Motion to postpone monument agreed at DCC meeting

Last night at the Dublin City Council meeting the below motion was passed.

That this Council calls on the current government to delay proceeding with a monument to victims of abuse as recommended by the Ryan Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, until such time as the many unresolved, uninvestigated and outstanding issues concerning the abuses for which Irish society is responsible, in particular those affecting the Magdalene women, those who endured abuse in Bethany children's homes and the many children who suffered horrendous abuse in day schools throught the Republic of Ireland are resolved.

To proceed at this time with a Government sactioned and financially supported artistic memorial before the said issues are addressed and redressed would inevitably be seized upon as closure by the abusers, their congregations and managements, and as a pretext for the evasion of accountability and truth by them and by the Irish State.

For more information see www.stopthemonument.com

Do You Live In Grangegorman, Dublin?

Anyone who wants to participate in this should have a read of the nomination process and have a say in the development that will be taking place in this area over the coming months/years.  It is very important that you have residents on this board and consultative group that will represent all your interests.  Be informed of what is going to be taking place in your area.  Have a say!  

 

Nomination Process for Board and Consultative Group Elections 2012 - Grangegorman

Once the registration period for groups has closed the process of nominations will begin.

 

1. The GDA will publish two lists of registered groups;

A. Registered Residents and Tenants Associations

B. Registered Community Groups and Associations including Resident and Tenant

Associations, Parish and District Groups, Youth and Sports Clubs and similar

non‐commercial groups in the Grangegorman neighbourhood.

2. The GDA will write out to all new registered groups informing them that the nomination

process has begun. The nomination period will last for one week from 25th September

until 3rd October 2012.

 

3. All nominees must have nominations from at least two relevant registered groups. It is

important to note that only associations from list A may nominate for the Board

elections. Associations and Groups from list A and B can nominate for the Consultative

Group elections.

 

4. All nominees must satisfy the following criteria in order to be eligible for election

A. Be resident in the GDA area (see map below)

B. Be on the register of electors in the area

C. Be nominated by at least 2 registered groups

If a nominee does not satisfy all three criteria he/she will be deemed ineligible for the

election.

 

5. If a person wishes to put themselves forward for election they must write to the

Grangegorman Development Agency. The letter must include;

A. The name and address of the nominee

B. The position for which they are going forward for

C. The groups which are nominating them (a signature of one of the authorized

officers of these groups is required here.)

 

6. Once the nomination period closes on 3rd October 2012 the GDA will check all nominees

to ensure they are valid and the full list of valid nominees will then be sent to all

registered groups.

 

7. The election meeting will take place on Thursday 25th October 2012. Each registered

group will be entitled to send two representatives to the meeting. Each representative

will have one vote and voting will take place through secret ballot. Only representatives

of associations from list A can vote in the Board election. Representatives from

Associations/Groups on list B can vote in the Consultative Group election.

 

8. The result of the ballot will be announced as soon as possible after the counting is

complete.

 

9. Should a person be elected for both the Board and the Consultative Group he/she must

choose which position to accept. The other position will then be filled by the person

with the next highest amount of votes in the relevant election.

 

 

The pdf includes the boundary map

 

GG_Election_2012_Nomination_Process.pdf Download this file

Mechanical Services Coordination manager wanted - Dundalk

Mechanical Services Coordination manager 

Immediate Start for the right candidate who is Mechanically Biased with Elec exp to work on the installation and fit out of a large commercial building based in Dundalk Ireland. 
You will be required to have: excellent experience on the coordination of Mechanical Services into existing shell buildings (Structural Steel and Concrete is existing old building with services ripped out) and you will also have strong Technical ability and be able to problem solve. This is a contract role from now to End of March 2013 (8 Months) possibly longer. The Hourly rate is negotiable depending on experience etc, looking for someone who can start ASAP. Contact TOM DOYLE at kppm in Dublin on: 01-2932220 or Email: tom@kppm.ie 

Safe Home - 'extallation' at Fade Street, Dublin 2

[[posterous-content:pid___0]]

Today I posted the text 'Safe Home' in Fade Street Dublin.  Some people who live abroad and will not be able to read the text in its entirety have asked me to post it online.  

