G'Day From Downunder

I'm really not in the mood for a cuppa this week so you can give the kettle a rest. Normally when I do this column for you I really don't find it very hard and I never lose sleep over it. Sometimes I'm on my soap box bashing the ears off you with my condemnation of the drug trade scumbags and the equally corrupt finance industry, and then of course we have some fun with what my family call my looney letters where I poke fun at myself and anything else that I see that might add a bit of humour to your day.

This week it is different; the Ryan Report reached the shores of Australia with all its shame and horror. In all my ranting and raving nothing gets to me more than the abuse of children, nothing distresses me more than that subject. Yes I know you are going to say "I heard all this before", well if so I hope you are as disgusted with the Ryan Report in Ireland as I am and, if so, what are you going to do about it?

Don't shake your head and say I don't know! A smarter man than me said it only takes a few good men to remain silent for corruption to flourish and that is exactly what happened in Ireland in July 1974.

I left Ireland because of a broken marriage and the awful shame of the thing at the time. I was the only person I knew who was trying to be honest about the situation and that had put their hand up to both parents and the local Parish Priest admitting that the marriage had broken down.

In typical Irish fashion I was told to brush it under the carpet and carry on. Yes, that was the way things were in those days. Everyone turned a blind eye to everything and anything that even looked like a social problem.

It is well known for instance, that many priests lived with their housekeepers and, indeed, fathered children. Not that I can say much has changed to date.

I am one of the luckiest people that God put on this earth because there is not a morning that I get out of bed and I don't pinch myself as a reminder of how lucky I am. Firstly let me tell you a little of my youth in case you are one of those who didn't read 'A Time of Secrets'.

My mother spent most of my youth in hospital with TB and my father spent his time drinking. That left my sister Breda to rear me on her own. If not for her loving caring and nurturing I would be one of those poor victims of the holy Church. There go I but for the grace of god and Breda!

It is amazing how an act of kindness from an eight-year-old child, who was herself being abused by her own father, saved her six-year-old brother from the clutches of the beasts.

It now makes me an observer of the Ryan Report rather than a named victim in it. Those victims should never worry about Hell; they had their Hell in 'The Good Sheppard Convent' in Sundays Well and the numerous other churches, monasteries, convents and other religious institutions throughout Ireland.

Those callous raping cowards who wore dog collars and touted their barbaric evil deeds on young innocent children disguised as men of God were in fact Satan's army and the equally sadistic Sisters of Mercy, Charity and whatever fancy religious names they used to blanket their evil ways should be shown no mercy, just as they showed no mercy to their victims. Age should not hinder justice; it doesn't matter if they are 100-years-old now, those brutal cowards must be made to pay for their crimes.

Sadly, if nothing is done to bring those scoundrels to justice it will be Ireland's holocaust legacy left to its young. If justice is not done there will be no healing, only an almighty scar left in Ireland's history and I want no part in that.

All just men and women want justice not excuses or a cover up! Let's be honest here for a while. Ireland is and always has been the place where everything is passed off as, "Ah sure it wasn't all that bad really, was it?" or "sure he only took a few pounds, it's not like he stole ALL the money now is it?" or "sure didn't he have a few drinks in him at the time and that's what made him do it."

Well we can disregard all that claptrap, those crimes, and let's continue to call them crimes, were pre-mediated and carried out by callous and brutal perverts on their vulnerable young innocent victims and given right of passage by the government of the day.

I'm not sorry I likened this time in Ireland's history to the Jewish Holocaust as that also was well-contrived and then denied. Didn't the Vatican stand by in that awful period of history and do nothing as they are now. What is the world coming to? Is there no sense of justice left?

We have the young getting screwed by the clergy and the poor getting screwed by the financial institutions. Is no one happy unless they are screwing someone else? What happened to good old common decency? Do we have to go to another planet nowadays to find that rare commodity?

Let's get back to basics here and call a spade a spade. A lot of children were abused in Ireland and I want to know who is going to pay for those crimes and I don't want to hear 'nobody' because someone has to. There are no excuses as to why justice can't be done.

You in government, you who represent us the people of Ireland, listen. We are demanding justice not excuses. Is it your intention that those poor souls should carry the pain that they have carried for so long to their graves?

Is that what you as a so called responsible government want? If not do something to ease their pain.

Where is your compassion for your people who are hurting? Do what Joseph of Arimathea did when he saw Jesus burdened down carrying his cross. He stepped in and helped him to carry it. Believe me you will sleep better in your bed knowing you did something to better some poor soul's life. Life is not all about being re-elected there are much more satisfying rewards beyond politics.

To you the government of Ireland; I beg of you to reach into you heart and pull out something that will give peace to your wounded sons and daughters. Compassion should be for the victims not the perpetrators.

Will somebody please tell me what does it take to get justice these days? Maybe the only way is if Jesus himself comes down here and tells you, the Irish Government, that those vile men and women who did those awful despicable things to his children violated everything sacred in His name.

I hope you can all sleep tonight and your children are safe! As for me I'm too upset to sleep!

Until I talk to you again, be good to those who love you and Slainte from Downunder!