Will Knott

Michael O’Brien, former councillor and Mayor of Wexford(correction May 27) Clonmel attended the RTÉ programme Questions and Answers on 25 May 2009 and, after Minister Noel Dempsey, the sponsoring minister of the Ryan Commission report in to Child Abuse allegations spoke, Mr O’Brien spoke to the minister and to the panel.

I’ve done the transcript of the video clip below mainly because audio indexing does not work that well for video clips. And video clips have a habit of disappearing off the web.
The other reason is that this clip seems to be the turning point for a lot of discussions. And possibly some action.

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—Start of transcript

Mr. Chairman, I’m surprised at the minister there now.

First of all Mr Minister (directed at  Minister Noel Dempsey) you made a bags of it in the beginning by changing the judges. You made a complete bags of it at that time, because I went to the La Foy commission and ye had seven barristers there, questioning me and telling that I was telling lies, when I told them that I got raped of a Saturday, got a merciful beating after it, and then stuffed…

… he came along the following morning and put holy communion in my mouth.

You don’t know what happened there. You haven’t the foggiest, you’re talking through your hat there. And you’re talking to a Fianna Fáil man, a former councilor and former mayor you’re talking to, that worked tooth and nail or you, for the party that you’re talking about now. Ye didn’t do it right, ye got it wrong.

Admit it.

And apologize for doing that. Because you don’t know what I feel inside me. You don’t know the hurt I am.

You said it was non-adversarial.

My God.

Seven barristers.

Throwing questions at us.

Non-stop.

I tri.. attempted to commit suicide, there’s the woman who saved me from committing suicide,  on me way down from Dublin, after spending five days at the commission. Five days I spent at the commission. They brought a man over from Rome, ninety odd years of age, to tell me I was telling lies.

That I wasn’t beaten for an hour, non-stop by two of them.

By two of them.

Non-stop from head to toe without a shred of cloth on my body.

My God minister.

And could I speak to you (comment directed to Leo Varadkar, Fianna Gael), and ask your leader, would you stop making a political football of this.

You hurt this when you do that.

You tear the shreds from inside our body.

For God’s sake, try and give us some peace.

Try to give us some peace and not to continue hurting us.

That woman will tell you how many times I jump out of the bed at night with the sweat pumping out of me. Because I see these fellas at the end of the bed with their fingers doing that (gestures) to me. And pulling me in to the room, to rape me, to bugger me and bate the shite out of me. That’s the way it is.

And you know what?

You know what, sometimes I listen to the leader of Fianna Fáil. I even listened to the apology. T’was mealy mouthed, but at least t’was an apology.

At least t’was an apology.

The Rosminians said in the report, they said they were easy on us. The first day I went to them. The first day to Rosminians in my home which is Ferryhouse in Clonmel, ’cause its the only home I know. He said “you’re in it for the money”.

We didn’t want money.

We didn’t want money. We wanted the pr…  someone to stand up and say “yes, these fellas were buggered, these people were ra…”

Little girls. My daughter, oh sorry, my sister. A month old when she was put in to an institution. Eight of us from the one family, dragged by the ISPCC cruelty man. Put in to two cars, brought to the court in Clonmel. Left standing there without food or anything, and the fella in the long black frock and the white collar came along and he put us in to a van.

Not a van, a scut truck, I don’t know what you call it now. And landed us below with two hundred other boys. Two night later I was raped.

How can anyone…

You’re talking about constitution. These people would gladly say “yes” to a constitution to freeze the funds of the religous orders.

This state, this country of ours, would say “yes” to that constitition if you have to change it.

Don’t say you can’t change it.

You’re the governement of this state. You run this state. So for God’s sake stop mealy mouthing. ‘Cause I’m sick of it.

I’m sick of it.

You’re turning me away from voting Fianna Fáil which I have done from the first day that I could vote. Because. And you know me. You know me Mister Minister. You’ve met me on a number of ocassions. So you know what I’m like.

— End of transcript

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The words “Counselling services available” (closely followed by counseling services swamped, contact telephone numbers below) barely cover the horror of the “endemic” abuse suffered by children in Irish Catholic institutions over 60 years. The report details 800 abusers (both men and women) who were given approval by Irish society in their abuse. This is not the complete figure. A separate report about abuse in the Dublin region only is also due.

The full report, all five volumes of it, took nine years nine years to compile and while covering a period of six decades and finding thousands of boys and girls that were terrorized by priests and nuns, it dosen’t show the full picture. Public opinion at the time refused to believe the victims. The victims were vilified while the abusers took their lauded place in society. The victims left, be it through suicide, or through emigration.