Below are the texts: 

 

As human beings we are constantly trying to deal and come to terms with internalised trauma. Being unable or unwilling to resolve certain issues, we cling even tighter to them and, though we yearn for peace and rest and progress, we can’t seem to let go of that which threatens to destroy us.What is it like to walk away from conflict, to put your weapons beyond use? To dwell upon all the years committed to the never-ending cycle of fright, fight, flight.  Resentment, hatred, fury and denial all form part of the energy field that has dominated us human beings for thousands of years.

 

Along with the hardware, these emotions need to be deactivated if the grip that has bound us for generations to armed conflict is to be loosened finally and permanently. 

Letting go is always a process of loss, a process of grieving. The dawning realisation that you cannot retake what you’ve reconciled to let go of.  And the final, slow acceptance that it is no longer of service to you anyway.

The grip that binds us is a reflective process, which offers participants a chance to engage with the emotional dynamics that underlie letting go and the emergence of something new.

 

 

 

'Safe Home'

 

 

I am a fighter, fighter’s blood runs through my veins.  The air I breathe is warrior air created by mankind ever warring with itself.  The fight gives me life, fills me full of purpose and cause.  Fear can find no home upon me as I travel like a feather upon Apollo’s arrow, higher and faster than Icarus on his wings.

 

I am sworn to earth, to territories and boundaries.  I am in all your hearts, surging through all your blood. I am your fighter, brave and strong always at the ready for combat, for rescue.  I am ancient and I am new.  

 

I am your fighter defending faith, family, land, oil, power, lest other fighters invade our boundaries and steal these things away. I am the spear carrier, to Alexander the Great, one of Churchill’s heroic few, I stood with Irish rebels and independence fighters here and elsewhere.  Without me they are nothing. Without me, no war can be fought. - every battle, every defeat, every heroic deed and death is now and for all time written in my DNA.  

 

I am that fighter, the one you saw with the flower stuck in his rifle, the one  embraced on D-day all across Europe. I am the Russian infantry sergeant, who glimpsed freedom for an instant in a Berlin Street before the wall went up.  Sick from the fight and the smell of death, I struggled from outer Siberia to the smashed cabaret rooms of Berlin and the empty beer halls of Munich and I was denied my smiles and ordered to build a wall around my hopes of freedom..  And at checkpoint Charlie  two soldiers, once brother and sister in the common cause, now sworn enemies at the ready to kill and maim, to occupy and deny -  on and on.

Our eyes meet only in our gun sights, hearts pumping with fear.  It was an oh so cold ‘cold war’.  Covered in frost bites not love bites.

 

I am the child, toy soldier in Africa and elsewhere.  I move to the sound of gunfire in my sleep, my dreams.  The only numbers I know are on my AK47, my M16.  My playthings are Kalashnikovs and machetes and I can’t get home.

“The little toy soldier is covered in dust but sturdy and staunch he stands.” Longing for home.

 

I am young and in my prime, a warrior fighting for Palestine, for Afghanistan.  Lands I I have taken an oath to die for, to kill for.  Lands I will never live in.  I wear a waistcoat woven of explosives to keep me warm.  Honour is my destiny, my rendezvous is death. My homeland is not of this world.  I am a soldier of the God’s.

 

Bobby Sands weapon is starvation, falling toward a hungry  grave, so they say, and I, the fighter, hand on heart pledge allegiance to the flag, Pledge that I will carry out my duty to protect my country from enemies without and within. I am a warrior and how I long for home, for my family but it is not to be. 

 

I am the hero, rock defiant to the last.  I raised the flag and kept it flying.  I stopped tanks in Tianamon Square and in Prague I took bullets.   I slaughtered villagers in Mai Lai and burned my draft card outside the Whitehouse.  I have fallen may times in battle, and felled many too. I have hidden terrified in shellholes and basements and, terrified, I have raged through villages and towns. I have cried tears as hard as hailstones and screamed more ferociously than volcanos. “I want to go home.” 

