I write letters

Dear Minister Smith,

I will try and restrain the depth of my anger at hearing that you did have permitted GM products into this country. It seems that either you do not understand what drives demand for Irish food products and tourism, or that the government wishes to corrupt the food industry, in the same manner as the economy.

Let me try to explain.

1. People pay a premium for Irish meat because the majority of Irish meat is grass fed, supplemented by hay in the winter. Feeding cattle on maize not only has significant impact on the health of the cattle, but also on the meat of humans. Maize fed cattle are not capable of killing e-coli in the stomach because of a change in acid regulation. E-coli and similar bacteria are passed on to humans, who then have to lie on hospital trolleys or die.

2. The US produces excess corn and no doubt there is pressure on the EU to buy their surplus. The quality of US beef has declined significantly since the switch to maize feeding. The rise in heart disease and obesity can be correlated to the excess maize consumed in American society through poor quality meat and corn syrup. It is an abhorrent system that you have sold the Irish people into.

3. Food tourists come to Ireland because Irish beef is grass fed and are generally free range. The minute you allow GM foods to enter the food chain, you lose significant tourist revenue. Ireland is promoting quality products which is why we have a food export system.

4. If even one GM seed is allowed to grow, it can contaminate the country and all the organic farms.

5. It does not matter whether the GM feed is for a day or all year around. One feed of GM causes the reputational damage.

6. It is this kind of thinking that led to the destruction of Irish railways in the 50s. That also was courtesy of a Fianna Fáil government. Even after the economy meltdown and the cruelty inflicted on this country by your government, I am still amazed that you took such a regressive and economically ignorant decision. It is a kick in the teeth to food producers and towns dependent on tourist trade. It also belies your party's manifesto, because no one will want to buy meat fed on GM maize.

7. I promise my vote to the party that will reverse this decision and will canvass on their behalf. I have CCed party leaders in this email. I want this decision revoked.

I would appreciate the courtesy of a real reply, rather than the standard automatic reply.

Pure motives? "Even wisdom has to yield to self-interest"

It seems that just about every member of government is claiming the virtue of pure motives, unsullied by dirty self-interest. From Conor Lenihan's uncontrolled outburst on Vincent Browne last Thursday to Paul Gogarty on Morning Ireland.

I don't buy it obviously. Not only because both the maFFia and the Greens have used the financial crisis to advance their own interests but also because we have been consistently lied to. If you cry wolf...

Napoleon said "men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest"; G'Kar said "the galaxy is run by enlightened self interest"; but I think de la Rochefoucauld said it best “Self-interest speaks all sorts of tongues, and plays all sorts of roles, even that of disinterestedness”.

The best we can hope for is enlightened self interest and neither Gogarty or Lenihan junior strike me as being particularly enlightened.

Brady, the paedophile protector, condemns abortion

From the IT

In a statement tonight, Cardinal Seán Brady said the judgment "leaves future policy in Ireland on protecting the lives of unborn children in the hands of the Irish people and does not oblige Ireland to introduce legislation authorising abortion".

He said profound moral and legal issues were raised by the ruling. "The direct destruction of an innocent human life can never be justified, however difficult the circumstances. . . . No law which subordinates the rights of any human being to those of other human beings can be regarded as a just law."

Says the man who covered up child rape and protected serial paedophile Brendan Smith. I think we've heard enough from you Brady. You do not get to have an opinion on this.

Am amazed that as a celibate male you seem to think your view on this issue matters. Fuck off already.

As for

The direct destruction of an innocent human life can never be justified, however difficult the circumstances

except, it seems when priests rape children and people like you cover it up.

Pro choice forever!

Between newspapers, economists, television, job, stress, depression, I haven't had a lot of time to blog. It's not for want of topics but there is a listlessness to writing about Ireland. The people are shackled to a four year plan negotiated by an illegitimate government known to be corrupt. I can barely afford heating since the last budget and everything seems hopeless. There needs to be a new way but vested interests maintain the status quo. But today there is an issue that I still feel passionate about - a woman's right to choose to terminate her pregnancy. 


Women have been terminating pregnancies for centuries. There are a number of fascinating books on the subject and one truth emerges in all societies studies, both ancient and modern is that prohibition of abortion does not lower the number of actual abortions. Prohibition of abortion just drives people into debt, illness and death.

So why can't government inject a soupcon of pragmatism into the debate. Legalising abortion saves lives - real lives, the lives of humans already in existence. Exchanging one life for a potential life is a bad deal. Why gamble with life already in existance?

I'm pro choice. It's my body and my health. But pro choice is so much more than just pro abortion. It's sex education. It's birth control. It's the price of condoms. It's that forced pregnancy is a human rights violation. Ireland has some of most expensive condoms in Europe. In 96, I got my first sex ed class, wherein the lecturer declared that men would only marry virgins, and spent the rest of the time talking at yes about our first periods. At the age of 17 this was six years too late.

A Red C poll in January of this year found out that

Some 60% of young people want abortion legalised here, it has emerged.

According to a Red C poll in today's Irish Examiner, 10% of 18-34 year olds have been involved in a relationship where an abortion took place.

It pays to be pragmatic. Legalising abortion saves women's lives. The thing is that women will have abortions regardless of the law because each person knows what is best for their situation.

Adding spice to the conversion

Ireland claims to be pro-life but Ireland isn't pro life. Ireland is caught in a Catholic ethos despite the revelations of those pulpit preachers. It's the old story of keeping up appearances. Isn't that why so many girls and women ended up in Magdalene laundries where they worked without pay until they died. No boys or men were similarly imprisoned for the crime of having sex or getting raped or being considered too pretty.