The 800 figure is also wrong. Many others knew, and turned a blind eye. Refused to believe that those given the task to watch their morality could be the depraved ones.

To cap off the offense, the victims and the families were not allowed in to the press conference, which gave very little detail in the prepared speech, and permitted no questions.

It took a long time for the stories to emerge, and while the church is still respected by some, others find its protection if the abusers unforgivable (including those to “admire the bravery of the abusers“). I suspect that its the truth coming out behind these tales which have helped the numbers of regular church goers to dwindle.

Its also a national, and international news story now.

RTÉ News – Sexual abuse was ‘endemic’ in institutions

Irish Times – Audio analysis and summary of abuse report

Irish Times – Children exposed to ‘daily terror’ in institutions – Includes audio of Patsy McGarry outlining the report’s main findings

Irish Times – Anger over exclusion from briefing

Irish Times – Systematic abuse in State institutions laid bare

Channel 4 – UK – As a damning report is published into “endemic” abuse suffered by children in Irish Catholic institutions over 60 years, Carl Dinnen accompanies a former resident as he returns to a” reformatory school”. (Includes video embedded above)

Channel 4 – UK – Jon Snow talks to Colm O’Gorman, the Executive Director of Amnesty International in Ireland, who was a victim of sexual abuse perpetrated by a Catholic priest as a teenager. Includes video embedded here. Some RSS readers may need to click through to see the video.

Twenty Major – So what happens now?

Twenty Major – Institutional Abuse report

Granddad – Suffer little children

A growing list of other takes on the subject from Irish Blogs

BBC News – UK – Irish abused ‘cheated of justice – Victims of child abuse at Catholic institutions in the Irish Republic have expressed anger that a damning report will not bring about prosecutions.
Includes video of Victims spokesman John Kelly giving his reaction to the report

BBC News – UK – In quotes: Irish media have been giving their first reactions to the damning inquiry into child abuse at Catholic institutions in Ireland.

The full Comission Report

Volume three includes the witness statements, and chapter 14, about lay teacher abusing and being defended by the Department of Education,  got extensive reviews on today’s Morning Ireland.

Shocked but sadly not surprised,
Will

The HSE offers a free National Counselling Service for anyone who has suffered childhood abuse on 1800 235 234.

The related Connect service, for out of hours contact, is on1800 235 235 from the Republic of Ireland (freephone)  00800 235 235 55 from Britain and Northern Ireland (free from landlines).
www.connectcounselling.ie

Dublin Rape Crisis Centre operates a 24-hour helpline on 1800 77 88 88.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Critical report due on child abuse in Irish Catholic schools (guardian.co.uk)
• Thousands abused in Catholic schools in Ireland (guardian.co.uk)
• Ireland’s Church Abuse Scandal (madhavgopalkrish.wordpress.com)
• The Church and child-rape (timesonline.typepad.com)
• Wall of silence about 60 years of child abuse still not entirely broken down (sluggerotoole.com)
• Child abuse: the full story at last? (sluggerotoole.com)
• Some wounds never heal (osocio.org)

Update: 1pm May 21 2009
Irish Times Opinion piece  – Mr Justice Ryan’s report does not suggest that this abuse was as bad as most of us suspected. It shows that it was worse. It may indeed have been even worse than the report actually finds – there are indications that “the level of sexual abuse in boys’ institutions was much higher than was revealed by the records or could be discovered by this investigation”.

The Catholic League reaction – The Irish report suffers from conflating minor instances of abuse with serious ones, thus demeaning the latter. When most people hear of the term abuse, they do not think about being slapped, being chilly, being ignored or, for that matter, having someone stare at you in the shower.

It all started shortly before the Irish Blog Awards. That was the reason that Jason Roe was on the site, which caused the first insults.

The widely reported insult against bloggers which is being heard across the globe. I have been warned not to play in to Michael O’Leary’s hands and promote his apparent need for publicity (despite the ire its caused) over the company’s levels of customer service.

So much so that the search for their opposite is now on. LeCraic has the details behind the search.

Well according to O’Leary’s PR spokesperson, Stephen McNamara, we are “idiot bloggers” or “lunatic bloggers”.

Not to worry, as the company starts to limit their presence to online only, and as a lot of people type the URL in to Google (rather than the address bar) the negative rail against bloggers may bite them yet. Its is all very well being the name hat most people think of when they search for cheap flights. But they search, frequently when they don’t intend to (after all, Yahoo is a top search for term in Google, and vice versa).

