How do we talk about the unspeakable : the necessity of Raw Truth as part of our advocacy for Survivors.

How do we talk about the unspeakable, atrocities that are perpetrated in war and …other forms of abuse and violence perpetrated against vulnerable populations..?

31,000 known murders, many more buried under the rubble, 2 million people facing deliberately imposed starvation, a call for ceasefire repeatedly ignored, billions witness the disgusting violence and maiming on their mobile phones.

Judith Herman has written on this in her book ‘Trauma and Recovery - The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Lewis_Herman

"“In order to escape accountability for his crimes, the perpetrator does everything in his power to promote forgetting. If secrecy fails, the perpetrator attacks the credibility of his victim. If he cannot silence her absolutely, he tries to make sure no one listens.” 

“The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma.” 

― Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: 

“The ORDINARY RESPONSE TO ATROCITIES is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable.

Atrocities, however, refuse to be buried. Equally as powerful as the desire to deny atrocities is the conviction that denial does not work. Folk wisdom is filled with ghosts who refuse to rest in their graves until their stories are told. Murder will out. Remembering and telling the truth about terrible events are prerequisites both for the restoration of the social order and for the healing of individual victims.

The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma. People who have survived atrocities often tell their stories in a highly emotional, contradictory, and fragmented manner that undermines their credibility and thereby serves the twin imperatives of truth-telling and secrecy. When the truth is finally recognized, survivors can begin their recovery. But far too often secrecy prevails, and the story of the traumatic event surfaces not as a verbal narrative but as a symptom.

The psychological distress symptoms of traumatized people simultaneously call attention to the existence of an unspeakable secret and deflect attention from it. This is most apparent in the way traumatized people alternate between feeling numb and reliving the event. The dialectic of trauma gives rise to complicated, sometimes uncanny alterations of consciousness, which George Orwell, one of the committed truth-tellers of our century, called "doublethink," and which mental health professionals, searching for calm, precise language, call "dissociation." It results in protean, dramatic, and often bizarre symptoms of hysteria which Freud recognized a century ago as disguised communications about sexual abuse in childhood. . . .” 

― Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/542700

The only way to describe atrocity is to describe EXACTLY what happens, for example, when a missile strikes a house, followed by another.

What happens in the milliseconds of explosion, fireball, blast wave, air suction and what that did to the peoples bodies in those moments, and what happens when the building collapses, what that does to the bodies on the moments, what happens when the collapse completes, what happens to the bodies crushed, what happens to the survivors, and their thoughts and feelings and sensations before, during and afterwards...

We can then listen to the first responders, neighbours and others who rush into help in what ever way they can, in particular when all they have are their hands and bodies to move rubble, extract survivors and bodies, take them to hospitals etc, etc, etc....

And then describe the way the person issuing the targeting command, location and number of missiles, and his or her command chain, and what happens when they clock off, and go home to their comfortable homes, to cook meals, play with their children, watch a movie, go to sleep, wake up and do it again.

Multiplied by the number of people adversely affected and all the down stream harms that follow, listening carefully to the survivors because their lived experience is first hand evidence  of what that was like...

We could also talk about the designers of the missiles, what research they did, how they tested the missiles, who they understood exactly what their designs do to people and buildings...

There are no adjectives to describe this. Just the raw honest data.

Justice and Repair

Judith Herman has recently published a follow up book looking at how Survivors think and feel about justice.

https://basicbooks.uk/titles/judith-herman/truth-and-repair/9781529395006/

“From one of America’s most influential psychiatrists, an “extraordinary” and “profound” ( New York Times ) manifesto for reimagining justice for survivors of sexual trauma

The #MeToo movement brought worldwide attention to sexual violence, but while the media focused on the fates of a few notorious predators who were put on trial, we heard far less about the outcomes of those trials for the survivors of their abuse. 

  

The conventional retributive process fails to serve most survivors; it was never designed for them. Renowned trauma expert Judith L. Herman argues that the first step toward a better form of justice is simply to ask survivors what would make things as right as possible for them. In Truth and Repair , she commits the radical act of listening to survivors. Recounting their stories, she offers an alternative vision of justice as healing for survivors and their communities. 

  

Deeply researched and compassionately told, Truth and Repair envisions a new path to justice for all.”

Survivors and Justice - a story of resilience, persistence, determination and humane spirit.

Here is a astonishing story of one person who was kidnapped as a child having already been sexually assaulted by neighbours, unbeknownst to his parents, because he was unable to speak.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/mar/25/at-four-i-was-kidnapped-and-sex-trafficked-for-years-now-i-fight-for-the-powerless-and-win-every-case

"Although it happened more than 60 years ago, Antonio Salazar-Hobson remembers every detail of his kidnapping. He says that if he closes his eyes, he is instantly taken back to that hot Sunday afternoon in 1960 when he was a four-year-old boy standing with his brothers and sisters in the red dust of his back yard on the outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona.

Nearby, at the bottom of a short passageway connecting the back yard to the road out of town, a car is idling.

A white man is leaning out of the window, calling Salazar-Hobson’s name. He is very afraid of this man and the woman sitting next to him in the passenger seat. His older brother and sister are also afraid. They have been told by their parents, who are out working in the fields, that they must not let Salazar-Hobson go anywhere with the couple in the car. He can hear the fear in their voices as they call out: “Thank you very much, but Antonio can’t come for ice-cream.”

