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THE SISTER OF another young girl who spent time at the ‘Grace’ foster home in the south-east has described how her mother told of her concerns about the home before Grace was placed in its care.
In an interview with David McCullagh on Prime Time tonight, it was claimed that Sarah (not her real name) was another victim of an attacker in the home.
The Grace case concerns a young woman with intellectual disabilities who was in care. Allegations arose that she had suffered years of abuse, but despite the allegations she remained at the home for 20 years.
Sarah’s sister described how the young girl was playing with her mother one Sunday afternoon. The mother said an innocent turn of phrase and Sarah began taking her clothes off and got into a sexual position. Her mother was horrified and started demanding answers from all those who had a duty of care to the young girl, who has intellectual disabilities.
Sarah’s sister said: “I mean, as a parent, this is your worst nightmare. Sarah was home on a Sunday afternoon with Mom playing in the a sitting room.
Mom said a very innocent turn of phrase and to her absolute horror Sarah kind of Sarah got into a position, took down her pants, and kind of got into a sexual position and as you can imagine for any Mum, my mum was shocked and she just was you know immobilised.
Sarah’s mother removed her from the home and brought her to a care centre in the North.
According to Sarah’s sister, her mother would have been the very first whistleblower in this case. Yet she claims nothing was done after the complaints were made.
“Not only was she met with a brick wall, they came down really hard on our mother, there was reports written up, they were quite aggressive towards the family, they just totally bullied us into thinking that it was all just in Mam’s head while on the other hand they were doing all of these checks themselves and reaching a decision. Their lives have been robbed in so many ways.”
A commission of investigation into the Grace case is expected to begin in the next six months.
Terms of reference were agreed at Cabinet yesterday – and while the Minister with responsibility for disabilities, Finian McGrath, says that the inquiry will provide answers for everybody concerned, others have criticised the scope of the investigation as not going far enough.
The commission of investigation will seek to establish how Grace was placed with her foster family in the first instance, the decisions made that saw her left there, and what monitoring was undertaken. The first module of the investigation will focus on Grace, alone.
However, this is something which Sarah’s sister doesn’t agree with.
“I just wonder why Finian McGrath in his role as the minister, particularly in his role as minister for disability, has chosen this path. We have looked under the freedom of information for Sarah’s files to know who has had access to her file and yet we still haven’t got that.
“In one sense I think we’re very fortunate that we have some really strong individuals who have gone forward as whistleblowers and we know that whistleblowers are not treated very well in this country.
But I think without them and without the support of lots of champions in the area, this story would be very easily forgotten about and the absolute horrors that have been inflicted on young vulnerable children would be just laid to rest because again the key seems to be keeping it nice and narrow.
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It’s also worth noting that this woman revealed that her family’s name was passed from the HSE to the Gardai which was then used to intimidate them in their quest for truth and justice. A sinister developement which would suggest that there’s a massive cover up here involving the gardai and the health service.
This wasn’t the 1950s. This is the modern Irish state.
Plenty of the current establishment know who’s responsible here. They need to start using Dail privilege to force this out into the open,
Once again kudos to Mick Wallace and Clare Daly, two elected representatives doing the country a great service.
@Emmet O’Keeffe: Now you know why the government won’t do anything to stop the corruption by Garda management. The government need the Gardai to be as corrupt as themselves. Otherwise many politicians would be behind bars.
What f#cing good are answers when there is Nobody held accountable. .ever..
Why not name and shame all those linked to the case, or the persons who would have been informed within the agency, the names of the persons who worked in the home, then maybe some of them might come clean about what happened and who allowed it or turned a blind eye.
Absolute disgrace that there is not a criminal investigation as well
@Jonathan McKee: Nobody worked in this home, It was a foster family, The male foster parent was the abuser, why would you name and shame the Hse staff & social workers involved? they were the ones calling for the children to be removed, the public need to know who this man was and who were his powerful influential connections?
Doesn’t matter what the HSE knew, Noonan overturned the recommendations made by social workers, and ensured Grace was placed in this home.
Next week everybody’ll be out celebrating how great Ireland is and the rest of the world will be scrambling to be greener and foe Irish, green beer, shamrocks,green jumpers, well I’m sorry Ireland but at this present time we should be hanging our heads is shame. Regardless of whose to blame, as a society we all shoulder some of it, people knew something was going on some turned a blind eye, some shrugged their shoulders and said it’s nothing to do with me, some just did nothing.
There are more Grace’s, Tuam babies, Mary Boyle, JoJo Dullard, Magdalene laundries and many many more. I wonder will all our St Patrick’s day wee jolly around the globe politicians and their hand holders be mentioning these in their speeches or holding a minutes silence to remember their lost little souls -I’d doubt it.
Nobody will be held accountable as this is a country run by people who do what they want time and time again. The government should be brought down over the narrow remit let alone the cover up. What are the “good” people of Ireland doing excepting this crap. Take to the streets.
Noonan needs to step down immediately!
A despicable human being without any shame, morals or dignity!
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