The Northern Ireland legacy Bill. Wow.

A metric for critical thinking on policy matters.

The King, Charles III, is Head of The British State.

Occupying Government of The United Kingdom Power are the current Conservative Majority. They can do whatever they like. To all intents and purposes, they and their sponsors are a hyper-dominant influence on the machinery of State.

They exercise a dominant control of the Legislature.

 Untouchable. Johnson jumped ship before he was planked. A tactical move. 

No scandal can now impede the canoe this State and it's Government are furiously paddling us all up shit creek. 'Refugees in small boats are criminals, it's an invasion'. So they claim. And it is a lie. We all know this. They will never admit - to publicly admit to deliberate harm causation, to be held accountable is to cede power, and that they will never, ever do. Brace yourselves. For more deliberate cruelty.

Oh, yes, this week the memories associated with Windrush Generation of Immigrants to England, 75 years ago. 'Hostile Environment' has a history, a continuity. 

Deliberate Cruelty.

There's a pattern emerging.

The Northern Ireland legacy Bill reveals this too.

#mindblown  

Deliberate cruelty. Prove me wrong. Please.

Update : Guardian 20/12/23 reports that the Irish Government launching legal action to challenge the imposition of the NIT Bill.-- 
 "Ireland is to initiate a legal challenge against the UK government’s legislation to deal with the legacy of the Northern Ireland Troubles.

Ireland’s deputy premier, Micheál Martin, said the interstate case would argue that the provisions of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 were incompatible with the UK’s obligations under the European convention on human rights.

The act received royal assent in September despite widespread opposition from political parties, victims’ organisations in Northern Ireland and the Irish government.

Aspects of the law include a limited form of immunity from prosecution for Troubles-related offences for those who cooperate with the new Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).

 The new act will also halt future civil cases and legacy inquests.

A number of Troubles victims and family members are supporting a legal challenge against aspects of the act at Belfast high court.

Martin said: “This decision was taken after much thought and careful consideration. I regret that we find ourselves in a position where such a choice had to be made.

“However, the decision by the British government not to proceed with the 2014 Stormont House agreement and instead pursue legislation unilaterally, without effective engagement with the legitimate concerns that we, and many others, raised left us with few options.

“The British government removed the political option, and has left us only this legal avenue.”

Details of the NIT Bill :  Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill

I had no idea.

Buried in my own little rabbit hole. I had no idea. So I peeked out into another rabbit hole. I learned a lot.

On Thursday I view two documentaries on The Troubles, the civil war in Northern Ireland that Wass maintained for 30 years and more. 

I was looking for video of Patrick Kielty, who has been selected as the new presenter for RTE flagship Saturday Night Light Entertainment Talk Show, The Late Late Show. He's a stand up comedian by trade, and well respected for his work in maintaining a healing space among the divided of Northern Ireland. His father was shot dead when he was a teenager.

He is a Survivor, he is one of the real lived experience of this social experience people, this subject in the real.

He made a documentary 'My dad, The Peace Deal, and Me' which drew the threads of on his own experience, and through meeting others, listening to their version of events, on all sides, calm in spite of disagreements. Honest, moving.

So many people suffered so much avoidable harm.

The second film I watched was the story of Father Alex Reid, who created a flow of communication between the warring parties, a vital effort in bringing peace to Northern Ireland.

So many people suffered so much avoidable harm.

So many people: How does one count the impact across an entire population, who will need full support to recover over time, from the continuing multi-generational cycle of trauma, and who deserve it. No question. So many generous ordinary persons, citizens, families, communities who want a healthy resolution. Impeded by a State that is opposed to that. Clearly.

The Lords debate on recent Govt. Amendments to this Bill is interesting, it can be read here.  Tinkering with the engine, adjusting some of the fairing, but the engine is a dirty, polluting harmful thing.

The Irish Foreign Office published a letter by Micheál Martin, which requests, in clear language, that the British Government cease work on the NITLARB.

Amnesty International had this to say about it.

"What does the NI Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill mean?

