A Proposal re the Abused Children of Ireland

The shocking revelations of the past years of the abuse suffered in various Church/State institutions and the meagre efforts to redress the abuse have prompted the following which I call

A Proposal for the Abused Children of Ireland

1 The State to declare all orphans and others who were abused in Ireland's industrial schools and other places of detention to be Honoured Citizens of Ireland

2. An official certificate to be granted to all such citizens declaring that they are Honoured Citizens of Ireland. The certificate to be signed by the President and Taoiseach of the day and stamped officially.

3. Special privileges, apart from compensation, to be granted permanently to Honoured Citizens. These to include Free Medical Card, free travel, free access to cinema and theatre etc.

4 Existing compensation granted to victims to be quadrupled without further investigations. This payment not to be an obstacle to victims (Honoured Citizens) seeking further and better compensation.

5 Those who should have been but were not heard by Judge Ryan to be heard by a new Tribunal composed solely of victims and their cases decided by that new tribunal in a non-adversarial way.

6. A Park of Remembrance to be created to honour the deceased Honoured Citizens and their families. The Park to contain a building for recreative purposes for all Honoured Citizens and their families.

7. In Seanad Eireann and Dail Eireann the present official prayer to be replaced permanently by a declaration recognising the culpability of the State vis-a-via its Honoured citizens and promising that every effort will be made, starting now, to prevent any such abuse from taking place in future or present times in any place whatever within the State. This declaration to be made daily in both Houses before start of business.

8. All Churches and religious congregations to be equally liable with the State for the financing of the above

9. In all Masses, a special statement admitting guilt against the victims, requesting forgiveness and promising never again to be part of such abuse, to be inserted and read publicly. Similarly for other religions who have been responsible for the abuse of children or other inmates under their care.

(Church people themselves might have some other proposals along with these)

Tales of Ballycumber

I was present at a first night pre-view performance - which fact should be taken into account vis-à-vis any adverse comments in the review.

Tales of Ballycumber is a tragedy. The author, Sebastian Barry, has tackled the extremely difficult and harrowing subject of the large number of suicides recently happening among young Irish people, especially young men. For those who have not been touched in real life by being close to such tragedies, the play might be a bitter pill to swallow. For those who have had to swallow a more bitter truth already, in a barn or bedroom maybe, at a moment of awful, sudden and unchangeable realisation, this work and its performance on the Abbey stage will provide at least a little hint of empathy and hopefully a little solace.

The play has been carefully constructed with a mixture of story-telling, bright and dark imagery, rural dialect, farm lore, ghosts, parenting and themes of young love hindered by shades of ever so delicate inter-religious tensions. It begins with the brilliant song, Heartbreak Hotel, made famous by Elvis Presley which sets the scene to follow. Farmer Nicholas Farquhar (Stephen Rea) is 45-ish, his young friend Evans Stafford (Aaron Monaghan) is 17, both are Protestant. The neighbourly Evans has just helped Nicholas to root out a crow's nest from his chimney when the two sit down to tea and chat. Evans has news about Elvis's ancestors coming from the nearby Hacketstown, Nicholas recounts tales of the famous Kennedys. In between, Evans is anxious to talk about the girl with the greeny blue eyes, a Catholic with whom he has fallen in love, whose brother has lately hanged himself. Nicholas counters with recalling the tragedy of a young local girl, "one of the most beautiful wee girls that was ever seen around Ballycumber" who has died of cancer.

However, it is Nicholas's own advice to Evans, summed up in "You couldn't be trusting a girl like that to look after you" , that sows the seeds of the play's own immediate tragedy. Evans leaves a note saying that "Nicholas Farquhar knows" why, when the young lad shoots himself in the stomach. The focus turns on Nicholas. The gentle Andrew Stafford, Evans's father, wants to know, while Evans still struggles for life, what had Nicholas said to his son that caused him to do this. Nicholas's own sister, Tania, also wants to know. She becomes the bearer of bad news that Evans has died. She further wants to know "was there anything amiss" between Nicholas and Evans, recalling a shopkeeper whose wife had to lock up their three sons "so he couldn't get at them". For Nicholas this is too much.

He has ghosts in his head. One is the wee girl who died of cancer. Another is his dead mother to whom he cries in his grief. The wee girl (who sang the Heartbreak Hotel song) comforts him from time to time. Evans becomes another ghost, visiting him with a strange tale of how he was looking for the girl with the greenie blue eyes, found her (now her name was Casey) but just when they were enjoying each other's company, a band of men attacked him, pinned him down and shot him in the stomach.

The cast is star-studded. The writing has a strong hint of Synge. The portrayals, especially of Nicholas and Evans, were memorable. So, I have been asking myself: Why was it not a very satisfying theatre experience for me?