Ireland doesn't care about children. That much is clear from the Ryan Report, the Murphy Report, and the revelations about "care" of children by the HSE. Hundreds of children were buried in unmarked graves after being beaten to death. Where is the outcry? Hundreds of thousands of children were sent to hell in the industrial schools. People knew and did nothing. Doctors, nurses, gardaí and families knew what happened and did nothing. Everyone is shocked now that denial is no longer an option. But the state continues to negotiate with the 18 orders. They negotiate with child abusers and rapists. Few criminal charges have been brought.

I've been raped twice. If I had fallen pregnant you can be damned sure that I would have made sure that I had the choice whether to continue the pregnancy. If I would have to, I would beg, borrow or steal the money to travel to France to get an abortion.

One in every four children will experience sexual abuse. One in every three women under the age of 40 will be raped. To force these women and children to continue a pregnancy through rape is to retraumatise her and re-enforces the commonly held view that women and girl's lives are of lesser importance than a fetus. Forced pregnancy is a human rights violation.

Today's ruling, at least, forces the government to legislate for the Supreme Court decision in the X case. So little by little we chip away at misogynistic old laws. Maybe, eventually, we can value women and our decisions.

I, for one, welcome our new ECB overlords

Last weekend, it was painful to watch government ministers lie through their teeth. Everybody knows they lied. Everybody knows that Ireland needs assistance from the EU. Everybody knows the government is corrupt and incompetent.

This week, I continue to be flabbergasted at the maFFia's response to being caught out lying. Reducing the debate to technicalities is obfuscating the issue. There are two types of lies - commission and omission. Commission is saying an untruth. Omission is hiding a truth. Perhaps they technically did not tell untruths but they have been continually hiding the truth. That is lying.

Instead they aggressively ask members of the opposition what would they do. That's totally irrelevant. It doesn't matter. The issue is that the Cabinet has conspired to cover up criminal activity. How much did they know and when? They will not answer. How much personal money did the Cabinet have in Anglo Irish Bank? That has not been answered. We need justice. But the DPP will not act. The president will not act.

The feeling in my belly is repugnance. I feel the darkness inside threatening to come out. Every time I hear another FFer lie, I have to stop myself from flinging the radio across the room. I know they are unshameable. I know a guillotine would bounce off their necks. And despite all they have done, I know there are people in Ireland who will always vote locally not matter what the Party does. I know the Greens have sold out. I know the Director of Public Prosecutions is a political office. I know the DPP never prosecutes FFers even when they lie under oath. So what can I do? I march. I question. I talk to ministers but none of that changes anything.

I hate violence. I've survived violence. I've seen the results on violence - one of my jobs included organising documents and photographs of human rights violations. I have had guns pulled on me. I hate violence but I am being to wonder about the application of violence. The government will not resign. The DPP will not prosecute current and former members of the government that are directly responsible for the economic crisis. Peaceful public protests resulted in brutal retaliation by riot police.  I don't think violence but ultimately solve anything but it is the only way to unembed these disgusting corrupt gombeens?

I am glad the ECB is here. I am glad the IMF is here. I am glad that we finally have some adults in charge of the books - adults that have not been infected with parish pump politics and gombeenism; adults who won't be here long enough to be corrupted by the vested interests; adults who can take mature decisions; and adults who did not have to censor the media and lie to the public.

I don't mourn for our loss of sovereignty. Sovereignty is worth jack shit when the country is broke. I mourn the loss our values in our society. I mourn that people voted Fianna Fáil and thus allowed the FFers to squander the country's wealth by buying the last two elections. I mourn that Irish people voted in a government that always put their party first. And when people reply about there not being any alternative, I want to scream. First of all, we don't know how an opposition coalition would have acted in their place and secondly it is irrelevant. Why continue to vote for someone you know to be corrupt when there are other candidates on the ballot paper?

We need an election. And then we need to overhaul the entire government and senior civil servant institutions. When that is done maybe we can grow up as a country, have politicians who stand for something besides self-interest; and leave civil war politics behind for good.

Students protested, gardaí brutalised and the media covered it up

Last Wednesday 25 000 students marched on the Dept of Finance to protest the proposed doubling of "registration" fees. Various news outlets reported that Eirigi and extreme lefty organisations attacked gardaí and spoiled the day for everyone. Gardaí reported injuries.

Irish Times

Gardaí began removing protesters they had previously trapped in the lobby. There were physical altercations between them and a female garda was struck. Some protesters put up strong resistance to gardaí, kicking out as they sought to remove them. Some of the protesters exited the building with evidence of a beating on their faces... One hoodie-clad youth alongside picked up a piece of timber and threw it at the foyer, from where the protesters were being removed

Independent 

When those pensioners stood up to a Government threatening them with cuts they were regarded as being brave and merry. Yet when students embark upon the same journey they are branded as disgraceful and violent.


RTE

A number of people were injured during scuffles with gardaí on Merrion Row, while three gardaí received medical attention after being injured by objects thrown by protestors. One garda was admitted to hospital with a broken nose, the other two gardaí were treated at the scene for minor injuries.

TV3

Witnesses said a brick and eggs were thrown at the building and that a group of about 15 students made it inside. Gardaí later ejected them.

USI president Gary Redmond condemned the violence loudly and on every media outlet he could get on. And the whole thing was dismissed.

Until modern technology showed what actually happened. YouTube videos show the excessive violence used by the gardaí. Violence starts about 3:00







If you don't want to watch them all, here are some stills


























There are plenty of questions that need answering.