Over decades, there has been a piecemeal approach to dealing with the past. Many victims are still waiting for justice. The UK Government is now betraying those victims by permanently removing any chance of truth, justice and accountability. The Bill protects perpetrators and means that if they give an account of conflict related events best to their knowledge and belief, that they will be given immunity from prosecution.
For example, if they confess to murdering someone during the Troubles conflict, they will be given impunity. 
What is wrong with the NI Troubles Bill exactly then?
Put simply, A LOT. If the Bill comes into place, it will:
- Give impunity to murderers, and those responsible for torture- Block victims from accessing justice via legal action- Be a significant interference in the justice system - Breach the Good Friday Agreement- Go against existing agreements between the UK and Irish Governments and NI Political Parties on legacy- Create a two-tier justice system in the UK- Fail to deliver human rights compliant investigations- Set a deeply concerning international precedent - signalling to other States that they too can ignore their human rights obligations.
~

In short, there has been an imperfect and tortoiseian paced State and Civil Society healing and recovery process underway across the Northern Ireland population, for decades. Civic organisations, Community Voluntary networks, health care provision, stability in education, building on proven process, driven by Survivors presenting the evidence of what works to bring recovery, peace, stability of relationships, community. It's not a rapid process. It could and really should be strengthened and accelerated.. how long must people harmed in the last 40 years remain short of justice, accountability and reparations. Is there a plan to delay as older survivors pass on? Is it that dark?

The State is not hearing, the State refusing to see the evidence, and the State is never mentioning this body of work, lived experience in post war resolution of harms caused cannot pass the three monkey gate.

The British Government is well beyond dragging it's heels, on upholding the Human Rights of the citizens of Northern Ireland, The United Kingdom and those of Irish citizens who have been adversely harmed by war violence. Citizens, who in good faith, who seek not revenge but justice, accountability, closure, resolution, towards a renewed social solidarity in line with the understanding, born of the lived experience, a body of evidence of how to live well, together. 

This is nothing a democratic State should fear or impede.

But it does.

The implementation of work to repair, in the aftermath of a protracted state of war and daily violence, is always a matter of learning more through direct lived experience. The solutions are found in the intentions of the Survivors, in meeting the un-met needs of the Survivor population, a demographic who wish sincerely to end the cycles of violence in their own lifetimes. 

Accountability for harms caused is part of that process. It has to be. Evidence, justice, accountability and prevention, for decent human beings harmed during decades of violence, all of it avoidable. Peace is more than the absence of War.

For this British State, the approach, this dynamic is all ends with the eventual inevitable passing of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill.

70 Plus Majority. They can do what they like.

And their proposal?

No more public criminal liability for those who caused harm, disabling and murdering, wounding and terrorising, especially if the purported defendants were working for the British State - their confession will be archived, they will receive immunity from prosecution. Their Crimes will be noted. Survivors will be 'compensated'. 

Survivors can add their stories, and record the impacts upon their lives of the harms they endured: 'impact statements'  to the national archive. Thus the impact is duly recorded, filed and archived. That way the Survivor population can contribute to and write their history, bringing to light the complexity of the situation.  Presumably to lead to greater understanding, that would prevent future outbreaks of political violence. Make NI Safe Again!

Guardian Article on Irish Government legal challenge to the NIT Bill.

It's a kind of weird 'show and tell' vs 'show and tell' where the criminals are the winners, and so too are the survivors - except it's not that - it is an attack on the entire Survivor Population adversely afflicted by British State Militarised Politicised Violence."

We're ALL Winners?

Nobody wins in war.

Peace is more than the absence of War.

Honesty all 'round. Honesty is the best policy!

Fine.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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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

Thank you for reading this blog.

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Hype is a clue. Always. Rotherham, Race and predatory abuse.

Abuse of Power

It's a behaviour pattern.

A pattern of behaviour..

It's not skin tone related, nor is it genetic, and it is certainly an unhealthy behaviour, even though it is frequently institutionalised within violent hierarchies.

It happens in homes, institutions, criminal networks, in private.. it's a cultural marker, as much as is Commerce or War,

It happens to be Institutionalised across the corporate and religious domains.

It's a behaviour pattern.

Pedophiles - one variation of the predatory psyche as it is expressed within this culture - will insinuate themselves into the lives of those around the target, so that if the target speaks out, it threatens the circle of trust and they cover up, deny, run him out of town, but keep it quiet... They will also seek out targets who are abandoned, neglected and present with other vulnerabilities,

When the council's are running 'care systems' that routinely fail vulnerable children, then it's obvious that that predatory cohort will be targeted.

Predatory criminal behaviour is the key here, not skin tone. Volition, the choice to abuse another person.