 

I have loved and cherished, and I have raped and destroyed, cutting my ties with humanity  as I cut through the throats of my enemies.  Letters from home, a sharp reminder, like sniper’s bullets, can kill the will to kill.  Love letters in the ashes of Dresden, a bloodied sweetheart’s photograph in a Sarajevo street.   Ghostly mementos of nurture and love.  Things I have forgotten.  They say one has to when one becomes a fighter.  The closest thing to me must be my weapon, after that my enemy and the discipline to block all feeling off.  I give the grave its reason and its victory.  I saw it fill up and swallow the bodies of strangers and of friends.  There are generations in there.  We fighters work tirelessly for the grave.

 

I saw the shores of strange lands, Native Tribes. I saw the gulf skies over the Desert. Where did the fight really take me?  Green Island Prison, death camps in Siberia, Burma, the Maze. Starving to death in fascist Spain. Tortured in the basement of a palace in Iraq.  Blindfolded, humiliated, straddled by American soldiers for a laugh.  For the folks back home.  A Kodak moment. Remember the slaughtered of Taiwan. The disappeared….the not forgotten…

So whose army is the good army?  Which fight is the good fight?  Who fought the just war in Vietnam, at the Battle of the Boyne, in East Timor or West Belfast, mainland China. Under attack or attacking, I make my commitment to I witness it all.  In the end there are only the fallen.

 For those, I soldier on, hopeing for home, dreaming..

 

I was dazzled for a moment by the bright swords of the Samari, the whiteness of the sailors uniforms, the cry that “my land unfree shall never be at peace.” The excitement of the adventure transported me, swept me off my feet.  The promises of honour and glory and victory.  “It’s not what you can do for your country but what your country can do to you.”  I was intoxicated, brainwashed, seduced, bewitched, conscripted, press ganged.  And I for my part  abandoned myself myself.  I packed up my troubles in my old kit bag and smiled, smiled, smiled until I could smile no more.  I told myself I was only carrying out orders.  That the ideals,  justified all the killing, all the deeds, good and bad that I have done, but now , where is homeland? . . . . . .  They  say it is better to have conquered yourself than the whole world. Better to possess your own soul than the finest treasures.  I did the state some service, I say, did the nation some good.  I am no hero, nor martyr, fear led me through all my battles.  But now all I want is to go home where I can heal my wounds - those inflicted on me and self inflicted.  I made my choice as a boy when I volunteered but after that all the choices were made for me as I was press-ganged into unspeakable deeds.  Keep a stiff upper lip.  Do not scream into the night.  Keep the vision of the fight as a means to an end, for a better world.

Show no emotion, no mercy, expect none.

 

I only joined up to play soldiers, action man, wonder woman for Ireland, Israel, Taiwan, Palestine, for Manchester United.  Now I am cut off from my unit, I’ve  lost contact with HQ.   I am lost behind my own lines, lost in myself.  I have no means to console myself.  I am my final enemy.  The last battle I must fight is with myself as I grow up in no man’s land.  No identity.  This, they say, is the bravest journey of all.  Where I must take off my blindfold and make a stand.  My mind searches around the deeds of my life for the spoils but there is nothing left.  There is no home to go to.  All the wars to end all wars have brought me nothing. There are no knights of the round table, there is no Samerai. Now must my sword now face me.  Where is freedom?

 

My service is done, let me rest.  Let me now cloak my memory, wipe it all away for all time, as though it never happened.  I am so sick of death by killing but cannot quell my rage, fight, fright, flight.  I am weary and my soul is on fire, haunted by the spirits of the slaughtered, tormented by my own surrenders, defeats and betrayals. How can I embrace my foe, put my arms around peace and put my arms beyond use?  Unite myself.

 

People  died so I might live, in peace, at home.

 Here in the rubble is everything I fought for, cared for, the cause.

 I fulfilled my duty, my part is played and I would not have played it any other way.  Could not.  No choice then, only now. I did the best I could, the good work of the patriot, the dirty work of the guerrilla fighter.  I was trained by the Americans to fight the Russians in Afghanistan, the Imans in Iran, and the communists in mainland China and I fight on now in the Baghdad streets in Madrid and in New York, London.  I am terrorised.