Why did the riot police advance on a peaceful crowd?
Why did gardaí bludgeon people sitting on the ground?
Why were horses raced into a departing crowd?
Why did the media not mention the police brutality?
Why did the media focus only on the eggs thrown by the students?
Who authorised excessive force?
Who is making the incompetent decisions?

Who seriously sends riot police, K9 units, mounted gardaí and guards on wheels into a non attacking crowd? That often lead to deaths and serious injuries. Clearly the powers that be have been anticipating a rioting populace. This time it was students protests hikes in registration costs. What will happen when it is a group of people who have nothing left to lose, can't feed their families and have been evicted?

Fachtna Murphy should not be allowed to retire. He should be fired by the Minister for Justice. But the Irish government does not read the writing on the wall. The fundamentalist Minister for Justice is too busy passing restrictive, mediaeval blasphemy laws.


In Thud, Terry Pratchett, now the adjunct professor in the School of English in TCD, wrote quite a bit on the relationship between the police force and the people

You see your people looking at you and wondering whose side you're on, yes? Well, you're on the side of the people, which is where the law ought to be. All the people, I mean, who're out there beyond the mob, who're fearful and puzzled and scared to go out at night. Now, funnily enough, the idiots who're out there right in front of you getting their self-defence in first are also the people

The people that the gardaí were battering and brutalising are the same people whose human rights they are supposed to uphold, at least according to section 2 paragraph 7.1(c) of the Garda Síochána Act of 2005. So much for the Guardians of the Peace.

ETA: Obviously, this does not refer to all the gardaí who upload the law and work with people.

Does the maFFia speak to our tribal heritage?

I find it amazing that Kevin Myers of the Indo claims that Fianna Fáil aka Those Assholes aka The MaFFia speaks to a tribal memory and that is why we'll never be rid of them. Indeed Myarse compares their potential loss to the holocaust. For that remark Myarse earns an automatic Godwin obviously.

I want to challenge the idea that the maFFia speak to tribal memory. The Soldiers of Destiny made a conscious decision to appropriate the imagery of the ancient warriors the Fianna. It's why Dev chose the name Fianna Fáil. He wanted to harken back to the good old days when the fianna consisted of bands of landless men for hire as mercenaries or bandits. The myths surrounding the fianna are mythical - full of hyperbole. Amazing feats of strength and magic etc were part of the membership criteria. What is less known is the candidate also had to be a skilled poet.

Most Irish people have heard the legends and there is something romantic about the notion of highly fit and learned demi gods running around hunting in the ancient forests of Fál (leaving aside for the moment that these skilled killers were led by man who forced a woman to flee to escape repeated rape through marriage).

After centuries of colonialism, Dev and his cronies wanted an image that invoked the image of a proud and strong country and Fianna Fáil became the name of the new political party. The Soldiers of Density Destiny were born.


The Soldiers' Song, which had been around for a while before Dev raided the past, became the national anthem, despite some initial confusion

Yes I know this is Alan Rickman and not Dev

Mr. HUGHES: I am not aware that at recent State functions Army bands have played two different tunes purporting to be the National Anthem.

Mr. ESMONDE: Does the Minister refuse to answer the last part of my question? Does he refuse to state what is the National Anthem, or if the matter is not finally settled what tune should be provisionally accepted as such pending a final decision?

Mr. JOHNSON: Can the Minister give us any definition of what is a National Anthem?

Mr. ESMONDE: There is considerable hilarity in the House which I think is not creditable. I would ask the Minister if, in his own Department solely as regards the Army, seeing that the President is not here, for reasons for which we have all respect, he would [2198] state, at any rate as far as the Army is concerned, what is considered to be the National Anthem?

Mr. HUGHES: The “Soldier's Song.”

Indeed the official version is in English. It was only in the 30s that the Irish version became the norm. The first line of the Irish translation written by Liam Ó Rinn, was Sinne fianna fáil as we all know. This was controversial way back when though because it politicised the national anthem.

Much controversy has surrounded this but Dev was not involved in the translation of the song. By all accounts, his Irish was pretty hit and miss when it came to accuracy. Fianna Fáil and Sinne fianna fáil was a coincidence. In fact, it caused some embarrassment to the new FF party, which leads one to conclude that their necks were not always made of brass.

Steps were taken to change it to Sinne laochra fáil which means the same thing but without the tacit endorsement of the Dev party. It was an attempt to separate the institution of the state from political opportunism.

At the next opportunity, Dev changed the first line back Sinne fianna fáil . Fine Gael made two other attempts with laochra but each time Dev would change the words again.

I think that might have something to do with Myarse's doubtful assertions of a tribal call. Also I think the Irish Press, propaganda machine extraordinaire might have played a role too.

Sinne fianna fáil - We are the soldiers of destiny
Sinne Fianna Fáil - We are Fianna Fail

Can anyone name another country that has an identifiable political party's name in the first line of its national anthem? I know I can't.

The maFFia stole and appropriated our heritage and legends. And an experienced journo like Myarse states that the maFFia speaks to our tribal heritage on national radio. Ooopsies Myarse.

Boot out the FFers. They failed this country in every way.

Cowengate

Behold our glorious leader




After reading this from the Indo

But Leno's comments were condemned by the head of the Oireachtas Communications Committee, Fianna Fail TD MJ Nolan. He said Leno had a responsibility to have "fair comment" on his show." Politicians these days are the butt of a lot of entertainers' comments. I would prefer if the comment wasn't made," he said.

I wrote this to Nolan

Asking for Jay Leno to withdraw his remarks re drunken moron, was an exercise in idiocy. It was an invitation for Leno to continue, in fact. Leno is a racist, sexist moron and you provided more ammunition.

