Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
The Daily PollTHE LATEST IRISH Times/Ipos MRBI poll shows 74 per cent of people believe the reputation of An Garda Síochána has been damaged by recent controversies.
One third of people said they didn’t trust the force, though gardaí score significantly higher than ministers, TDs and journalists.
So we want to know: Do you have confidence in An Garda Síochána?
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Having had to endure their brutality until the age of 13 I think they should all be charged with GBH. I witnessed this on a daily basis, disgusting, frustrated, bitter little men who only stood tall in front of boys, sorry, rant over.
Never be sorry, Gregg. You have nothing to apologise for.
You must have been a right little thick.
They regret that a “deficit” existed?
They apologise for past “mistakes”?
Their choice of language is absolutely disgusting and insulting and shows little signs that they truly acknowledge the horrendous crimes their members committed against defenceless children.
Exactly. As soon as I read the word “deficit” I rolled my eyes. What are they thinking of using such legalistic and inhuman language? You’d swear they were talking about accounts book and not human lives. Have they learned anything at all?
If there was any justice these people would have all been hanged from the highest tree.
Deficit? Mistakes? Makes me sick to the stomach.
Nothing like using non-words when the requirement is to make a statement about a brutal, visceral abuse…’deficit’ is about as pathetic a word to describe CRIME. Though it sums up honestly their entire approach to child abuse still.
I’m now 55 years old and I’ll never forget how vicious and sexually depraved these very un-Christian Brothers were.
Dave like a lot of kids at the time, I (53) went through similar abuse at the hands of various teachers/priests, I was pummelled by both lay and religious, who was worse, I don’t know.
The concealment is profound and essentially evil, the gaping wound left is not one that can be sidestepped.
This is my problem with Ireland even today, its that many people still think in terms of their parish and therefore remain indifferent towards or even forgive these predators! I really passionately dislike the legacy of the RCC here
Usual Catholic response of saying they’ll try to do better whilst hoping we all just forget about the past. UN needs to investigate the entire Catholic organisation from top to bottom to see how widespread the corruption was/is.
I hear the Pope said he’s not a fan of money though and apparently that’s a sign that we should all pretend the Catholic Church is okay now
Current pope is the smiley PR guy any company gets when its in trouble with its customers, nothing has changed in the vatican.
- Vatican has still not released all its records of the abuses it helped cover up
- Vatican still views condoms as wrong which results in hundreds of thousands dieing from Aids needlessly
- Vatican still views women as second class to men, no women hold a position of power in the Vatican and there will be no women priests
- Vatican still views gays as wrong and opposes gay marriage, this is despite the fact that marriage has existed long before the catholic/christian faith was invented,
- Vatican still refuses to compensate abuse victims (they certainly have the money to do so)
I agree with some of what you are saying but not on gay marriage, it is church policy and if you do not like it join a church that allows it, also on their position of condoms it has been known for them to turn a bind eye to their teachings particularly in Africa and allow them.
Richard, why is the church opposed to civil gay marriage. As far as I know nobody is campaigning for catholic gay marriage.
Am waiting to see them dish out the Vatican millions …….. To the poor no less
Ha ha …….
Did ya fill out you envelope this week ?
Declan, my brown envelope plus all other church literature goes straight into the recylcling. That way I know the church is doing its bit for the environment! :)
Noddy, sorry Noddy your right I agree with you but my comment was aimed at people who want Catholic Gay and there are some who want it , I was not very clear, I have no problem if the church oppose civil gay marriage they should still be allowed to put across their views like everyone else even though I don’t agree with them.
The hungry boards, well said. I was there.
Sorry Richard, but the church performed a gay marriage in (and correct me on the century) the 15th century in northern Spain. And there is nothing in the bible about gay marriage. Certainly, there is against a man lying with another man, but not against their marriage.
Because the greedy F~@kers don’t want to miss out on the gravy train that is wedding ceremonies. 250 euros into the hand gone down the river to Civil ceremony city.
Brian, I am not aware of the gay marriage in Northern Spain in the 15/16 century but I take your word on it. Church teachings change over the years and they can use the bible to point out that god said a union is between a man and woman,the bible does not say gay weddings are allowed so that is good enough for them.and for the record I have no problem with gay marriage and I am not a member of any church,but i fail to understand why some people want the church to go against their own teachings ,as I said before if you don’t like the Catholic Church teachings go to a church you do like.
It wasn’t just sexual abuse that the brothers handed out. As a 7 year I was often on the recieving end of a good old fashion trashing from the patrician brothers in carrickmacross. I think there all dead now so there no point in pursuing it legally
870 allegations made about 325 Brothers. That’s such a substantial amount with only 12 convicted. It goes to show the serious abuse of power that occurred, and still occurs in the Church today. Sickening.
An absolute disgrace!
Shows how much power and respect, they have and with FF/FG mostly!
The primary school I attended in the 90′s was run by the Christian Brothers.
I had attended a different school before it and transferred for third class.