 

‘To win without fighting is best’ Sun Tru said,  but I was recruited with promises  of wondrous things.  I was going to free the world, unite Ireland, liberate Kuwait, free Taiwan,  bring freedom like clouds bring rain.  You gave me a shield, an armoured car, smart bombs and a spear for to lance the side of the Christ and others,  I have done the deeds for the cause.  There will always be something to struggle for, to fight for, to be angry about.

I am truly sorry for all those killed. But the conflict was not of my making and I will not wear sackcloth and ashes for somebody else’s shame.

Now, I march the death march a requiem to the folly of war.  I am a fighter from the first to the last. Remember that is what you needed me to be. But now that I am too worn for war I am left to fight for peace in my own heart,fight myself,  while the last post sounds and falls on deaf ears and closed hearts because tomorrow begins a new recruitment drive against the new enemy, for new fighters for the new war in the same old places, same old story.

My fighting days are over and now I bear witness to it all, stand guard like a sentry over the reality of what happened.  They say the first casualty of war is the truth.  I say the first casualty of war is a fighter and this truth will set me free. There is no truth like home truth, this is my homeplace, I long to get home.

G.M.Flynn

A response to Brian Cowen's Georgia speech, March 2012

I was asked for my thoughts on the Irish times article and Brian Cowen's address in March 2012. The links to both article and lecture are below, I forgot to post it a few months ago and just found it on my desktop yesterday.

My feelings are as follows. Cowen's lecture (The Euro: From Crisis to Resolution? Some Reflections from Ireland on the Road Thus Far) failed to address the collective greed that ensued from the release of lorry loads of cheap money.  It failed to address the morality of the orgy of destruction that this created.  It failed to address the recklessness that inevitably resulted in the annihilation of many of the people's economies of Europe. It protected bond holders and investors and a failed banking system, but never addressed the disintegration of people's trust and belief in a way of life.  It was certainly a good pitch for confidence building for potential investors or anyone who wishes to re-friend us.  It gives us no way forward in relation to the issues we face in our local economy. What's interesting about it is that it’s coming from Brian Cowen as a person and I would have liked to have seen more of that.  It needs more of the human being than the human doing.  It is that ingredient that is going to unite us in pursuit of a common goal that will eventually lead to a much more considered, meaningful and productive society that cares about its future.  We need to apply the same logic that we are applying to sustainability and global warming.  We need to be alarmed at the state that banking and the State systems got us into and the fact that we allowed it.  It fails to engage with consequences for those who may have done wrong or broken the law and it never asks where did all the money go? If all the money that was borrowed is now to be paid back, where does it go? Who holds it? And what are we to do, are we to simply shiver and starve? Politicians have a duty to stand up to private banking and to ensure that the great humanitarian experiment isn't enslaved to private bankers and their ilk who are hell-bent on a privatised world.  We will be paying our way out of this for generations to come and I believe that there is greater hardship yet to befall us, but the burden should be carried equally.  This is not about money; it’s about not living in misery because of indifference of cold capitalism.  Wake up to the fact that capitalism is now eating the capitalists and devouring banking systems and economies.  The voice of humanity was lacking in Mr Cowen's speech and it smacked very much of the kind of after-dinner warm endorsement and comfortable view of the crisis that we're in.  No one is blaming.  Blame gets us nowhere.  Responsibility and accountability are what's needed here and, let’s call a spade a spade, somebody made billions, if not trillions out of the sinking of economies.  We have to ensure that this never happens again.  Cowen is right when he talks about 'not since the 1930’s great depression', but this is even bigger and has even greater consequences for people.  The best thing Brian Cowen could do would be to stop making speeches, roll his sleeves up and get back into action and work alongside us in this new struggle. Somewhere along the line, the middle classes are going to implode and all that politeness that hides deep resentment and pent up anger will come gushing out and will threaten the very system that this whole circus was based on.  The working classes have never been given the opportunity to progress and seem to be landlocked in a deliberate co-dependency that was set up by the State.  Not everyone will find a job in Google, or Facebook or the IT sector.  There won't be a great windfall of jobs.  This whole process will take years of rehabilitation and recovery which will hopefully lead to Ireland and its people waking up.  