Then, suddenly, the man is out of the car and moving at astonishing speed towards them. As the children stand frozen with terror, he swoops down on Salazar-Hobson, lifting him up and carrying him away. He throws him into the backseat and the car accelerates away, leaving his brothers and sisters screaming in the dust. In just a few hours, the car will have crossed over the border into California. It will be another 24 years before Salazar-Hobson sees his family again.

What happens to Salazar-Hobson in the time between his kidnapping and his return to his family is so horrifying that it is almost impossible to comprehend. After being snatched from his back yard, he is taken into a nightmarish landscape of sex trafficking, violence and exploitation, where the rest of his early life is spent in an endless loop of fear, pain and loneliness. 

Yet Salazar-Hobson’s story is so much more than the evil that was done to him. Rather than being broken by what he experienced, he instead rose from the ashes of his stolen childhood to accomplish extraordinary academic feats and become one of the US’s most successful labour rights attorneys, representing vulnerable and powerless communities, and dedicating his life to justice and compassion. “I chose not to be obliterated by the abuse and trauma I was forced to endure,” he says. “Instead of being swallowed by the darkness, I survived by walking towards the light.”"

Antonio when he was a young boy, working on the ranch.Photograph: Courtesy of Salazar-Hobson’s family phot

In Ireland the necessary process of Justice and Repair has been underway for 40 years and is as yet unfinished.  Many, many Institutions of Care entrusted to State and Church covered up the most egregious predation of innocents, men, women and children which enabled the predators to continue to cause avoidable harms to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable innocents for 70 years and more, since the inception of the Irish State.


Kindest regards

Corneilius

Thank you for reading this blog.

"Do what you love, it is your gift to universe."

This blog, like all my other content creation work is not monetised via advertising. If you like what I present, consider sharing my content. If you can afford the price of a cup of coffee or a pint of beer/ale/cider for a few months, please donate via my Patreon account.

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Letter to all elected members of Irish Dail and Seanad regarding South Africa's application the the ICJ

Who the hell votes against a ceasefire in a Genocide?

Mike Pence, former US Vice President, signing artillery shells in Southern Israel last week.

Dear representative,

The South African Government has made an application to the International Court of Justice, which rules on serious criminal offences between States, to initiate an indictment of the State of Israel for its current violent assault upon the people of Gaza, and the West Bank. They are asking that the courts rule on the situation, to charge it as an act of Genocide, to demand that all states party to the Genocide Convention take action to prevent this genocide from continuing, as International Law requires.

Ireland has ratified the Genocide Convention, as has South Africa and Israel, and most States around the world that form up the United Nations General Assembly.

It follows then, that the Irish Government, as a member of the UN, and in recognition of the long oppression of Irish people carried out by the English State and our in depth understanding of the history and adverse impacts of colonial conquest and genocidal actions designed to destroy the culture of the Irish, our language, our customs, culture, land tenure and polity by the English State, and later the British Empire, should support this application to the International Courts of Justice.

Can you please confirm that you will be taking the appropriate action to require the Irish State to uphold the Convention on Genocide, and other International Laws of War and the Humanitarian Law and join the South African application, to support it in full, without reservation?

Kindest regards

Corneilius Crowley (Irish Citizen)

----

I think that Offensive Militarism is psychopathy institutionalised. It MUST be dismantled. 

----

Here follows a brief interview with International Human Rights Lawyer Francis Boyle, who has taken and won a number of adjudications at the International Court Of Justice, regarding  Herzogovinia/Bosnia and Yugoslavia.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Thank you for reading this blog.

"Do what you love, it is your gift to universe."

This blog, like all my other content creation work is not monetised via advertising. If you like what I present, consider sharing my content. If you can afford the price of a cup of coffee or a pint of beer/ale/cider for a few months, please donate via my Patreon account.

https://patreon.com/corneilius - donations gratefully received

https://www.reverbnation.com/corneilius - .mp3 songs

https://www.soundcloud.com/coreluminous - .wav Songs

https://www.corneilius.net - Archive

#folkmusic
#singersongwriter
#blogger
#music

An open letter, in response to Irish Government's 'Survivor Engagement' process, in preparation for a Public Inquiry into Irish Schools, and abuse of children on an industrial scale.

Child abuse within Irelands School Systems, Care Systems operated by Catholic clergy and others.
Most people by now are aware that Ireland has been going through a difficult process of coming to terms with a 7 decades long culture of abuse and violence within Institutional Care Settings. This process started in 1986. It has been a difficult and imperfect process, and is now supported by the majority of the Irish population.
There is a Survivor Engagement process underway, being carried out by the Irish Government, driven by recent revelations of the extent of child sexual abuse within Irish Boarding and Day Schools, operated by Church bodies. More about that later.

I am a survivor of 5 Boarding schools.

The engagement process, which I subscribed to when it was announced, reached out to me recently.

I responded to a recent letter from the Survivor Engagement Lead, Keiran McGrath.

My response, an open letter, is posted below, and what I have written here is an introduction, a lead into that letter. I want readers to understand why I wrote this letter. I admit my knowledge on this matter is incomplete - no single Survivor can hold all of it, I am neither an academic nor a professional advocate. I am a Survivor. 
Readers can scroll down to the letter, and skip the introduction, if you have some knowledge of the history of this matter. Dear readers, you can also alert me any to errors and mistakes I have made via the comments section. Thank you for taking the time to read through this.
Here are three videos which I think give a sense of the history and tone of this matter, and the current situation.
Deputy Ruairi Quinn speaking on the Ryan Report on the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse 2009, after a decade of Inquiry.