Have you actually got any communications training or did you just haul your response from the affronted rack?

Contemptuously,
Mór Rígan

While I hold Cowen and Leno both in contempt, I am amused that Cowen can be outrageously affronted when asked if he was drunk. Of course, he was drunk. He had consumed enough alcohol to still be drunk a mere five hours later. This is not conjecture or defamation. It is the simple fact of the effect of alcohol on the human body. Maybe he felt fine but that does not change the number of pints he consumed. If even one drink can impair judgment (as the RSA are forever reminding us), steady drinking for hours impairs judgment too. If he were sober, he would not have done the Morning Ireland interview.

But what can we expect? In Ireland, it seems that facts are negotiable. Otherwise Cowen would have been laughed off the podium. It seems like being a politician is all about keeping a straight face when swearing blue is yellow.

It remains me of a particular Frontline episode where the beards were arguing with the private sector about whether public service pensions are contributory or not. I don't know the answer but there is a single answer. It is not a topic for debate and especially not when the same argument was played across the boards for a couple of months.

Or the Lisbon Treaty. We can argue about the interpretation of the clauses but they are set down, in stone as it were.

Facts are not debatable, anymore than one can be slightly pregnant or slightly dead.

I demand clarity and definitions. I wish broadcasters would go to interview school and learn to spot the techniques of evasive. At least it would require public sphere commentators to up their game a little.

Sometimes I wish that the Vikings had conquered all of Ireland because the national character might not possess its two fatal flaws.

Is this really our country?

Is there no end to the crimes committed by the Church and State? The horror of the institutionalised rape, slavery and crimes against children carried out in Ireland is almost too much. Few read the reports of the investigations finally carried out on what actually happened to survivors of child abuse and the children interned in industrial schools. Since the foundation of the Republic of Ireland in 1921, Church and State have treated certain children as disposable, as less than human.

Since the publication of the Ryan report on industrial schools and the Murphy report on child sexual abuse within the diocese of Dublin, revelations on the treatment of Irish citizens in the twentieth century by the Church and State have undermined everything we believed about ourselves. And the revelations keep coming.

The Primate of All Ireland Sean Brady covered up the rape of children by paedophile Brendan Smyth allowing him to continue raping children for a further nineteen years. The publication of this information has not led to his resignation but rather to his adopting the persona of a “wounded healer”. This persona allows him to continue in his position and treat survivors of the Catholic Church’s brutality with utter contempt. His "wounding" is the discovery of his coverup.

Then there is the systematic mutilation of women by doctors both through symphysiotomy and corrupt individuals wielding a scalpel. There was no oversight because doctors were “self-regulating”. And the medical scandals have not ceased - unread x rays, trolleys, cancer misdiagnosis, surgeons removing the wrong kidney.

Now, we find out that children were used in medical experiments. These children were not those living at home with parents. These were children in mother and baby homes and industrial schools. Members of religious orders gave "consent", violating numerous ethical codes including that of Nuremberg, which was drawn up in the aftermath of the Nazi behaviour in concentration camps.

All of this was done by Irish people, ordinary Joe and Jane Soap. Our uncles, aunts, friends, parents participated or knew what was going on. We are all complicit. What sort of a fucked up country is this? The human rights violations continue on - children in care left on the street, rat infested schools, children in adult psychiatric wards and the children in care disappearing by the hundreds.

Something has to be done. The Murphy inquiry needs to be expanded to cover all dioeses. Victims who did not survive the industrial schools need to be identified and cause of death established. Serious reform or possible abolition of the HSE. The state needs to acknowledge ALL the human rights violations. Offering resignations is not enough. Firing, followed by criminal charges is a beginning.

Ireland has been a republic for less than 100 years and already we have violated human rights on an unprecedented scale. What sort of people are we?

Why are we paying for private sector investment?

There is an astonishing story in today's IT. The public is being charged for investment in two private sector energy companies and two ESB plants in Offaly.

the Commission for Energy Regulation intends adding an extra €157 million to the Republic’s electricity bills from October...

The charge is being imposed to pay for Government policy. The cash will be used to pay for market supports for peat-fired power plants, renewable energy and two private sector players, Tynagh Energy and Aughinish Alumina, which provide power to the national network under public service deals agreed in 2005...

Peat will get the largest slice of cake, with three plants, the ESB-owned Lough Ree and West Offaly and Bord na Móna-owned Edenderry, sharing €78 million...

Wind farms will get €43 million, while Tynagh and Aughinish will share €14 million. The balance, over €20 million, will go to administration and other costs.

This seems really dodgy.

1. Why are we paying to invest in the private sector? Do I misunderstand the term "private sector"?

2. Are the two plants in Offaly just pork barrel projects for a sinking Taoiseach?

3. Why are we investing in peat, a non renewable resource?

4. Why is the public being levied to fund a semi state that announced profits of €580 million in 2009?

5. If the government is so concerned about energy in Ireland then why is the state gifting our gas to Shell and buying back at premium prices? The deal was negotiated by Ray Burke, jailed for corruption, and Bertie Ahern, state thief.

6. What about nuclear power?

I can barely afford to pay my electricity as it is. What the hell is wrong with the government?

Civil partnerships – Ireland’s answer to gay marriage

I have a new post up on Global Comment


“Will you partner me civilly?” is a question thousands of Irish people may be able to ask their same sex partner next year. It does not have the same ring as the more conventional phrase, but what it lacks in tradition it makes up in ambiguity.
While a civil partnership does not confer equality or full civil rights, but it shuffles in the right direction. The State will finally recognise the existence of gay and lesbian relationships. True equality, however, would involve gay marriage, adoption rights, and a host of other changes to existing legislation, which are not part of the Civil Partnership Bill.

