Reply to Bruce Arnold article in The Irish Independent.

Right of reply in The Irish Independent first given and then refused.

Email to Hermann Kelly from Irish Independent on Jan 7, 2008
"Hermann: Do you want to submit a piece. Assuming all present and correct we would be happy to publish."

Email for The Irish Independent on Jan 25:
"We have decided that it would be better at this point not to publish your piece in reply to Bruce. Another format, perhaps, at a different time might be more suitable."

Both extremes have been tested - now this abuse/false allegation pendulum is coming to rest in the centre

by Hermann Kelly

The problem for many people involved in the area of abuse allegations against religious is the extremes into which they can fall. Years ago, a few people believed that no Catholic religious would ever hurt a child under their care. We all know this idea to be false. Human nature is imperfect and we are aware that a number of religious have failed and damaged children for whom they were responsible. In the second part of my book, Kathy's Real Story, I describe the great harm caused to minors by Fr Brendan Smyth, Fr Sean Fortune, Fr Ivan Payne and others such as Christian Brother Maurice Toibin who was found guilty of sexual assault on 25 different boys while in Letterfrack Industrial School.
Amongst all the good that was done, some amount of child abuse took place in Church-run institutions. However, at the other extreme of this debate, we have people like actor Mannix Flynn, who has publicly suggested that, ?hundreds of children were raped and murdered. It?s a holocaust we?re dealing with. In every bit of land around Letterfrack there is a child buried.?
The Irish Indepdent?s esteemed columnist Bruce Arnold has occasionally made grandiose allegations in print himself. In June 2003 he claimed that ?We know now that the total [number who died in Letterfrack] is much higher and boys are buried in the woods as well.? Just where is the evidence for this? It is now time for people like Bruce Arnold and Mannix Flynn to produce the hard evidence to substantiate their accusations or withdraw and apologise for making them in the first place.

In Saturday?s article, Arnold raised the term ?Holocaust denier?. Setting aside the historical connotations of that term, which is utterly misplaced and inappropriate. In Nazi Germany there was a holocaust, millions of Jews and others were brutally murdered. However, there never was any ?holocaust? in religious institutions in Ireland, certainly not in Letterfrack. Says who? Well, the Gardai carried out a huge investigation over two and a half years to 2002, in which seven full-time Gardai participated. They studied all files, interviewed the complainants and literally dug up swathes of ground around Letterfrack. After their search, the local Superintendent, Tony O?Dowd concluded that ?there is no evidence available that would suggest that foul play led to the deaths of anybody buried inside or outside of the cemetery at the old Industrial School in Letterfrack.? There never was a ?holocaust.? As I show in my book, institutional campaigners have made claims of murder or manslaughter before which have turned out to be absolutely false. Remember the accusations about Patsy Flanagan, William Delaney et al? The extremists who make these accusations of murder actually do harm to the cause of those who were genuinely abused.

Last August, it was quite surreal, watching institutional campaigners being metaphorically dragged along on the coat-tails of a convicted child-abuser. I never thought that I?d see the work of Fr Harry Moore, author of the eponymous report on Artane being lauded by Bruce Arnold and SOCA Ireland. In ?Kathy?s Real Story? I fully delineate the story of Fr Harry Moore, a priest of Dublin Diocese, who in 1962 penned a highly critical report on Artane Industrial School after being part-time chaplain there for two years. ?In 2005,? I wrote, ?he was convicted on charges of buggery and indecent assault performed on a then 16 year old male youth between July 1984, and March 1985. Fr Moore was described in the court as an alcoholic whose father had died before he was born, meaning that as a child, Harry Moore was placed in an orphanage where he stayed until the age of 17.? The details of Fr Moore?s life are fully laid out . I happily concede that I did not spot Bruce Arnold?s two very brief references to Fr Moore?s conviction in his high number of newspaper articles. I missed the references, they were so small and fleeting. Apologies . But here is where we differ: I believe that Fr Moore?s personal qualities and lack of qualifications as an educationalist detract greatly from the credibility of his report. Bruce Arnold does not believe this. Fr Moore?s report was rubbished by the findings of a Department of Education flash inspection at the time. It was clearly the Department of Education who thought its inspectors and appointed experts (Dr McCabe, Dr McDaid and Mr T McDevitt) were qualified and competent to do this task, not just myself.

The issue of child abuse allegations against religious has been used for years as an ideological weapon with which to beat the Catholic Church over the head and into a whimpering silence. In this climate, innocent people like Nora Wall, Fr Edward Kilpatrick, and Paul Farrell have suffered greatly, while false accusers like Paul Anderson have been jailed.
However, since the setting up of the Redress Board, it has become clear that the short step in Ireland between allegation and compensation has had lethal consequences for the reputation of Catholic religious, the vast majority of whom were and are innocent of any wrong doing.
The offer of financial compensation by the Government for those formerly resident in residential institutions, allied with a low level of proof necessary to get a payout has coincided with an exponential growth in the number of claims lodged to the Redress Board. Before 1999, the Christian Brothers received a total of 12 claims of abuse. Following the Taoiseach?s apology on behalf of the State in 1999 and the offer of compensation, there were a further 449 claims. As ?Kathy?s Real Story? went to press, the Christian Brothers had received almost 2,700 claims for compensation. The taxpayer will have been abused to the tune of ?1.3 billion by the time all claimants have been paid. This scheme has become a scam.
Quite rightly, we have heard and been appalled by the true tales of abuse carried in Ireland. However, every coin has a flip side so in my book, I reveal how innocent people have been falsely accused, and rolled over by the compensation bandwagon. I believe that these people deserve a public hearing for the injustices which they have suffered. This is more than an astonishing story but a public scandal which needs to be brought out and openly discussed for the first time. A good start would be if Bruce Arnold could acknowledge the evidence that author Kathy O?Beirne was never even resident in a Magdalene Laundry, never mind abused there as she has claimed.

Ends