A Survivor, Micheal O'Brien, on Questions and Answers, an RTE broadcast programme, speaks to the adversarial approach of the Irish Government, in their handling of Inquiries into Child Abuse within Irish 'Care' systems over 7 decades, 2009.

David Ryan, Survivor, speaks on RTE Late Late Show December 9th 2023 



Emergence of Survivors seeking Justice and accountability, for Child Sexual Violence within Irish Boarding Schools, and how those matters were treated by State and Church. 

This astonishing, harrowing appearance on RTE's Late Late Show, by Mark and David Ryan, two brothers, assaulted by the same priest, Father Tom  O'Byrne, Holy Ghost Fathers, over an extended period in the 1970s marked an important, and some would say, historical turn. Their appearance before the nation on prime time TV, on one of the senior talk shows, made headlines.  That said their call back in 2002 to indict one of their abusers ought to have had the same effect. 21 Years they have waited for this to happen.
For many years neither brother spoke of their abuse, not even to each other or their parents, until early 2002 when clerical child sexual abuse filled the news headlines.
This led the brothers to reveal their abuse, first to their parents, and then to one another.
They made statements to the Gardaí (Irish Police Force) which led to multiple charges being brought against their abuser.
By then, Fr O’Byrne was 82-years-old and still living on the grounds of Blackrock College.
He denied the charges made against him and launched a legal case, seeking to halt criminal proceedings.
In 2007, the courts decided that the criminal case against the brothers’ abuser should be halted, as it would cause this old, old man much distress, and not serve the Public Good to proceed with a prosecution. Fr O’Byrne died in 2010, having never had to face trial. The Judge, Judge Adrian Hardiman, was an alumni of Belvedere, another college operated by The Holy Ghost. This was a Judicial error. 
Mary Carolan, writing in the Irish Times on September 6th, 2012, 6 years later about a review/audit of the Holy Ghost Fathers, as they were known at the time (they have 'rebranded' as 'The Spiritans' since then) which indicated the following - 
"A REVIEW of child safeguarding practices in the Holy Ghost congregation has found "unacceptable failures" over decades to protect children from 47 alleged abusing priests in its schools here.
The Catholic Church’s child protection watchdog, the National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC), also expressed “grave concerns” that an abuser removed from ministry in 1995 was on an internet forum just last year. Another, unknown to the congregation leaders, was until recently engaged in temporary ministry despite not having the order’s required clearance document.

A total of 142 allegations of abuse by Holy Ghost or Spiritan priests were made between 1975 and 1994, but suspected abusers were often moved, within Ireland or abroad, provoking concern that other victims had yet to come forward here or in countries such as the US, Canada and Sierra Leone, the review noted.
The order’s files made “very sad reading”, it said. There were “unacceptable failures” to prevent abuse that children “could have been spared if action was taken” and the congregation’s current leadership had to carry the responsibility for those past failures.
One “prolific abuser”, who abused children over 13 years and was removed from ministry in 1995, was found on an internet forum in 2011. Despite concerns raised about the priest within three years of the abuse starting, he continued to abuse children for a further 10 years.
Another priest who abused 28 children between 1968 and 1993 was removed from ministry only in 1996. He has since died.
Files provided to the NBSC by the Spiritans showed serial abusers in schools “went undetected and unchecked, giving them unmonitored access to children during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s”.
Of the 47 priests about whom allegations were made between 1975 and 1994, just eight are still alive, with three out of ministry. Three Spiritans have been convicted of abuse."
So more than a decade ago, the matter was raised, yet again, and it appears that justice and accountability in public has been evaded. The Spiritans have typically operated on a case by case basis, in private, settling with Survivors, with clauses demanding confidentiality and immunity from further legal action. Managing Survivors to protect the Institution. This stance is intolerable.

A true Christian, and indeed any decent human being would admit the fault, provide full access to the documentary trails, contained in their files, as a matter of transparency, honesty and genuine, meaningful remorse.
The Ryan brothers story, and others we know about, which have been in the public domain for decades, are the tip of a massive iceberg.

The appearance on the Late Late Show, by the Mark and David Ryan, who were hailed as 'immensely courageous' for taking that step, in which they were given a standing ovation by the studio audience, followed on from the RTE Radio Documentary 'Blackrock Boys' broadcast on November 7th, 2023, produced by Liam O'Brien. That started the current situation. Historic courage and indeed, humility.
Following on from that radio documentary, starting on 8th November, Joe Duffy's Live Line radio show took up the story, running for 9 episodes, until 18th November, with multiple Survivors speaking of their experiences, their abuse and the reaction of both State and Church, which they all considered to have failed to address the matter correctly, let alone honestly.

Apart from the harrowing stories Survivors told, their stories revealed that it is likely that many hundreds of children were assaulted in just one Boarding School, with estimates that 21% of one year group in 1979 had endured profound abuse, sexual assault physical violence, psychological and emotional coercive abuse.
This speaks to a culture of violence  and a culture of protective cover-up, that there clearly was an awareness of the malign behaviour of these abusive clerics amongst the Holy Ghost Congregations high officials, who adopted a reactionary defensive stance which in turn enabled these abusers to continue to abuse children.

Two current issues have emerged from this recent developments, in terms of State and Church Institutional response to the 'sudden' appearance of Survivors speaking in public, as they have done.

One being a Restorative Justice process crafted by a group of Blackrock College Past Pupils seeking a public apology for the abuse and the lack of accountability from The Spiritans (formerly The Holy Ghost Fathers), funded by The Spiritans, who are working with Past Pupils and Survivors. 