There are many positive aspects of the Civil Partnership Bill. Financial arrangements will be more in line with the standard marriage contract. Partners will be able to benefit from the other’s pension rights. Joint income will be recognised when calculating tax benefits and a civil partner may be named on the other’s travel pass for the over 65s. Partners may now claim rights in areas such as inheritance, social welfare and a shared home.

After the Bill is passed in the Senate and has the autograph of the President For Life, gay marriages, civil partnerships and civil marriages from other jurisdictions will be recognised in Irish law. Recognised as civil partnerships that is, provided that the Minister for Justice approves of the legislation of the state in question. He has thirty days to rule on the decision.

However, there are significant gaps in the legislation, particularly with regard to the rights of children and adoption. The Irish Constitution regards the family “as the necessary basis of social order and as indispensable to the welfare of the Nation and the State” (Art. 41.1.1) but the legislation does not confer family status on same sex couples. As a result, you can love and care for the child of your partner from the moment of hir birth but you have no legal relationship with that child. You cannot adopt your own child. You cannot visit your child in hospital without the express permission of the bio parent. You probably will not even be permitted to attend parent-teacher meetings. If your partner predeceases you, your child loses both hir parents.

At some point in the future, there will be a referendum on the rights of the child, and perhaps the children of gay and lesbian couples will receive their rights at that point. For now, they remain in legal limbo.

Anything that is remotely connected with Catholicism brings out the extremist element in Irish society. Catholic extremists never seem to remember that Leviticus is in the Old Testament and that marriage predates Christianity. The hatemongers mount protests and engage in threatening behaviour outside the parliament.

Statements about the sanctity of marriage are hurled at passersby and politicians alike. There is a lot of gobbledegook about the special status of marriage and how civil partnership will destroy it. Re-interpretations of the words of Jesus Christ are being flung dunglike at an innocent public, distorting and misrepresenting words of a great social revolutionary.

In a desperate attempt to remain relevant, the Irish bishops have jumped on the bandwagon and released a pamphlet on why marriage matters. It is misleading and seeks to undermine the legislation while superficially ‘supporting’ gay and lesbian coupes. Perhaps, their contribution to the debate was to distract from the revelations of child abuse by any means necessary. Maybe the Catholic bishops have spotted the irony of the Church defending morality. However, all their words simply reassure the extremist elements of the congregations and alienate the majority.

Everywhere backbenchers sniff the wind, ever wary of controversy and potential elections. They whisper in the ears of party colleagues, perhaps make a few “no offense…” ‘jokes’ to test the lay of the land. The Government, which consistently leans into the prevailing wind, found “an Irish solution to an Irish problem”. In much the same way as the troublesome issues in the past, the Government equivocated, side stepped the issues and proved once again that some Irish people are more equal than others.

One positive outcome of the protests and whisperings is the refusal of the Minister for Justice to allow for a conscience clause. Such a clause was proposed by an opposition deputy but as Junior Minister at the Department of Finance, Martin Mansergh said

My view is that if one takes up a public appointment, one must carry out the duties that the law prescribes and those duties will change from time to time as the law changes. We should not give sanction effectively to homophobia for conscientious reasons

Public servants will not have the right to ‘morally’ object to performing civil partnership ceremonies. The notion of including such a clause would be impractical as well as ethically wrong. Imagine the precedent such a clause would require. Claims for moral injury by public servants would spread like blight.

Finish reading here

It's time to worry

Eircom has been a disaster since Mammy O Rourke privatised it. It's been laden with debt and the services are expensive, unreliable and do not reach all areas of the country. To make matters worse, the company has crumbled before IRMA at the first hurdle in violation of a ruling of the ECJ and will hand over IP addresses to an interest group.

Eircom is spying for IRMA. The offline equivalent might be the NRA reporting car speeding to the Gardaí for penalty points except in this scenario the NRA have a faulty speed camera and have lost the instruction manual which was written in Japanese to begin with. For one thing, someone downloading a piece of music from [sic] The Pirate Bay may be totally legal. Many groups publish online music for free and torrent software is great because if the connection is dropped the download can resume from that point rather than having to begin all over again. That holds true for all file types.

IP addresses are not the same as physical addresses as anyone with an internet dongle can testify. I can connect and the IP address may be one in Cork or Dublin or Limerick. It seems like techno fail to me.

Anyway what's worrying me today is this from the Irish Times

Mr Magee (56) left Eircom in February after 15 years with the company. As acting chief executive of the company last year, he set the wheels in motion for a major restructuring of Eircom’s cost base and helped to scuttle Australian financier Rob Topfer’s attempt to capture the business

The HSE is a "Frankenstein['s monster] stalking our land" and now Eircom's acting chief executive is going to take over from Brendan Drumm. Anyone else felt a cold shiver at hearing that news?

The Ryan report - a year later

I've a new post on GlobalComment

Thursday was the first anniversary of the publication of the Commission of Inquiry into Child Abuse. Commonly called the Ryan Report, its publication cumulated in the realisation of the extent of the violence, rape and sexual assault that children suffered in the care of the Catholic Church. I have written more here. Eight organisations (Barnardos, CARI, Children’s Rights Alliance, Irish Association of Young People in Care, ISPCC, One in Four, Rape Crisis Network of Ireland and Dublin Rape Crisis Centre) met to discuss progress on the implementation of the Ryan Report.