People who hype the race card narrative, or the 'elite pedophiles' meme who are using the horrific lived experience of courageous Survivors for political leverage, are behaving like bullies, and they undermine the work of Survivors and their advocates by using the Survivors experience as a political polemic.

I am saddened when ever I see the hype.

Survivors deserve so much more than that..

They deserve honesty, transparency, understanding, compasssion, support and a proper hearing.

They are at the vanguard of the efforts towards detection and prevention of further abuse, as a cultural act of social justice and accountability.

Not the politicians. Not the hype activists. Not Tommy.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

"Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe"

Thank you for reading this blog. All we need to do is be really honest, responsive to the evidence we find,and ready to reassess when new evidence emerges. The rest is easy.

Racism, Inquiries, Grenfell, Historic Child Abuse, Iraq, and logic.

Race and Racism.

If we are serious about combating racism we should not be celebrating racial diversity.

Celebrating 'racial diversity' entrenches the concept of Race.

Cultural diversity is another matter. I have no problem with that at all. It improves everything about being humane.

There are no races, there are only different language/culture groups. We are all human. 

Instead, we should be concentrating our efforts at undermining the very idea of race.

Because it is merely an idea, a concept that was created to justify the enslavement of Black Skin Toned Africans.

It was also institutionalised in legislation, and re-enforced from the pulpit (Good Christians vs Heathens and Sinners, the heathens being below the sinners)  to be used to set the poor White Skin Toned European labour force against the Black Skin Toned African labour force and the Brown Skin Toned Native Peoples who refused to work for the plantation owners, all of whom outnumbered the total number of owners, their middle classes, artisan classes, clerks etc and the British Military Garrisons in the colonies.

Race it has scientific or bio-logical basis.

It is a political and economic concept.

Boil the Water, not the Kettle.

Confront the behaviour, and do not attack the person.

eg: "That is a racists thing to say." works better than "You are a racist."

Because with the former there is some chance you can initiate a conversation, the latter will be felt as a direct attack on the person.

Worried by World Events?

Are you WORRIED? Does the world look really crazy to you, right now?

Try this :

A friend of a friend was travelling in South America around 2000 ad, looking at Inca sites, doing the jungle trek and Ayahuasca trail, and was talking excitedly about the forth coming Apocalypse, like REALLY WORRIED about it.....

He was in a cafe, in a small village, drinking beer and coffee..... rabbiting on, and on... until a local came up to him, and said:

"Don't worry! It's already here. Our people have been going through the Apocalypse for more than 300 years... YOUR people brought it to us!."

True story.

He ended up getting riotously drunk with the locals and made some very good friends.... way to go, South America!

A quote from a friend, one Jason Hine, on his facebook page is pertinent.

"Perhaps an incarnation of spirituality appropriate for the modern age would be an attitude in which we learn to face the full of horror of human existence without being paralyzed by excessive fear and with a desire to minimize the perpetuation of this horror."

Venezuela and Western Media and Political Economy.

Power must always be economical with the truth, frugal even.

The reporting of Venezuela, and the harrying of leftist (humane) politicans to condemn Madura is a case in point.

Who is rioting on the streets?. The well to do middle classes. Who is murdering poor people?

Who controls commercial supply of foods? The well to do middle classes. They have food aplenty, and the cash to pay for it, and store it. Food for the poorer, native, mestizo and black population is getting more expensive...... rather it is being made more expensive. By the well to do middle classes. Who are largely of European descent.

Who is most concerned that Venezeulan Oil is 'liberated' - the US State Department, and it's cronies in the Oil Industry.

Why is this happening?

"What the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela inspired by Chavez represents to the establishment – as is the case with Jeremy Corbyn in Britain and Podemos in Spain – is the threat of a good example."

source : https://cultureandpolitics.org/2017/08/07/the-medias-depiction-of-venezuelas-president-maduro-as-a-dictator-follows-a-familiar-pattern/

Public Inquiries, a problem arises.

Listen to one panel member of the Child Abuse Inquiry 'underway' in the UK, under the auspices of The Home Office.

Looking at the fact that three people who were selected to head this Inquiry have been removed or have quit .... two were rejected by Survivor groups (who know a thing or two about public inquiries into such matters...), one resigned, and returned home, to Australia. The fourth is in place...

The Inquiry is proceeding. But there are serious issues.