The second being the matter of Survivors, Survivors Advocates and the wider populations call for a full Public Inquiry into Child Abuse to cover all Irish Boarding and Day Schools, since the inception under the Irish State, 1926. These Schools were operated by the Church, received funding from the Irish Government since the get-go. As Survivors age, the imperative to hold those Institutions to account before we pass away, often too early, often after decades of distress is clear.

The former matter, Restorative Justice, is understood by many Survivor groups, and their advocates as inadequate, in that it is a process that is usually activated when someone who has been convicted of a crime of harm shows due remorse, where the people victimised want to help bring the assailant towards rehabilitation as part of their recovery from the harm caused to them.  With this in mind, the previous defensive stance of The Spiritans remains intact. They had made a public apology, but have not yet fully acknowledged the scale of harms caused by their stance thus far. This remains a concern, that such an acknowledgement is yet to emerge.
Restoration after an open and transparent admission of responsibility, for all the harms caused, in good faith, must not be utilised as a defence of the culpable party, but as a meaningful social and material attempt to heal, by both parties. To restore peace.

That said, some Survivors have taken up the Restorative Justice process that The Spiritans have started. The work done by past pupils to gain this has been an important part of the current developments. To the extent that the Restorative Justice process can handle a few cases, rather than look at the whole, it has obvious limitations.

The latter item, a Public Inquiry into the School systems of Ireland since 1926, is deemed by most people looking at this to be essential.

Previous Inquiries

There have been three previous major extensive Public Inquiries in Ireland - Ryan, Ferns, and Murphy, looking at the response to allegations and proven cases of abuse within residential care institutions overseen and funded by The State, operated by The Churches.

There have been campaigns and reports that focused on Industrial Schools, Mothers and Babies homes, Mental Health Asylums and The Magdalene Launderies, all residential institutions, operated by the Church, funded and overseen by the State.

In spite of regular public calls from Survivors, no Public Inquiry into the School system in general, and Boarding Schools in particular, has been considered by the Irish Government, up to 2022/23.

Irish Government response.

In the days and weeks following these media events in 2022, the Irish Government acknowledged the matter and paid heed to  Survivors call for a Public Inquiry. The Irish Government made a number of commitments to make this Public Inquiry happen, stating in March 2023 that it would ensure the Public Inquiry was 'survivor led' and set a deadline of 9 months to prepare for it.

They have initiated a 'Scoping Exercise', to engage with Survivors, to assess the number of cases, to gather more information to feed into a future Public Inquiry. This exercise is aimed at the 220 Survivors who have contacted the Government. It is well understood that there are many, many more Survivors, across Ireland and among the Irish Diaspora who have not spoken of their experience. What Survivors need is a process that is demonstrably safe, a place guided by proven expertise, a space where Survivors can share insight and solidarity as a demographic. We are a significant sector of Irish Society.

I had contacted the Irish Government and asked to be considered for inclusion in this engagement. 
My stance, as a Survivor, of five Irish Boarding Schools, is that a Public Inquiry is necessary.  I can speak to the culture of violence and abuse in all five of those Boarding Schools. How could I not seek an Inquiry into the whole, when the parts I experienced were so atrocious?
A brief look at a timeline, published by the Irish Times,  from 1986 - 2011 of the emergence of Survivors of Child Sexual Assault, Violence and psychological abuse, as a group seeking Justice and Accountability within Ireland, shows that time and time again, Government and Church evaded the issue in relation to Boarding and Day Schools, where the Church Congregations have taken an aggressively defensive stance. 

All of this, and more, is the background to the current situation.

My experience of Survivor Engagement.

I have had no communications to me from the Survivor Engagement team until last week.  I had viewed Government website pages and read announcements on the matter. I received two posted letters, the first to apologise that they were unable to deliver emails to me, as they were returned, due to failure to arrive or find my email address.

The second letter was to set out the parameters of the next stages of the Survivor Engagement Scoping Exercise, and invite me to participate. This is the document referred to.

It appears to me to be the case that no Survivors nor Survivor Advocacy nor Survivor Support Expertise with experience of these matters has been consulted by the Irish Government, since December 2022, let alone since March this year, when the Government announced their intention to prepare for a Public Inquiry, to carry out a scoping enquiry to inform their deliberations, in spite of frequent efforts and communications by Survivors to assert their right and their status as Survivors to direct, inform and guide Government on the process, as equals, as a 'survivor led' process, from the get-go.

Today I have learned that two people brought in as consultants to the Government, Mary O'Toole and Keiran McGrath appear to have relevant experience. However I am unaware of any Survivors or Survivor advocacy expertise involved in this process. The Government website shows updates have been made on 30th May.

Onevoice.ie 
Mark Vincent Healy, a Survivor and long time survivor's activist and advocate set up a web portal to foster a Survivors solidarity access point, https://www.onevoice.ie/about.html. 
Mark-Vincent has been in frequent communications with Government ministers and officials on this matter since November 2022. His attempts to gain a foothold for Survivors within the 'Engagement' process have been set aside, as can be seen, reading the correspondence between Mark-Vincent Healy and Government officials.

Three months later and from my perspective, Survivors remain practically excluded from informing or designing the Survivor Engagement process. 
It would appear the Irish Government wants data from Survivors, but not advice on how best to proceed. I could be wrong. I may well be missing something. If I am, I want to be much better informed. I do not see how the current process is Survivor led. Government announcements, their terms of reference, thus far have not clarified this in terms that meet my un-met needs as a Survivor.