To this day not a single additional penny has been paid by the eighteen religious congregations that committed crimes against children. I say additional because the Irish Government struck a shameful deal with the religious orders in 2002. The then Minister for Education Michael Woods and Attorney General Michael McDowell struck a secret deal. It was never put before parliament and there was no vote. In short, religious orders were awarded indemnity against all legal claims provided they supplied €128m in cash and property. The idea was that if there was a shortfall, the taxpayer would provide. Woods expected around 2000 claimants and a total cost of around €300m.

Fast forward to 2010, and 14 000 claimants have come forward. The bill is expected to be around €1.3bn. And the religious orders have not contributed a single additional penny. The congregations claim that the Irish Government had not yet provided the details of what further contributions are required.

In addition, the Catholic Church, which runs 92% of the primary schools in Ireland have ordered the schools to pay €4.75 per pupil to the church each year to begin at the end of May. There is no reason given for the charge and the church requires immediate payment. Given that many primary schools in politically-disadvantaged areas are in dire conditions, this demand for money is particularly egregious. Students were requested to bring tolls of toilet paper from home because of budget cutbacks in one Cork school. Several schools have repeated rat infestations. 50 000 students are being educated in prefabs – some for over twenty years. Granted, that these failings are also due to the indifference of successive Education Ministers.

However, this is the same government that promised €2 million for the funding of counselling services for the survivors of institutional rape and torture. Organisations like the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre and One in Four have received no extra funding to date and have had their budgets cut by 5.8% despite a government commitment not to do so. Organisations that provide counselling services have been and remain overwhelmed. There is now a nine-month waiting list for one to one counselling at One in Four.

Numerous reports have come out about the cover-up of the sexual abuse of children, yet bishops named in the Murphy report remain patrons of primary schools. The primate of all Ireland, Seán Brady engaged in a conspiracy to cover up serial child rape and refuses to resign. He still holds that position. The leader of the Catholic Church in the Vatican covered up child rape. Benedict XVI was revealed to have ordered bishops not to report child sexual abuse to the correct authorities – the civil authorities – yet he is still lauded by millions.

There has been no information about the children who died in care and were allegedly buried in mass graves. The only information in the public domain is that in 1993 an order of nuns in Dublin sold part of their convent to a real estate developer. The remains of 155 inmates, who had been buried in unmarked graves on the property, were exhumed and, except for one body, cremated and reburied in a mass grave. There has been no other information. Children were murdered, starved and worked to death but we do not even know their names.

Finish reading here

We will not allow this - the bad apple defence

From the AP

"We want to show our solidarity to the pope and transmit the message that single individuals make mistakes but institutions, faith and religion cannot be questioned," Alemanno told Associated Press Television News. "We will not allow this."

Institutions cannot be questioned? Individuals make mistakes? Child rape is not a mistake, it is a deliberate crime. Institutions must be questioned. No entity is above the law. Besides the Catholic Church covered up abuse for years. Questions must be asked.

The “bad apples” argument is the preferred argument when it comes to discussing widespread abuse. It allows institutions to choose a few scapegoats. The institution, in this scenario, does not have to consider the role it played in facilitating evil or contemplate greater responsibility for the unfolding of abuse.

In The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil (Random House, 2007), Philip Zimbardo, the coordinator of the Stanford Prison Experiment, investigates the idea that a hierarchical institution itself creates the environment that allows abuse to flourish. The conclusions he reaches are applicable to the attitudes of the Vatican and the Irish Catholic Church upon the revelation of widespread serious sexual assault and rape in the Murphy Report and the torture, violence, sexual assault and rape in the Ryan Report.

Zimbardo suggests that there are seven social processes that may trigger evil:

Taking the first step, dehumanisation of others; de-individuation of the self; diffusion of personal responsibility; blind obedience of authority; uncritical conformity to group norms; and passive tolerance to evil through inaction or indifference.

Each of these social processes can be easily applied to the Irish Catholic Church:

The priestly uniform allowing de-individuation; the unquestioning obedience to Rome and the bishops; the lack of responsibility to the victims of the church; the lack of oversight in every area; the passive tolerance of abuse; and the dehumanisation of the children in the industrial schools through excessive use of force and in the parishes through insurance policies, unjust authority and the culture of silence.

The church in Ireland not only passively tolerated the abuse, but also actively moved the criminals from parish to parish while covering up the details of the crimes in question. This is active evil. The decision to hide a paedophile priest in the boot of a car and drive him to another town was a resolute act to shield a criminal. In addition, it shows that the allegiance was to the institution regardless of the legalities of the situation. The current Pope, meanwhile, instructed bishops not to reveal the crimes to civil authorities. Only those who are severely in denial could allow a “bad apples” argument to stand in the face of such actions.

The conspiracy of silence was aided by the power structures in place. The Catholic Church were the de facto morality police, condemning sins from the pulpit; condemning, for example, sexuality and contraception. The priest’s word or deed was never questioned. The extent to which priests enjoyed immunity was revealed in the Murphy Report. The police dropped investigations of sexual abuse accusations against priests even when corroborating evidence was available. Zimbardo says that power without oversight is a prescription for abuse, and that statement has been played out in the parishes and industrial schools throughout Ireland.

Business as usual will not cut the mustard. To date, nothing has changed within the power structures of the church. However, civil society has changed. With the decline of the church’s influence, survivors of sexual abuse, rape and torture are in a position to seek legal redress. Such action was nigh on impossible until recently, considering that the Irish government has been complicit in covering up abuse, limiting liability for the clergy and acting cravenly in the face of clear violations.

The bottom line is that the institution that is the Catholic Church has not taken responsibility for the environment that it created and maintained. Even now, after two reports that contain graphic descriptions of evil, the church fathers speak through public relations representatives and lawyers. Mealy-mouthed apologies abound, but there is no sense of understanding for the suffering of survivors or the extent to which this evil was allowed to flourish.

