predator and prey – if you looked at a teacher the wrong way, you would get a slap. We had a gradation of soft slaps, to vicious slaps…”
His lifelong friend and schoolmate, film festival co-director Mick Hannigan said: “It was not so much a daily occurrence, but an hourly occurrence, class after class. If you got a sum wrong, if you got some difficult Irish poem wrong, then you were punished.”
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How the other half live eh?
But seriously though, doing well for a 28 year old, keep it up!
@Mary Walshe: indeed. Bring home the bacon despite no bacon
Good job! That’s my base salary here and I surely don’t have 10k after the taxes (which are used for only god’s know what with poor healthcare, poor education, expensive childcare, poor public service overall).
@Yvon Queguiner:
Poor Education?
@Yvon Queguiner: Education is the only service we’ve had that is decent, but yea slowly it’s being torn apart by misguided Irish opinion. Also add Housing and Transport.
@thesaltyurchin: Despite unrealistic public expectation and far too much of the funding wasted in bureaucracy, Ireland’s Health service is world class.
Before anyone says anything about the salary it’s very average for the UAE. As a past resident if I can one piece of advice to the 28 year old consultant. DO NOT take out any loans or credit cards that’s how they get to keep you as you are stuck if you do
Riveting!! Zzzzzzzzz
For some odd reason Engineering consultants in Ireland get half the rate than on the continent. The average charge out rate for a civil Engineer in Scandinavia is the equivalent of 188 euros an hour.
1125 for rent in the UAE , you wouldn’t get a bed sit in Waterford for that
@David Chadwick: yea but we’re all living the dream here.
@David Chadwick: well your property here probably wasn’t built using slave labour like there.
A salary of 120k is just over 1% of workers in ireland. But 54% are college educated in Ireland. From Revenue’s “Analysis of High Income Individuals”
@Communist Party: Well, ~14% of workers in Ireland are above €100k according to recent statistics perpetuated by Newstalk. I doubt €120k is a hard ceiling for said individuals.
He’s a peasant with that salary over there when everyone and their grandma drives a Rolls Royce.
@Kieran Menon: and you’re point being?
@Fuji Hakayito: he is
@Kieran Menon: Certainly not a peasant, on that salary he has a good standard of living. Remember it’s tax free, his healthcare is paid for, and by the way the healthcare system here is world class. VAT is only 5%, the weather is incredible 8 months of the year and petrol is far cheaper than back home. I live here too so I can attest to this. So he’s definitely doing better than he would be back in Ireland, that I know for sure
Fair play.
Work hard, take risks, get rewarded.
In Ireland people who do this are vilified by the Left and taxed mercilessly to pay for the perpetually lazy.
@Paul: You really do need to get over yourself and stop blaming everybody but yourself for your bad decisions that left you paying for someone else to live in ‘your’ house. It’s not the fault of ‘the left’, it’s yours and yours alone. Be a big boy now and own it and stop stamping your feet like a child whose ice-cram just fell on the floor.
fair play to you, far away hills are not green, make sure you dont come home !!
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