In an extraordinary interview recorded 11th August, 2017, a child abuse survivor who served on the Government’s independent inquiry into historic child sexual abuse has claimed she was silenced by Theresa May’s advisors to ensure that Ms May became Prime Minister.

Source : http://evolvepolitics.com/listen-historic-child-abuse-panel-member-i-silenced-theresa-mays-advisors-ensure-became-pm/

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of Ms Sharon Evans’ startling claims about her time serving on the inquiry.

I have got a document, it’s 23 pages. When I appeared in front of the Home Affairs Select Committee – which should be where you openly and honestly answer the questions and challenges of MPs, and where it’s actually an offense not to tell the truth – they (the Home Office) provided me with a 23 page document telling me exactly what I may and may not say.

Ms Evans says that she was so alarmed by the nature of the Home Office gagging document that she went to the clerk of the Parliamentary Committee to tell him that she feared she may not be able to tell the truth because of it.

Bear in mind that a Parliamentary Committee is a privileged arena, where one has liberty to tell the truth, where lying is a criminal offence.

Sharon Evans also had an extremely depressing message for the victims of the Grenfell tragedy about what she has learned about Establishment collusion during supposedly ‘independent’ inquiries such as this:

When asked by interviewer John Nicholson about her advice to the Grenfell Inquiry panel members, Evans said:

I think from what I’ve been hearing that people are already being encouraged to come and give information informally – and this is where we started on the child abuse inquiry – but the thing is it seems like it’s exactly the same. I want to stop them going down the same road where their information is controlled and suppressed, because when there is an inquiry they can control information and decide what is released.

Hillsborough, anyone?

You can listen to Ms Evans’ extraordinary interview with talkRADIO below:

So yeah, it's all going on.... as it has been for quite some time.

The institutions of political power, and those who occupy executive positions in corporate power are allied in their determination to retain, enhance and project their alliance of interests over the best interests of the people they claim to 'serve' - you and I, and your family, community and local and national collective.... the taxpayer and his or her children.

So here's one way to look at all of this: Taxation is a shared contribution, the cash is held in trust by Government, to be utilised on our behalf, and it is not the property of The Government.

It is our cash. That implies a duty of care to spend that cash wisely, based on evidence and need, to nurture equity across our populations, be any of us rich or poor, strong or vulnerable.

That is not happening , blatantly. And anyone who dares to suggest it should happen is attacked, denigrated, undermined and dismissed.

We Pay Their Wages. (and coroprate power pays their benefits)

I think we need a cross ideology-multicultural non-sectarian party called "The We Pay Your Wages Party" and we need to be willing to engage and directly instruct Government to meet the duty of care articulated above, in order to better nurture our society and to prevent the abuses I have briefly indicated above, and the many, many others we are all well aware of.


Kindest regards

Corneilius

"Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe"

Thank you for reading this blog. All we need to do is be really honest, responsive to the evidence we find,and ready to reassess when new evidence emerges. The rest is easy.

Help those who are truly in need, now, and confront the problem as we go.... honestly.

Help those who are truly in need, now, and confront the problem as we go.... honestly. I will repeat in this piece. Sorry!

On Numbers.... I'm not so sure.

At least the council could say how many people they are currently caring for, and get them to collate any others being helped outside the council's operations, by the police, red cross, other charities, NHS etc... that way we know who is alive, and we will find out the rest when the investigation is complete….

Do we need to know before the survivors, and the families of the deceased and missing?

Need to know.

Privacy and respect is not secrecy.

The fire investigators do need to collect evidence and examine that building in detail, and they will. The Fire Fighters investigation will do to the best of their ability and expertise, and they have solid backing.

We know that a criminal investigation is under way, with much of the evidence in the public domain already, That is proceeding. The survivors will need time,space, privacy, support in every way, ensuring that the helpers are always listening, and hearing the survivors.

For this, the Survivors immediate need is for us, The State and The People, to hold them first in our deliberations - they would probably suggest we hold all those living in high-rise or high density social housing, by protecting their peers in high rises elsewhere, taking immediate action, use the army if need be, they can be excellent builders....

I don't give a hoot what Government does it,minority, dodgy majority, unity, cross party whatever. Just do it.

This would remove the fear many survivors will be experiencing for the hundreds of thousands in high rise high density social housing, easing their burden somewhat in a tangible way.....