However they didn’t say they won’t correspond with all bloggers – nor that all bloggers are idiots. But it sure is implied.

After the Blog awards I’ve come to take the Jack Kerouac approach. If we are the insane ones… we are a lot of fun to be with.

The only people for me are the mad ones,
the ones who are mad to live,
mad to talk,
mad to be saved,
desirous of everything at the same time,
the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing,
but burn, burn, burn,
like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars…

Burn brightly,

Will Knott

Gravanity is the enduring trend of aiding to consumers who want to leave ’something’ behind in print, audio or imagery. It’s a goldmine of inspiration for entrepreneurs and marketers.

I wrote about this before, but it appears that there is a specific market for such a thing.

Everything happens in threes. Its an old saying, but it applies.

Appropriately I was on a movie set when I heard about the death of Paul Newman died on Saturday (Jaiku SMS delivering the news other services can’t reach). He was an inspiration to many. He inspired many to act. He also inspired many to make their own celebrity endorsed pasta sauces, but I’ll forgive him that. After all, at least some of his brand went to charities including Barretstown. On that note, get a Barretstown bandanna from Xtravision shops.

Next I found out that the mezzo-soprano Bernadette Greevy had died the day before. Unlike the above movie star, I met her. Back in my opera days, mulling about back stage in the National Concert Hall at my first opera. Fun days, and oddly less tiring than the ones I’m in at the moment. She not only inspired others, the trained other with technique and skill. She participated in the first official cultural exchange from Ireland to China back in the eighties where she gave public recitals and masterclasses in three major Chinese cities. She founded the Anna Livia Dublin International Opera Festival in 2000 to give an outlet for Irish talent to be spotted. She was more than an inspiration. She was a practical hands on helper in the results of the inspiration.

And finally, we have the death of all the major banks.

Sorry, no we don’t.

And finally, Twenty Major is dead.

That’s the only explanation I can think to explain his sudden departure. He dead, or at least the person behind the Twenty mask, and as part of his will he requested this method to let his character go.

Unless he is being confined to a maximum security facility (where they don’t have phones or net access, but do have wide screen TVs, budgies and lots of “blu-tack”) where he will meet three other guys, promptly escape to the Dublin underground (or maybe the Paris underground, or Metro at least). Soon, still wanted by the government (so no change there), they’ll survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, they won’t help either. But I can see the outrage being blogged.

I wonder if this means the rest of his cast are getting their own blogs.

Well maybe.

take care,
Will Knott

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Gentle reader,

Who am I?

Image via pix.ie

This isn’t an existential question, or something prompted by earlier posts, but its really the sad state of my about page which prompts this. Writing your biography (without headlines to help you) is an embarrassing enterprise. I’ll admit that I did it before.

A recent spate of cleaning (don’t worry, I’ve since had a lie down in a cool dark room) revealed a biography written in 2003 for the programme booklet of a theatre production (“Jobbo’s Secret” I think). I was going to type it in here, but instead I’ll ask … Who do you think I am?

Seriously, based on meeting me, or simply reading the blog, what do you think I’m like? Either add your thoughts and opinions to the comments, or e-mail them in (address in the about page).

I can’t help wondering if this is a web 2.0 way of doing a bio; namely you tell me about me. Sort of a meme in reverse. If you comment of mail, I’ll have to comment or mail when you do a similar call.

So now its your call.

Slightly worried about what I’m going to hear,
Will Knott

What was the favourite invention from your childhood? asks Mr Mulley… and I’m going to be a little strict and look at things released during my life time…

Why lifetime and not childhood… well… I haven’t grown up yet. I’ve grown out, and gotten older but as anyone who has seen me in Smyths will attest, I’ve not grown up. So I suppose my first favourite is a 1984 invention : “Transformers”
yup these

(an image blatantly stolen from Ben’s World of Transformers)

What can I say, its my not so secret shame. The fact that I’m still collecting the toys shows that it’ having an ongoing impact on my life.

Why? Well it’s not the two toys in one. Partly I think it’s the most extreme form of anthropomorphism you can get. Not only are you putting human emotions on to an inanimate object, you’re making it take on humanoid characteristics too. It’s also less damaging than dressing up your pet.

It also is the aspect that things aren’t always as they seem. It changes the way you view the world. Twist it a little bit and… It could be a government conspiracy or (flip body around, open doors, lower head from backside, push along brass neck, unfold arms, unclench grubby little fists, detach brown envelope) incompetence on a grand scale.