We were asleep, in a trusting childlike fashion and we woke up to a real nightmare that threatens everything we thought we stood for, everything we thought was good.  

So Mr Cowen didn't give a 'State of the Nation' address, because he didn't address the people.  He gave us an analysis from his point of view, from his personal look-back and I commend him for this courage and his taking of personal responsibility.  I hope it gives him the confidence to go further because it’s the experience of failure, owned and acknowledged that give us the courage to make great progress on the road to recovery and to honest constitution.

So, let’s look forward, rather than staring backwards. It’s us, Irish people, that need to collectively make this journey with or without our leaders.

 

Link to Brian Cowens address in Georgia, Washington State March 21st 2012

The Euro: From Crisis to Resolution? Some Reflections from Ireland on the Road Thus Far

 http://cges.georgetown.edu/files/3.21.12%20Cowen%20Speech.pdf

 

Irish Times article response to Cowens address by DEAGLÁN DE BRÉADÚN

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/0407/1224314498631.html#.

 

Brandon Press Authors-Urgent Information

If you have published work with Brandon Press, Kerry you need to contact the liquidator Sean O Sullivan in Kerry on his number is 066 9151515.  Your books (stock) are currently in a warehouse in Dublin Gill & Macmillan. Hume Avenue, Park West, Dublin 12 waiting to be pulped.  The warehouse are anxious that each author be contacted so that they have an opportunity to retrieve their works if they so wish.  You must first contact the liquidator on the above number and then you can arrange to collect your works.  The list below are the authors whose works are currently with Gill & Macmillan in the warehouse.  If you know any of these writers can you please make them aware of this information.  The books have already been stored in the warehouse for over 2 years now and they need the space so are anxious to make sure that every author has been contacted.  The numbers beside each name are the quantity of books in the storehouse. John Manning of Gill and Macmillan is  015009534  (only contact him after you have dealt with the liquidator Sean O Sullivan (accountant) and Tom Hayes in Kerry)
TITLE STOCK
2 9780863220531 MCDYER:AUTOBIOGRAPHY @ 726
3 9780863221798 QUIGLEY:BORDERLAND @ 124 
9780863222023 MACKEN:QUENCH THE MOON @ 05 
9780863222047 RAYMO:IN THE FALCON'S CLAW P/B @ 2166 
9780863222153 MCDONNELL:IMAGINATION THE HEART P/B @ 147 
9780863222221 COOKE:PERSECUTING ZEAL H/B 568 
9780863222443 BRENNAN:STORY OF IRISH DANCE @ 49 9780863222467 PHELAN:ISCARIOT @ 3210 9780863222511 RICE:SONG OF TIANENMEN   PB 1911 9780863222528 TROLAN:SLOW PUNCTURES   PB 2912 9780863222559 FINLAY:ALWAYS IN MY MIND P/B 5613 9780863222580 FITZGERALD:SNAPDRAGONS @ 3714 9780863222603 O'NEILL:RELLIGHAN, UNDERTAKER @ 3215 9780863222610 O'NEILL:DUFFY IS DEAD  @ 2616 9780863222634 MACDONOGH:OPEN BOOK:ONE PUBLISHER'S WAR@ 5317 9780863222641 O'NEILL:OPEN CUT @ 4818 9780863222658 TROLAN:ANY OTHER TIME@ 3819 9780863222689 REES:OSCAR'S TALE @ 5620 9780863222757 MILLS:ELLIE P/B 5721 9780863222771 CHAPMAN:JEREMY`S BABY 5622 9780863222818 BRUEN:THE GUARDS 123 9780863222832 DUHAN:THERE IS THE TIME H/B 46624 9780863222849 MCCARTHY:MY EYES ONLY LOOK OUT P/B 9925 9780863222887 QUINN:MAVERICK H/B 