It’s there I completely lost all love of school and education, I questioned the decency of adults too. Having come from a loving family it came as quiet a shock how vicious and cruel an adult could be to a child. I remember thinking it then and still to this day I’ve never witnessed such cruelty to children. The beatings, the mental abuse and the constant fear of simply being in school will never be forgotten.
But it really was seen as the norm in those days. I think even the teachers feared the brothers, they must have, they let it happen.
It wasn’t just the Christian brother run schools either. What you describe there is basically by memory of national school! My old headmaster who used to mentally and physically abuse us still walks around with his head held high. He use to actually smile when we cried. Got a thrill out of it. Feel like breaking his fvucking jaw! Thankfully no sexual abuse, that I know of.
Christian brothers nothing but vicious sadistic freaks who acted out of an internal frustration.Pathetic little men pity most evaded justice for such horrfic crimes against children.
Why don’t they call a spade a spade and call it what it was – paedophilia.
Let’s call it was it really is “kid fu#%ing”. They fuc@ed children and act like its a thing that can be forgotten about. They think just because they serve some deity, that they deserve special treatment.
Or child rape.
A deficit is a figure you write in red ink on a balance sheet. How can you possibly apply it to human beings who, by the Christian Brothers’ beliefs, have a soul. It’s the men in authority in this organisation that have no soul.
What a self-serving cringe-worthy, downright heartless statement. Basically saying it’s all in the past, let’s forget about it and move on! It certainly suits the Christian Brothers to move on.
Nothing seems to have changed . Still the same within the Catholic Church. Slimey dirty creatures. Like the slimey people running our Country.
As a Catholic I have to say I am ashamed and have to conclude from the language being used that they still don’t get it! They still have no idea of the harm they have caused.
I have to add that I received my education from the Christian Brothers. While some were overly fond of the strap as a teaching method (so too were lay teachers) I met some very fine men and good teachers so don’t tar them all with the same brush.
If these fine men who were good teachers stood by silently as the others abused their position and raped and beat young children then fine men they were not. And don’t think for one minute they didn’t realise what was going on.
I can’t say that thought never entered my mind. However long before the sexual abuse was brought into the open I have been hearing about the brutality of the Brothers. All I can say is that in my 10 years with them I only saw one incident of gross brutality. To suggest that they ‘all knew’ is speculation.
13720 victims of institutional abuse received redress . The perpetrators of the crimes against these victims will never be named as their victims were silenced by the redress board .What strikes me is that these are only the victims who came forward . How many thousand more are there ? How many thousand have died ?
Every Catholic Church in this country should be bulldozed, anybody going to the church of pedophilia IS supporting child abuse and child rape, people need to stop going and let these sick organisations die out once and for all
The most disturbing part of this report is “the Christian Brothers work with children and young people in Ireland is a fraction today of what it was 30 years ago”.
Who in their right mind would allow them in the same room as a child unsupervised ? How is it even possible they are working with children with an average age of 74 ?
Defies comprehension.
The Catholic Church are finally being punished for their sins of the past, empty churches. Let them preach to vacant pews.
not empty enough for my liking
The empty pews are more down to people being educated and not falling for their myths than to protest of abuse I would imagine.
I would imagine that the strict application of the principle of ” innocent until proven guilty” , offers historical abusers enormous protection. I can only shiver and imagine what it would take for a victim to bring charges and give an account that stands up in court . Many of these criminals are still afforded the protection of the brothers who represent them when civil claims are made . Horrendous never ending misery for kids , now adults whose lives are ruined . Shame on those who continue to pretend , no charges, is the same as not guilty
The Christian Brothers were a pedophile ring and as such should be treated like every other criminal organisation, the perpetrators and their protectors should be jailed, their assets should be sold to compensate the victims and the organisation should be broken up and banned!
They were never more than a bunch of evil and dirty men!
The only good thing is that with an average age of 74 these evil feckers will soon be six feet under…
They are all guilty by association. Every one of them knew what was going on! !
Free counselling available from http://www.towardshealing.ie
I saw these ‘christian’ brothers show up in class drunk and stinking of fags and whiskey, fall over drunk in front of a whole class, saw one of them throw a chalk duster at someone he thought (wrongly) was talking at the back of the class and leave him needing stitches above his eye, saw them rap their knuckles on children’s heads and pinch and twist their ears and slap people in the side of the face. A real bunch of sadistic bastards, you would find it hard to find such another gang of thugs oh wait a minute.. I forgot about the nuns, some of them were equally sadistic from what I was told by many an unfortunate girl who was ‘thought’ by them. Makes you wonder why they were all so attracted to the catholic church.
Brother Rice won’t be getting saint hood for a while yet then.
The evil that was perpetrated took place within the context of a sinister tie up with the Department of Education. Until recently the most secretive and unaccountable department in government. How many members of the various religious secret societies still remain in positions of authority within this department? The enablers of the crimes committed in the past need to be cleared out root and branch.
have your say