Every priest who knew and did not report was complicit. Every bishop that did not pass on information to the police, the Vatican or the priests in the abuser’s next diocese was complicit. Every police officer who dropped an investigation or sent complainants away or returned runaway children to industrial schools was complicit. The state that colluded through apathy and inaction, sending children to industrial schools, and allowing the church such unchecked power was complicit.

Questions must be asked and answered. It is not an individual problem - the rot is institutional.

What are we?

Joyce called it the general paralysis of the insane. Some say it's the post colonialism thing. Why do we not protest? I went to the Tralee demo a few weeks ago and I was the only one. There were only a few people out in Dublin. Why are we letting the government pay for Quinn and Seanie's gambling debts? Why do we reelect politicians exposed as corrupt? Why?

Oh we go into the streets on a non-issue like head shops. We'll call Liveline and complain to Joe Duffy about whatever the news of the day is. But when is comes to actually doing anything, the best we can come up with is a dirty look?

The Greeks are in the streets. The British are in the streets. The French are always in the streets. Where are the Irish?

I find the lack of action on the Catholic Church repulsive. Why is Brady still a prince of the church after covering up child abuse? Why are the religious orders named in the Ryan report still in charge of education? Why are their lands not seized and used to pay compensation?

We let our daughters be enslaved by the nuns because they had sex, were raped or looked too pretty. We put our children into religious reform schools, where they were beaten, raped, starved, murdered and traumatised. We exported our pedophile priests all over the world. Chances are that if you heard about a priest raping kids in other countries, that priest would be from an Irish order.

What does that make us? What does our lack of action make us?

Why?

A caveat: if the following does not apply to you, don’t make it about you.

Demonstrations were organised in the major towns in Ireland for high noon on 24 April. It was not being organised by a political party or interest group, union or society institution. It is just a group of people who want a general election.

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world

A gentle revolution of the wheel to permit the people of Ireland to choose their leaders. It is the democratic way of the world. Violent revolution never really worked for us.

Most people are feeling the knock on effects of the global recession and the treacherous actions of our cowardly, parochial government. With pay cuts, tax hikes, job losses, home losses, small businesses folding and cuts in social welfare, most people have personally felt the recession. Many feel angry, worried, or despondent or apathetic.

Since 2008, the failures of the Irish Government to regulate the banks, curb their expenses or prosecute white collar criminals mount week on week. Disability allowances, carer’s allowances and blind allowances have been cut. Public sector wages have been cut. Almost half a million, mostly private sector workers, have lost their jobs. Zombie banks stalk the land, gobbling the cost of running the country. And the same people are in power. Not a single member of the government has resigned for incompetence. There have been resignations over expenses, perjury and interference in an official investigation but not a single resignation over the fundamental inability to fulfill the terms of employment.

I think most people know that no one can shame or embarrass members of the current government into resigning, regardless of their incompetence, bad judgment or corruption.

• Michael Woods indemnified the religious orders and negotiated immunity for child rapists, torturers and slavers.

• Batt O Keeffe referred to the Magdalen slaves as employees

• Conor Lenihan used racist slurs in public

• Mary O Rourke used racist slurs in public
• Mary Couglan topped up Rody Molley's pension and refused to fire him for the FAS debacle
• Brian Lenihan included Anglo in the state guarentee without assessment. His actions are why Ireland is in the economic mess
• Dermot Ahern decides policy based on his personal extremist Catholic beliefs: introducing the crime of Blasphemous Libel and in 2006 assuring the pope that there would be no funding for stem cell research in Ireland
• Mary Harney is privatising our health services pushing costs up. She is also responsible for the creation of the HSE which is unaccountable to the public
• Noel Dempsey did nothing during the snow crisis. He was on holidays
• John O Donaghue resigned the office of Ceann Comhairle but remains a TD despite lavish expenses abroad and constant flying between Dublin and Kerry with his garda driver bringing the limo at Kerry airport to collect him and his wife
• Willie O Dea committed slander and perjury and is still a TD
• Bertie Ahern is still a TD after he signed away the sovereign rights to our natural resources; told those warning about the property crash to commit suicide; told TV3 that leading the parliamentary party was like being in a concentration camp. And I haven’t even recalled all his goings on in Galway tents, involvement with tribunals and perjury.

The members of this Government are unshameable. They represent the epitome of privilege - private law. There is one law for us and one law for them.

This makes me angry. And I believe it makes other people angry too. Liveline usually has a plethora of callers complaining about lack of credit, losing jobs, losing houses and all of those tiny personal tragedies that have no influence on society as a whole or even make meaningful examples. It's one of the reasons that I hate Liveline. The show is a lightning conductor for anger and fear which dissipates at three o'clock.

As I mentioned there was a demonstration today - a call for action. Tralee was my nearest venue so I took the time and petrol and drove the hour to Tralee. What I found did not surprise me but it did dishearten me.

No protest, demo or call to action. What does it take for people to get out and show that they want something else? Are people happy with the government we have? All the statistics and opinion polls say no.

Whereas when the issue is something utterly trivial, like head shops, the people are up in arms firebombing and waving placards.

(thanks to @kerryview for the pic)

The government is not some scary totalitarian nightmare. It is made up of the people we put in place. It can be deconstructed. Every voter has power. But that power must be exercised. Yes we can change how this country is run. So why are people so reluctant to protest?

• It might be the postcolonialism thing that we naturally never discuss.
• Is it the general paralysis of the insane  to which Joyce referred
• Is it just that we don't bother with protests unless mandated to by unions or highlighting the human desire to escape

I dunno. I find the whole thing makes me heartsick. People are not willing to take action but they are willing to complain endlessly about what over people should be doing. Because of that attitude, Ireland will spend a long time in this recession.