Part of the answer is probably that it was a first night pre-view, some characters were not fully prepared, some sentences were lost, some voices very weak. Another reason may be the denseness of the text, the difficulty of listening to long tales without any action. The cyclorama failed to convey the atmosphere it was intended to convey. The direction (on that first night) may have lacked subtlety. There was little movement on stage. People spoke mostly from a standing or sitting position. The stage itself looked unbelievably small and odd. Most of all I think it was the daffodils that unnecessarily smothered the stage that made me uncomfortable.

On the positive side, what a brilliant idea to have the full text of the play published in the official programme. This afford you the chance to compare what you heard with what you see and to try to tackle the unanswered questions of the play.

"Offensive" No-to-Lisbon sign - two arrested

As Ireland's voters prepare to vote for a second time on the Lisbon Treaty (they rejected it first time around) posters from both sides of the argument have been displayed all over the country.

Among the groups against acceptance are Irish Friends of Palestine Against Lisbon who have created the above poster. The imaginative logo has also, in the form of a boat been sailing on two Irish rivers over the past weeks.

But in Galway a human rights activist, Tommy Donnelan, who was displaying the poster on the public street, was arrested by Gardaí after two Israeli tourists lodged complaints. Yesterday in Dublin, another human rights activist, Seán Clinton was arrested, handcuffed, detained and photographed while in detention, because he had first displayed the poster outside the Israeli Embassy and later, after a compromise with Dublin City Council tried to erect a smaller version of the same poster in its place.

It emerged that the instigator of the complaint this time was the Israeli Embassy in Dublin and both Gardaí and DCC had to bend to the Embassy's will.

It appears that the powerful message on the poster reminding people of the slaughter by Israel of 300 children in Gaza , and the European Union's lack of back-bone in failing to take Israel to task for this atrocity by imposing sanctions, was too much for the Ambassador of Israel to stomach.

It was easier for Ambassador Dr Zion Evrony to stomach the IDF killing of children in Gaza than the poster recalling the killings outside his Embassy in Dublin.

But what can be said of the Irish State that disallows freedom of expression in Ireland in the run-up to a referendum but engages in active repression and arrest of citizens who exercise their right to that freedom? A disgraced State (Ireland) is hell-bent on forcing Lisbon on its citizens whether we like it or not.

(The logo on the poster states: "Israel killed over 300 children in January - yet the EU will not impose sanctions EU policy facilitates Israeli genocide Vote NO to Lisbon"

Niall Harnett jailed for opposing Shell

Niall Harnett, an Irish supporter of the campaign to stop Shell from building a refinery on land in Mayo, has been jailed for his non-violent civil disobedience.

In a disgracefully harsh sentence he received two consecutive periods of four months, making a total of eight months, in the squalid and remote Castlerea prison, where he has already spent 16 days.

In Ireland, even for violent offenders, sentences for two or more alleged offences, are almost invariably concurrent, meaning that innumerable sentences are all rolled up in one. Not so for this brave non-violent young man who has challenged the status quo, Shell and the State that sold out its natural resources in Mayo waters to Shell for nothing!

Niall's non-violent stand is too principled for the State to countenance. A Government minister had given away the people's ownership of our natural resources off the Mayo Coast and the people got nothing back in return. Then the Shell consortium proceeded to do what they wished in Mayo until the"Shell to Sea" campaign was set up to oppose them.

Five locals were jailed for contempt and spent 94 days in jail.

Another local, Maura Harrington, has been jailed three times, (see previous post) but this last time received bail. Niall's bail was too severe for him to accept on principle as it would keep him away from the scene of the action.

The Garda Síochána, the police force of the Irish State, often work hand in hand with Shell security police and have sometimes assaulted the protestors. No prosecutions have been made because of these assaults although some were shown on RTE News.

Niall comes to Dublin to appeal against the severity of his bail conditions on Monday, August 17th.

Ezra Nawi to be sentenced tomorrow in Israel

On Sunday August 16th, Ezra Nawi will stand trial for his beliefs in Israel. This is not the first time that Ezra Nawi stands trial for his beliefs. But it is the first time that they will probably be able to stop him.

He has been harassed and targeted throughout the years, because, he believes, he embodies three elements which provoke bigotry in the Israeli society: He is a homosexual, he is a Mizrahi Jew, and he devotes all of his time to fighting for the human rights of Arab Palestinians.

In his own words:
I always knew that many people silently supported me, and that if I ever got into trouble they would stand behind me. This moment has come.

Ezra adds: I am a simple person. I did what my heart told me to do. Looking back, I know that what my friends and I have done is changing the harsh reality of the occupation in the whole area of south Hebron. I feel that now the Israeli authorities are punishing me on a personal level.

I would like to believe that my personal adversity will inspire and motivate individuals to actively oppose the occupation.