A National Infrastructure Project, carried out by the people, on fixed fee transparent social contracts... fully funded. We make this happen. Peacefully. Firmly. It is our money. Focus.

They also need appropriate accommodation, close to each other, clear lines of communication, privacy, technical assistance on all material issues, income, access to professional quality counseling, access to medical and nutritional support, access to health gyms, saunas, all healing and body work resources; they will also need to resume life living as families, as neighbors, as schools, as clubs and associations as soon as they are ready.

The entire population around the towers, those who live in the area will be traumatised too, many struggling, each to a different degree, in different ways...

The need is huge, and they don't need energy diverted from that... by rage, or violence or blame game, venting etc (it's ok to to express that anger, and it's meaning, it is felt and real - smashing things probably won't help the Survivors and others afflicted by this horrific man made disaster.) before all the evidence is up, and they are ready for the next step. They matter.

The investigations will feed into an inquest, which can be had once the full toll is known, and all the survivors are ready to participate in the inquest. That could be a few months from now.

Then, wherever criminal actions are clear, prosecutions must follow. And be severe. The police have cautioned that they will make arrests if the see evidence that warrants any arrests. I think they will want to do this and do the job well, and bring justice.

Then, and only then should a Public Inquiry start.

And we will be ready for that.

And it will not be a Chilcott, or a Hillsborough.

 We will go beyond party politics, and get to the heart of the matter.
 

Our intent must be, among other things, Government by the people (who pay the wages and costs) instructing a national team of elected deliberaters and officials to host the public good, and engage in an adult,rational, emotionally intelligent discourse on Governance and the needs of a people, as a learning rather than adversarial team league politics. We can make that happen.

Kick political football right out of the field!

To be honest, I don't think that's too much to ask, do you?

That's the hope.

The rage that so many died such horrific deaths, burned alive even as they tried to escape, or save their own children or brother... or granny..over human action or inaction. is understandable, and meaningful.

It cannot go away.

It is here.

It's real.

It's how it is.

For the survivors It's indescribably harsh.

And we who are less directly affected, and are together, so to speak, we gotta be strong enough to hold the survivors, and the families of those who have died, and their communities, these people who are alive and who are now before us, and our entire community most move to enfold and hold it all together, to make it so that those people can feel safe, that we are here to nurture, to counsel, to listen and hear, until they feel they can continue, that they need not worry about material needs, and that they will remain as a community, as long as they so wish, in the same locale..... in sound accommodation, rather than high rise hotels, and all else that they need. Make their material worries vanish, and hold them.

They will want to cook for themselves, do their own laundry, use the cash to buy what they need, and much else besides. They will want to establish routines, and to live on.

And each of those things that they do that restores their sense of autonomy, of continuing, will help them deal with this, as long as we are walking with them, always listening, checking what we have heard so they know they are being heard.

They will want to tell their stories, to piece it together, to understand it and share that process with those around them, being strong in it together. 

They are all vulnerable, yet powerfully human...

And we gotta make healthy social change the coolest thing on the planet.

How cool is Healthy Governance?  The ultimate cool, baby!

Where the elected employees of the people hear the peoples instructions, and carry them out, funded by the people via taxation, with a mutual feedback process between people and People's Service so everyone knows what's happening, and it works. A social economy. For people.

Kick the political footballs into the ditch! That is our job now.

And the pain is still here. The horror, the fear,the shame. The confusion. The rage. The despair. I

t doesn't go away when I am happy, well just chilling, grooving... it's still there. I have to carry my bit, and share my part of the community's.... we must be strong for all the survivors. Everywhere. Let us not burden them.

Each so small, yet the love of the grass roots is so big that vast herds of buffalo can run over it, eat it, and shit on it, all over it and it still grows!

Makes The State look really small indeed.

Not what they were thinking when they wrote their small state bullshit economic theories. Small Minded State. Not what we wanted, not what we want.

It's really good to know you.

That you're out there, recycling, and cycling onwards. Musicing onwards. Living onwards. You, All the good, decent, stressed or happy, ordinary folk who make this world work, who are this society, and the majority pattern is that we present the best of our behaviour,  and we are kinder than any Government.

All praise to the ancestors. All praise to our descendants.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

"Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe"

Thank you for reading this blog. All we need to do is be really honest, responsive to the evidence we find,and ready to reassess when new evidence emerges. The rest is easy.