However if I was going to pick a proper technoligical invention… it’s this

O.K. Its actually another image stolen off Ben from this review but I’m talking about Mobile Phones

I know what you’re thinking (other than “Will you’re an idiot”) which is everyone and their mother has one (even if it did take me three weeks to teach her to text so she could vote for that “nice boy” on “Strictly Come Dancing”), but the mobile phone has changed how people act with each other.

But what other device has caused such a social change?

Once people made exact appointments. Meet you under Eason’s clock at 3pm on Friday. And at 4pm, still waiting, you felt very stood up. Now people make rough appointments, aproxi-meetings, and put in a call to the other’s mobile to rearrange the meeting at the cinema directly due to traffic.

Once people used phone booths and pay phones.

I remember the “push button A” pay telephones (always press button B on a free phone to see if any change comes out. It’s the old version of checking the base of the automatic cash registers in Tesco’s). I remember those weird plastic bubbles next to the phones so that the caller could have privacy.
But that privacy is a long abandoned thing. I now know the intimate details of the recent gynaecological exam thanks to a mobile phone call on the bus.

And once we needed to wait for the results of a meeting or conference to be published. (Or passed notes in class) Now text updates can be shipped online while the meeting is still on (and notes are texted between schools).

It can also save your life. No hunting for a phone after an accident… now you hunt for a signal. And in large scale disaster, there have been cell broadcast SMS and tweets to help save lives.

That little handy computer in your pocket has changed the social interaction of not just a nation, but a huge chunk of the world. (It also looks a little like a Wii controller, hint, hint)

take care,
(and set it to vibrate during a solemn occasion, like a tribunal)
Will

Now, who is going to be first to suggest “mash-ups”?

And I’ll get around to updating the above photos with my own transformer shots… sorry Ben. I DO know better.

tags : science week ireland, blogging competition, invention, childhood, Mulley, Transformers, bwtf, Ben’s World of Transformers, anthropomorphism, humanoid, mobile phone, social change, twitter, jaiku, pay telephone, privacy, text

Memory. It’s one of those thing which make us what we are.

As per usual I’m going through my backlog of podcasts when of all things the Tubridy Show talked about memory, loosing it and the earliest memories.

My earliest memory is colourful. White Lego and brown, lots of brown. Well it was the 70’s. The Lego (tm etc) was curved, probably from some kind of rocket, but I was making a well and for some reason I was in the very dark brown kitchen of someones house. I would describe it as a sort of pre-school set up in someone house before all the legislation for creches came in. I suspect I had gone looking for a lego piece that had rolled off on me when in walks the “teacher”. Big glasses, straight centre parted brown hair, long brown dress…. let’s just say she dresses to match her kitchen.

That’s it. If you think back your earliest memory will be a disconnected detail. You might remember why you were there. You might remember what you were doing and who yo were with, but you won’t remember what followed. It’s not our most vivid memory, or the 10 seconds we’d be willing to live over and over (which are probably intense and enjoyable).

Why does memory do this? I suspect its a survival technique, after all most of life is too boring to bother remembering. The years of going to school, walking past the playground, yet you’ll remember the day the dog showed up in the playground during classes.

So what is your earliest memory? And do you have follow-through with what happened next?

take care,
Will

tags : memory first memory earliest memory Lego 70s pre-school creche brown Tubridy legislation

Gentle reader…

It’s the second anniversary. And so another ‘gift’ is available online.

Following the release of their original artwork blacksmoke stamps of mass destruction (featured on the cover of The Times newspaper) the blacksmoke organisation (James Cauty, the founding member of The KLF and The Orb) present a tribute download to those that died on 11th. The page will be removed on 12th September 2003.

blacksmoke silent night [ 02:24 ]

“sunt lacrimae rerum”

“Silent Night may be freely broadcast on 11th September 2003 by radio stations worldwide, lest we forget this tragic event.”

Listening to the track, I feel the need for a hanky.

Then the memories of “shock” return. Watching the building come down again and again on BBC. The “ping” e-mails and phone calls just to make sure friends and relatives were, well, alive.

The well of stories filled with tears. The proof that a sigh of relief can indeed be gut wrenching.

Sleep tight,

Will

Gentle reader,

We talked at lunch about how we would like to be remembered.

Then we thought about how some famour people are remembered.

Then we thought of the odd ones.

Then we remembered the British MP Stephen Milligan, adn that he is only remembered (by us anyway) for his cause of death… choking to death on an orange with a pair of thights.

Somehow I don’t think it was HOW he was supposed to be remembered.

That and Tim Ball, died in an IRA bomb, but couldn’t remember how and where.

I really have to eat with more fun people.

take care,

Will