I read their proposed process, as outlined in the letter, and I found it to be inadequate, unsafe and ill-prepared, and I wrote the following reply:

Open Letter : A Survivor Responds to Irish Government Survivor Engagement Scoping Exercise.
To whom it may concern,
I received two letters from Survivor Engagement Lead, Keiran McGrath, last week, on 25th and 26th of May.
The first explained that attempts to contact me via Email had failed. I have sent numerous emails to Government Ministers, and to the Taoiseach, and have received acknowledgements, so I have no idea why my email was not functioning. Nonetheless I was glad to receive the letter.
The second letter contained more details concerning the Irish Government Survivor Engagement process, in preparation for the establishment of a Public Inquiry into Historic Child Abuse within Irish Boarding and Day Schools. and the response of Institutions, with a copy of the Governments published document indicating how they intended to engage with Survivors. 
You can read their proposal here, which was sent with that letter:
https://www.gov.ie/pdf/258753/?page=null
I will quote from their document  - "In the first instance the Survivor Engagement process will endeavor to explore key matters that need to be addressed."
'Endeavor to explore' seems to me to suggest an unlikely scenario - that Church and State do not already have knowledge and understanding of the previous delays and failures to hold those responsible to account. 
Both parties know this, because they have caused the delays. Survivors know, because we have endured them. The pain, despair and frustration resulting is an everyday experience for Survivors.
As to 'addressing key matters' how does a bland questionnaire seeking private and traumatic information on crimes, without evidence that the psychological and material health support such reporting usually demands is present and at scale, help at this stage? What is being addressed by this questionnaire?
I note that the document mentions Trauma Informed Facilitators, as interfacing with Survivors, collecting this information, without providing the accreditation of same. What precisely is a trauma informed facilitator? What qualifications and experience are deemed adequate by Government?
Is this a questionnaire a process Survivors can trust in? 
From my perspective, it is not.
The key matters that must be addressed, from the start, before canvassing Survivors in the ill-thought out manner suggested, are the following:
1. Admission and acknowledgement of previous errors, mistakes, failures and delays by Government, in responding to and delivering on Survivors calls for Justice, as part of understanding how to avoid avoidable harms. 
2. A published declaration and commitment to avoiding avoidable harm to Survivors, to meet in full their un-met needs, as we step into the future.
3. The establishment of a Survivors Expert Panel, to act as a channel between all Survivors, as a Demographic of the Irish Population, and Government - to enable equity at the table between Government and Survivors, to reduce the Power Disparity between State and Survivors, in the establishment of a Public Inquiry, including setting out the tasks of such an Inquiry. No individual Survivor has all the resources that such a body, correctly set up, would be able to marshal, on behalf of Survivors.
Once these are in place, Survivors can proceed, on the understanding that Survivors have established an equal status with Government, that Government is wholly committed to avoiding avoidable harms to Survivors or to their interests, to avoid repeating past errors, and that Survivors and their professional advocates and relevant expertise will be listened to, they will be heard and their expertise, skill and insight will be properly integrated into the design and implementation of this Public Inquiry.
In essence, establishing a safe space, where one has not existed before, so that Survivors can direct Government on how best to meet the un-met needs of the children they were, and un-met needs of the adults they have had to become, aware of the heavy costs of their endurance of trauma and abuse and lack of justice.
Just to be clear, I will pose the question "What are Survivors Rights?"
In reply, ' To have our un-met needs for justice and accountability met, to have social and material support put in place, acknowledging the wounds we carry, the impact of years of abuse and decades of cover-up has had on our lives, and on the lives of our families and their communities. There is no repair of the harm caused possible. Harms of this egregious nature cannot be undone. 
Nonetheless, Justice, Legal, Criminal and Civil Accountability and an accurate, honest history can be achieved, and this will go much of the way in meeting Survivors needs.
In short, having our un-met needs met, is each and every Survivors Human Right.'
These are our rights. This is not a matter of what Government will do to/for Survivors, it is a question of whether or not Government will listen to, hear and integrate Survivors input and take it on board and thus work with Survivors as equals at the table. That said, Survivors are the seniors in this matter, Government very much the juniors.
Having established that the Government understands all of this, given that thus far, the evidence suggests otherwise, we can and should proceed.
As to the 'data the government seeks', at this early/late stage... 
To start with, the limited number of Survivors who have contacted Government on an individual basis, , who are described in the letter as 'complainants', is unlikely to be representative or even indicative of the whole Survivor demographic, living and deceased. The Government's stated objective of finding out how many 'complainants' are out there cannot be met in this manner.
Secondly, the questionnaire seeks to understand how many schools are involved, by asking Survivor Complainants to indicate which schools they were abuse within - we know already that a culture of violence and abuse prevailed across every institutional setting operated by Clergy.  It must be assumed that all such institutional settings will fall under the scope of the Public Inquiry. The Inquiry is the forum to search for and extract that data.
Thirdly, the questionnaire will ask of Survivors, the role or job or position of those who abused them. At this stage, this data is irrelevant. It will become relevant once a safe process of Survivor testimony is established to feed into the Inquiry.
Fourthly, the questionnaire will ask if the 'complainant' has approached TUSLA or Gardai, or any other relevant Institutions? This too will become more relevant as data is gathered, through a safe process, designed by Survivor advocates and expertise, working with Government Officials.
Then the letter proceeds to suggest Survivors could have their information included in the Report, anonymised. Would Survivors have editorial control of such inclusions, to ensure their perspective and context were maintained?
The last paragraph tell us Survivors that we should understand that what we are being asked to do will 'contribute to making Irish Schools and Education safer for children and young people.' The implicit assumption is that Survivors will go along with the existing process, with this noble objective in mind. It is glib and manipulative. 
As a Survivor, I'm quite sure Irish Schools are safer than ever before. I do believe that what was done to me will not be done to children within the Irish School system today.
The matter at hand is not just about the future of Irish Schools, it is in the immediate sense about the present and future of thousands of living survivors of child sexual assault, physical assault, psychological and emotional assault, within educational care settings.  The matter at hand is the most honest account of the past of those who have died early as a result, who cannot seek justice and accountability, whose case must not be brushed aside.
It is the future of Irish Society as it acknowledges the historic crimes, the culture of cruelty within the State and the Church, which enabled thousands of crimes perpetrated against innocent children on an industrial scale, and it sets a course for Justice for Survivors, accountability of the culpable before the democratic body of the people, reparations and life support for aging Survivors, who form up a significant demographic of The Irish people.
This current initiative is not safe, is neither Survivor led or Survivor informed. It has been designed by officials with limited relevant experience in this field.
I cannot participate in the current offered process, and do so in good faith. I do not trust it.
Kindest Regards
Corneilius Crowley, Survivor, 5 Irish Catholic Boarding Schools, 1965 -1977
London, England.