826 9780863222900 WASSELL:THE THING HE LOVES P/B 12627 9780863222962 HAIRE:THE YARD@ 14928 9780863222986 O'DOWD:FIRE IN THE MORNING P/B@ 44129 9780863223013 SINNERTON:DAVID ERVINE-UNCHART WATER HB@ 7330 9780863223037 CONRY:FLOWERS OF THE FAIREST 8331 9780863223044 BLUNT:I SAILED THE SKY IN A SILVER SHIP 8532 9780863223068 CONLON:SKIN OF DREAMS@ 42633 9780863223082 KEARNS/TAYLOR:TOUCHSTONE FOR TRADITION@ 7834 9780863223099 HANAHOE:AMERICA RULES 20135 9780863223105 BARRETT:MARTIN FERRIS-A BIOGRAPHY H/B@ 5736 9780863223112 FOSTER:LAND WHERE STORIES END@ 21337 9780863223129 SINNERTON:DAVID ERVINE-UNCHART WATER PB@ 27338 9780863223167 POWER:FROM THE HEART OF IRELAND P/B 939 9780863223181 O DUBHSHLAINE:DARK DAY ON BLASKETS H/B 640 9780863223211 MEEHAN:KARAOKE NO MORE P/B@ 47941 9780863223259 CONLON:LATER ON H/B@ 1242 9780863223297 RONAN:THE IRISH ZORRO H/B@ 56843 9780863223334 MAC MANAIS:ROAD FROM ARDOYNE H/B@ 2444 9780863223365 COOK:A COLD-BLOODED SCOUNDREL P/B@ 20345 9780863223419 MAC MANAIS:ROAD FROM ARDOYNE P/B@ 146 9780863223426 MACMAHON:HERO TOWN P/B@ 60647 9780863223433 KIRWAN:GREEN SUEDE SHOES P/B@ 33748 9780863223471 CURTIS:LIGHTNING TREE P/B (R) 1349 9780863223488 VELICKOVIC:LODGERS P/B (R) 48150 9780863223495 MAGAN:ANGELS & RABIES P/B (R) 101951 9780863223549 BARRY:MISS KATIE REGRETS P/B (R) 33452 9780863223556 WALL:NO PARADISO P/B (R) 66553 9780863223624 SCHWARTZ/VON FLOTOW:THIRD SHORE P/B (R) 43254 9780863223631 MARTIN:BRANWELL P/B (R) 39955 9780863223648 ELLIS:BOCKETY P/B (R) 35656 9780863223655 MARTIN:BABY ZERO P/B (R) 38957 9780863223662 CALLAGHAN:BILLY, COME HOME P/B (R) 34458 9780863223686 MAGAN:MANCHAN'S TRAVELS P/B (R) 21459 9780863223716 MACDONOGH:BRANDON TWENTY FIVE P/B (R) 77660 9780863223761 MONAGHAN:COLOMBIA JAIL JOURNAL P/B 50861 9780863223808 MCCREA:FIRST VERSE P/B (R) 39062 9780863223839 URCH:AN INVITATION TO DANCE H/B (R) 23963 9780863223846 MCCULLAGH:FUNNY PECULIAR P/B (R) 336364 9780863223877 CURTIS:LIGHTNING TREE P/B NEW EDN.(R) 43665 9780863223884 CALLAGHAN:A BIT OF A SCANDAL H/B (R) 666 9780863223891 MAGAN:TRUCK FEVER P/B (R) 54067 9780863223938 TAYLOR:IRISH COUNTRY DOCTOR H/B 45268 9780863223945 KABDEBO:TRACKING GIORGIONE P/B (R) 105369 9780863223952 URCH:AN INVITATION TO DANCE P/B (R) 115170 9780863223969 CALLAGHAN:A BIT OF A SCANDAL P/B (R) 97971 9780863224027 TAYLOR:IRISH COUNTRY VILLAGE H/B (R) 14072 9780863224058 KEENAN:PLOT 34 P/B (R) 74273 9780863224072 MURPHY:AT FIVE IN THE AFTERNOON H/B (R) 14874 9780863224089 O'NEILL:CORCA DHUIBHNE H/B (R) 14175 9780863224126 O DUBHSHLAINE:INISVICKILLANE P/B (R) 176 9780863224133 MACDONOGH:BARACK OBAMA MONEYGALL PB (R) 79777 9780863224140 MURPHY:AT FIVE IN THE AFTERNOON P/B (R) 67278 9780863224188 KIRWAN:ROCKIN' THE BRONX P/B@ 6379 9780863224225 TAYLOR:IRISH COUNTRY CHRISTMAS H/B 13180 9780863224232 TAYLOR:IRISH COUNTRY VILLAGE P/B (R) 137481 9780863224249 MAGAN:ODDBALLS P/B (R) 124082 9780863224263 MURPHY:AT FIVE IN THE AFTERNOON P/B@ 122283 9780863224270 CAMPBELL:HERE'S HOW P/B@ 196084 9780863224287 SIMPSON:DUPLICITY & DECEPTION P/B@ 162985 9780863224300 HYNES:DOWN TO THE DIRT P/B (R) 168986 9780863224331 MACDONOGH:PIONEERS H/B (R) 42187 9780863224348 GIBNEY:HANDBALL! P/B (R) 229888 9781902011066 O'NEILL:BENNETT & COMPANY (R) 1589 9781902011073 FINLAY:CASSA (R) 2790 9781902011127 TUOMEY:LIKE ONE OF THE FAMILY (R) 3091 9781902011158 FINLAY:CASSA`S CHOICE (R) 168