After today I want to quit this unequal, parochial, corrupt Catholic shithole. The majority do not have the same rights and services as the minority who use who they know to play unfairly. That applies to everything from planning to employment contracts. The rules are there for a fucking reason. That reason is equality for all. If X and Y want to apply for a grant but Y knows the local councillor, regardless of circumstances or resources Y will get that grant. My local councillor told me on the doorstep while canvassing to contact him with anything that needed fixing. The implication was clear.

I don't understand why people are still going to mass said by those bishops who covered up child abuse. Anyone who is capable of shielding a child rapist is capable of anything. Why has nothing happened? Why are the men in black allowed to rape children with impunity? Why did the state agree to the Woods abomination of an agreement?

I just wish that people cared, just a little bit. Now I'm going to get drunk.

Obvious question of the day

Mary Coughlan asked:

“Does anyone really believe that I or any of my Fianna Fáil colleagues in Government — Brian Cowen, Brian Lenihan, Noel Dempsey, Dermot Ahern, Micheál Martin, Éamon Ó Cuív, Mary Hanafin, Batt O’Keeffe, Brendan Smith, Pat Carey or Tony Killeen - are in some way corrupt or beholding to banks or developers?

Yes.

It is time. GENERAL ELECTION time

h/t Gombeen Nation

April 24th 12 Noon events are now organised for Dublin (Merrion Sq), Cork (Patrick's St), Galway (Eyre Sq), Limerick (Bedford Row), Tralee (The Square), Athlone (St. Peter's Sq) & Waterford (The People's Park or John Roberts' Sq).

Pass it on. Don't brush this one off. Remember Fianna Fáil have brass necks. They are unshameable. A quick non-apology and back to business as usual. How many of them have committed firing offenses?

• Batt O'Keeffe called the Magdalen slave "employees"
• Brian Lenihan for getting the budget wrong and not reading the necessary documents; for nationalising Anglo Irish Bank to bail out FF grassroots members
• John O'Donaghue for his expenses
• Willie O Dea for lying under oath
• Mary O' Rourke for racism
• Mary Coughlan for the FÁS and Rody Molloy debacle
• Michael Woods for negotiating immunity for child rapists and torturers who were in the church
• Mary Harney for the health system
• Bertie Ahern for, amongst other things, the gas and oil deal with Shell
• Brian Cowen for continuing lack of leadership and allowing corrupt public servants to resign instead of firing them
• Dermot Ahern for amendments to the criminal justice law and the blasphemy law

Get up, get out and show you want a change

What will it take?

Seriously? What kind of government have we? How after listening to this how can a Taoiseach continue to screw over Irish citizens




and then go on as if nothing had happened. We know that the bishops covered up child rape but we still go to their masses. We know that the survivors of the industrial schools need justice and we do nothing. I am disgusted at our Taoiseach, and our government. Economic traitors they certainly are but they betray the citizens of Ireland. Every survivor of child rape, abuse, violence, terror and slavery is an Irish citizen. And our government betrays them through false promises; indemnifying the viciousness of the religious; and not expelling the representatives of the organisation that injured Irish citizens.

Michael O Brien and other survivors walked out of a meeting with the Taoiseach yesterday and said

Mr Michael O'Brien, a former Fianna Fail mayor of Clonmel, also pledged to go on hunger strike outside Government Buildings in three weeks time after he had undergone a scheduled medical operation. Angrily accusing Mr Cowen of "not doing his job" of properly compensating survivors, Mr O'Brien, claimed that for the past year the Taoiseach "has been leading us the garden path."

Describing the cash offer of €110m as "a joke," Mr OBrien, 77, said that not one extra penny had been paid by the religious orders, because "he (Mr Cowen) is not doing his job."

Mr O'Brien said that all he wanted was for the Taoiseach to look after former residents of institutions for once and for all. "I want nothing for myself," he added. "I will not beg for myself but I will beg for the like of them.

and from BreakingNews

Michael O'Brien from Clonmel said the offer from the Church totalled €384m- but that included the original €128m from the indemnity deal.

Mr O'Brien stated that he will go on hunger strike next week.

He told reporters he has no faith in the Taoiseach any longer:

“That man at the present moment doesn’t care; there’s not a bit of compassion in that man.

“What’s going to happen with me is this: I have to go for an operation next week and as soon as I recuperate from that I’ll be going on hunger strike and the devil himself won’t take me off it until this is sorted out. 

And Cowen is still the Taoiseach of this country?

Even if the DPP won't prosecute, the government could seize the assets of the religious orders and expel them from the country. But they don't. In the twelve years or so of Fianna Fáil, almost all government functions have been outsourced to quangos, so ministers evade responsibility. It is disgusting and treacherous. The buck has to stop somewhere.

"We lost the run of ourselves"

I propose a ban on any use of this phrase on public service broadcasts on radio and television. Speak for yourself. We did not lose the run of ourselves. You might have lost the run of yourself but do not tell the rest of the people in this country what they did or did not do.

There are plenty of people who did not benefit from the Celtic Tiger. The country may have been coining it in tax receipts but there were sick people on hospital trolleys for days. Consultants were making out like millionaires but told patients to go and look their newly diagnosed lifelong condition up on the internet. There were jobs to be sure, but after renting the box room in a three bed crappily-constructed house on the outskirts of Dublin and paying for petrol to go to work in an area not served by public transport, one was counting the pennies till the next payday.

We did not lose the run of ourselves. Speak for yourself.