Update 31/5/23 - I was contacted by phone, from the Department of Education, seeking to check whether or not I wish to continue 'engaging'. I said I was willing to continue, and I made my concerns clear, that Survivors needed more than a questionnaire, that we needed a Survivors Panel to represent our side in the planning of the Public Inquiry, setting out the task of the Public Inquiry.  The person I was speaking to was an admin within the Department and could not speak to my concerns. I said I understood that, and that I hoped the message would filter up the chain.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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Starmer, Pope Benedict, Rishi Sunak and that gross election 'advertisement'. Bullies Exploiting Survivors.

In 2010 I took part in street demonstrations held in London. on a sunny Autumn weekend.

A demonstration, directed at The Vatican and towards Pope Benedict and his entourage, who were on a state visit to England. I was there as a Survivor. The march comprised a wide range of The Vatican's critics in Society, from Feminists to Anarchists, Atheists to Pagans, Wizards, Witches, Elves and Trolls, Queers, Lesbians, Communists, Philosophers and Physicists, and Protestants. The rally of the angry comprised all ages, all classes, it was colourful and it was witty. The atmosphere was friendly.  Then there was David Icke fan-club. Ick.
Survivor groups from across the UK, Ireland and elsewhere participated. There were many representatives of survivors concerns. As one would expect. They have work to do.

Historical Context
By 2010 the Irish State and population had already spent 20 or so years unveiling a sordid history of 'historical child sexual abuse' - so called to discern it from any child abuse still happening- a story of some seventy years of common place child abuse across multiple State and Church operated residential institutions. Somewhat hard to digest. 
Incomprehensive.
Four public Inquiries revealed widespread harm, at scale. Patterns of abuse of children, women and men held in 'care settings' where the State handed the operational care of vulnerable children and adults to the Church and their various Orders, paying the institutions fees, taxpayers cash, for the services provided. The State had oversight duties and neglected them. Both State and Church are liable.

The Irish State offered political and economic support for the Church and The Vatican before offering anything to Survivors.  "You back me, I'll back you.." and then defend themselves accordingly against living witness testimony?
Those inquiries focused on Industrial Schools, Mothers and Babies Homes, Magdalene Launderies, and the response from Church and Civil authorities to cases of child abuse in some dioceses. The people of Ireland reeled in shock, and attitudes changed swiftly. The people supported the Survivors. The Government was forced to take action, to establish recognition and redress. It drags it's heels still, pulling against the perceived leash of honesty and evidence, not understanding that honesty and evidence is what will liberate the Government and the State from it's burden, and transform it into a work of social nurture, political equity, justice and humanity. Yes, I know. I'm way too romantic, optimistic and naïve.

I am pointing at the healthy place, that's all. I know it's there.
These inquiries revealed that Church and State authorities knew of the abuse, and that they allowed the Church to cover up these crimes, to move offending clerics from site to site, often leaving them in supervisory contact with vulnerable people, only for them to offend again, and again, and again.
This enabled life long repeat offenders to subsist within the Church systems. This caused even more harm, upon harm.
The agenda was to protect the good name of the Church, justification for handling this criminal activity internally, under Canon Law, thus evading Civil and Criminal Law.

They rationalised offering survivors and their families settlement, out of court,  with confidentiality agreements in exchange for cash, as an act of Christian mercy, whilst they made sure that it was backed by setting out on an offensive, adversarial stance backed by expensive legal counsel. Nudge Theory in practice.

Impact
The impact on the children and the adults harmed due to all of this evasive action was set aside. Not considered important.

The effect was to enable widespread sexual and emotional abuse, to the extent that abusers recognised that they had a relatively free hand, that the Church convinced themselves and everyone else that the offenders were committing sins, and that was to be taken at face value by Church authorities, and their offences were not therefore treated as crimes, under the criminal code. They had been indicted by God, and absolved. God is merciful.

What that status offered the predatory ones as they operated within the Church Canon culture was real world impunity - they would not face legal, criminal accountability, and the Church's name would be protected. Penance was paid in prayer, and a new location was happily accepted.
That strategy - to protect and uphold the status of The Church and The Vatican, was fully supported, in full awareness, by the Irish State, the Irish Government and the Irish political establishment as an ethnic cultural necessity.