The Brady Bunch

We've had all this before, the falling on ones own sword made of jelly, the fake atonement, the heartfelt apology, "if only we knew then what we know now", etc etc....The wringing of our hands. The nation has allowed the rape, torture and inhumane treatment of children and vulnerable human beings since its foundation. People in authority, people in power, and the general society close themselves down to this fact in the hope that somehow we'd grow out of it. Good luck to Fergus Finley if the abuse that happened to him didn't destroy his life, but for many they didn't get a life, they died in miserable circumstances in institutions. While many went on to live miserable existences with others taking their own lives. Still to this day, the ruling class and the powerful State, turn it into a media circus, no police involvement, no arrests, just the continued grotesque of the pathetic Irish State. They're happier with their hands in the grubby till. They're happier when they're praising themselves for their great missionary work elsewhere but when it comes to hometruths and honesty and accountability about our own trespass, indifference and cruelties, we are nowhere to be seen. The old saying evil thrives when so called good people turn a blind eye. Where are our poets, where are our artists, where are our honest voices? What we get are experts and specialists, religious correspondents, masquerading as philosophers and visionaries. What if Christy Mahon had come across the villagers in the playboy of the Western world and told them he had been raped by a priest? Would he have received the warm welcome, the adoration? I think not. They would have probably stoned him. Wake up to the fact that this is an immature society, uncomfortable in its very essence, with reality and truth. Brady is of the same flesh and blood as the rest of Irish society who wished to cover up its past and bury its wrong doing. Its easy to scapegoat him now to stone him and ridicule him and then replace him with exactly the same clone from Rome. Nothing changes till all changes. One thing for certain we are on a journey to some difference, I'm not sure what that difference will make. I would hope that it would lead to a changed Irish society and a changed Irish people. We cannot continue to live in a fake image of ourselves, that we're Irish and we're wonderful. We're not wonderful and the proof is all over the place. Best to own it now, it will be the making of us. Truth only comes at the cost of standing in your own fear, then comes courage and progress. We need to make Ireland a place that we want to live in. And no matter how much money we win or lose, its not possible to live without truth and the Vatican and the vicars of Rome don't have a monopoly on that. They've no intentions of owning up or being accountable. Best leave them in their own ruin and let society deal, with what is afterall, a societal issue. Finally, to the Garda commissioner and the Minister for Justice, either do your job or hand your seal of office in and bring you uniform back up to the HQ in the park and hand it in. To the journalist Brian D'arcy, stick with the principles of the matter and not your personality. If you all want to do something solid and send a message to these people sign the petition below and pass it on. And remember, there is goodness, there is care and there is love. http://www.change.org/petitions/call-to-postpone-the-state-monument-memorial-...