The Impact II

Tens of thousands of lives destroyed by predatory men assaulting vulnerable children. Degrees of repeat offending suggestive of a 'life style choice' embedded in Church mores.

Traumatised children, often over extended periods of time, multiple assaults, who grow up silenced, managed, ignored, abandoned, who somehow found the strength to live well, who succeeded, by degree, and those who did not. Those who suffered in silence or noisily. The suffering as those children aged and became parents, traumatised parents doing their best. And seeing the impact play out into the next generation. Because a true harm was covered up. A harm was not resolved, and the pain perpetuated. A lot of people. A lot of people.
For seventy years.

There's an inquiry or two yet to be had on the matter of historical institutional care of children and predatory abuse in Ireland. It's not over yet.
There has not yet been any public inquiry in Ireland, into the many Church run boarding schools and day schools across Ireland, in which the same patterns of adverse harmful behaviour have been played out, over those seven decades, from 1922 - 1992. This is a serious matter. That is a large population of children, over an extended period. Wow.
A public inquiry is being scoped out, finally - but only after three survivors spoke out on RTE's live Saturday night premium talk show, The Late Late Show, an appearance in public to unveil the story, which flowed from efforts of the past pupils of one elite boarding school, a small group of alumni who sought to listen to the voices of survivors, to hear what they knew, who reached out to the survivor community and to the wider school community to allow people to bear witness to their experience and provided a forum for those involved to share their concerns.

This was part of their process designed to try to leverage a public demand for a formal apology from the school Authorities involved.
Their efforts - and the response of survivors to their efforts, supported by other Survivors advocacy groups and individuals -finally opened to the public discourse in Ireland the reality of seventy years of Irish School systems and Clerical CSA. 
Many survivors had long been demanding such an inquiry, but have been rebuffed by Church and State, ignored by the News media, time and time again. Somehow, boarding school survivors remained invisible.
Last November, 2022,  as I wrote above there occurred live witness testimony of three survivors, to the Irish nation, presented on live TV in such manner as made it impossible for the nation to evade the matter. This public witness statement flowed from the work described above.

The courage, humility and humanity of the three survivors who presented themselves and shared some of their stories, as witnesses, was abundantly clear, as was their years of suffering, which continues and will continue until justice is fully met, until the unmet needs of the children, and the adults they are now are being materially met. 
The things they spoke of, their experiences as they were, appalled the listener, and the nation, to the core. One could sense an audience in shock, upright and angry, and determined to see this through.  "How could that even happen? They must find justice to the full!" That was the feeling at the end of that presentation, the feeling from the presenter and the audience, intensely so. The stood and gave the three Survivors a standing ovation, for eight minutes. 
Time will tell how this plays out. These matters take time, patience and persistence is our daily fare. 

Progress

It is to be hoped that justice, accountability, honesty will flow from this process. Reparations, including end of life support at every level of need, in recognition of the unmet needs of all those children at the time of the assaults, and ever since. Meeting the unmet needs of the children they were, as they present in the adults they are today. That sort of care, in detail.

They deserve no less.
Bearing in mind that this dynamic ran for seventy years, and that many Survivors have passed away, without relief, without recognition, validation or support. Every year of delay reduces the numbers of living survivors, many of whom die earlier than the average. 
There is much work to be done, and it is serious work that must stand on evidence, honesty, empathy and a robust justice that allows closure for all concerned. 
The reactionary self-defence of the institutions must be mediated and diffused so that justice can prevail, and peace be restored.
Then we can move on.
So, to go back to 2O1O and the Pope
Before the demonstrations, I met with a gathering of people, organising to make placards, preparing leaflets, you know the usual paraphernalia  of street demonstrations, to plan our demo, finding people to team up with in smaller groups for the afternoon's action. 
I gave a short talk on the story of Irish Survivors recent history from my perspective. I had read The Case of The Pope, by Geoffrey Robertson. I understood the ground I and other Survivors were standing on. Well , at least I knew what I stood for. 
I wanted the Vatican to be courageous,  to be Christ-like, to be honest, transparent and to open their files - to share what they know - to survivors, to submit all allegations to inspection and investigation, to record the accurate history as far as those records reveal - for The Vatican to stand aside from dealing with such offenses under Canon Law, to allow civil and criminal law process to proceed, unhindered, to make reparations and to make future policy commitments in areas of child protection, reporting etc. Not too much to ask, considering the scale of the criminality, historical attitudes argument set aside.
I made a small placard with the words - Protect The Children, Not The Church - written in bold type. I knew what I was doing. I knew why I was there, and what little impact I would make. I was not there alone. Those numbers held meaning and hope, a route towards correct action. Hope springs eternal in my heart and mind. I do not apologise for that. Far from it. Anyways...
While I was doing that, making my placard, I noticed one group who were making a series of signs, alleging that The Pope was a paedophile. I went over to them, and asked them if they had read any evidence that Pope Benedict was a paedophile, because I had not, and I would be really interested to read such evidence.  I mentioned there was evidence of his involvement in maintaining the policy of covering up the reality of predatory men operating within institutions caring for vulnerable populations.
They mentioned various authors, youtubers, notable writers of hypothetical scenarios. They suggested that the allegation was obviously true. 'Just look at him!'  They had read no such evidence. Some mentioned 'Illuminati,' and various other conspiracy hypotheses. Others stated the obvious - that The Vatican was corrupt, a political action religion, wealthy and powerful and guilt of many crimes - and therefore the slander was justifiable. Rage!
I told them that they were protesting against the Vatican, as a political attack, rather than demonstrating support for survivors and for the necessary work survivors are seeking help for.  Survivors work is not a political attack. Survivors have no need for that. Survivors need justice. Period.
I told them that exploiting Survivors tragedy - packaging the pain, fear, suffering, despair, the lived experienced lives and suicides of so many innocents -  as an emotional trigger to make a political point in that way confuses the discourse, introduces hatred as a political utility, makes survivors look like they make false allegations was a profound and dangerous error in their case and a standard tactic of authoritarian regimes.
"All of this undermines Survivors struggle for justice, because it does not help them. It confuses the situation."
I told them that what they were doing was therefore hindering the work of Survivors. I told them that making false allegations of that nature, in public, allegations that were blatantly un-evidenced, directed at The Pope was stupidly reckless.

"Stick to the known, evidenced verified facts or get off the pot!"
When used as a political weapon, such allegations de facto seek to exploit both the disgust of decent people and the lived experience of the harm and trauma and suffering and pain that survivors have endured, leveraging a caricature as a sensational, manipulative and false dog whistle, riding roughshod over the most pertinent  people in this matter - the Survivors. 
Making false claims undermines survivors efforts, and all survivors know this.
For a genuine survivor activist this weaponisation of child sexual exploitation is an insult to the work they are undertaking. 
Exploiting the pain and suffering implicit in the experience, exploiting the reactionary disgust of bystanders as they avoid really understanding Survivors lived experience, exploiting survivors efforts, piggy backing on their struggle, to launch a political weapon, for an entirely different agenda, making no progress for Survivors in the process.
That pissed them off
I knew in that moment, by their reaction, that they were not here for me, as a Survivor, as someone who had just given a talk on what being a Survivor means. I knew that people like that are not there for the Survivors at all. They do not have our back.
They started to argue with me and I with them. And I stopped. There was no point in this. The outrage in my heart needed a big sky.

I said to them: "You do what you want to do, I cannot associate with what you are doing. I've made my point. You now know what you did not know a few minutes ago".
And with that I left them, and went to the demonstration more or less on my own. I met up some of them later, and the Pope Allegation signs were absent.  I noted that, and lauded them for that wisdom, that understanding. Grudges held post resolution are a self dug hole.

Digging Holes
The recent ads crafted by The Labour Party, one of which is featuring Rishi Sunak, implying the smiling Rishi is not at all bothered by convicted child sexual abusers current freedoms, with Labour's empty promise of a land of Law and Order where child abusers will tremble in fear! 
Fake slur, appeal to disgust, cite statistic out of context, trigger a reactionary, gain a voter.
Here's another way to look at it, from the perspective of a Survivor - "Labour are deploying a vote chasing tactic - publishing content that exploits the reaction to the trauma of children who have been so profoundly harmed, exploited violently by adults for sexual purposes, using it as a trope to exacerbate disgust, in pursuit of a political agenda. Presenting a manipulative slur that has not one shred of evidence to it, that presents a very different proposition than the one at hand - organised child sexual exploitation is well established and pretty much has a free hand in England because neither the police nor the judiciary are on top of it, and the Legislature is clearly failing it it's core duties and responsibilities in this matter today, as it has been doing for decades.

This is not a partisan matter. Labour does not want to look at this honestly. So let's sling some mud! After all, it's what THEY do"

Actually, it is what bullies do. Period. Bullies do this kind of shite. All of them.

I'm not anti-Labour.  I am anti-bullying in politics, local, national and international. It's all bullshit.
The Labour Ad implies that smiley Rishi Sunak, the Asian PM, does not care much about prosecuting or punishing adults guilty of child sexual abuse and incarcerating them - GRRRRRRR!  and that New Clean Labour does, and will indeed prosecute and punish all those guilty of child sexual abuse. YAAAY! Vote For Labour!"

Intermixed with this is the Race card, the insinuations prevalent across English political public discourse. Systemic means systemic. Dog Whistles all over the shop.
The ad is a targeted intentional lie. It is bullshit. It has racist dog whistle overtones. It has a light blue background. Red is dead, at Labour HQ! 
It's an appalling ad. And it is one of several, a series. All doing the exact same tactic.
Public facing content targeting a known bias, vulnerability, fear, hatred, exacerbating the emotional reaction of the target, in order to nudge the target in to behaviour that can be exploited.
This is truly cruel behaviour.
1. It does nothing to ameliorate and balance the bias, the vulnerability, the fear, the hatred. It stokes emotions and misdirects attention,  it does nothing to address the reality of the issue, the problem of child sexual exploitation functioning as a multi-million pound industry across the UK.
2. The it exploits the target, not in the targets best interests, not even in the victimised demographics interest, but in the targeteers interest.
A treble cruelty.
Dodgy. There ought to be a law against this kind of behaviour.

Both Labour and the Conservatives are digging holes for themselves, in their exhibitionist bullying. They have no credibility left, whatsoever.







Kindest regards

Corneilius

Thank you for reading this blog.

"Do what you love, it is your gift to universe."

This blog, like all my other content creation work is not monetised via advertising. If you like what I present, consider sharing my content. If you can afford the price of a cup of coffee or a pint of beer/ale/cider for a few months, please donate via my Patreon account.

https://patreon.com/corneilius - donations gratefully received

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