Sunday 3 June 2018

ABUSED AGED 8."SCHOOL WAS ABOUT SURVIVAL, I'D BE LOOKING AT THE TEACHER AND THINKING: "JUST STAY AWAY".

Christopher Rainbow was abused by his teacher when he was just 8-years-old, he spent his life trying to forget about it until a knock came on his door 10 years ago.
Journal.ie 02/06/2018
“EVERYTHING CHANGED WITH that knock on the door. Everything.
“It was all forgotten until I heard the guards had called. I was thinking, ‘What’s going on here?’ I have never been in trouble in my life and neither have my kids.
“I contacted them and when they told me to call in about Creagh Lane, the penny dropped.”
Christopher Rainbow had been abused by his teacher at Creagh Lane National School in Limerick when he was just eight years of age.
He spent his life trying to forget about that time and never told anyone about the abuse -not even his wife or four children – until that knock came on the door in 2009.
Rainbow was abused in 1967 and 68, but stayed silent for more than 40 years.
When Rainbow returned from the garda station, he told his wife it was about an accident he witnessed and she didn’t discover the truth until her husband appeared on RTÉ News one evening, speaking outside Leinster House.
In 2009, Rainbow’s abuser, ex-Christian Brother Sean Drummond, was sentenced to two years in prison for indecently assaulting 19 boys between the ages of seven and nine.


Rainbow was being interviewed after a motion had been put down in the Dáil seeking redress for the victims.
Creagh Lane 
“I was going into big school and I was going to be a big boy. I still believed in Santa, the tooth fairy, all of those things. I still had my imagination and you came into this class and saw this man in front of you.
“There were 54 in our classroom. The bright boys were put up at the front and you were graded down along.
“When I went in there I thought, ‘Is this the way adults are supposed to approach us now? Is this life? You’re supposed to be touched, felt, the whole lot?’
He [the teacher] used to say to the classroom ‘put your heads down’. Up in the middle of the classroom he had a high desk and he had a stool in between that, he’d drag you up, put his legs in between you and his two hands inside your pants and he’d be fondling you. That’s what he done.
“I was glad to take a beating and I didn’t care, just give me a beating but don’t be putting your hands down my pants again. And then me coming back to my seat with the back of my shirt wet. That’s the way I’ll put it, my shirt wet.
And I remember looking up when he was doing it to another kid, he had a vein right down the middle of his forehead when he was sexually excited and it always stuck in my head. And he all red and puffed and everything.
“This happened every day, five or six children during the day. It destroys your whole world.
“The best time in your life should be when you’re a child and you’re playing with your toys and full of imagination and imaginary friends and playing hiding-go-seek. That is the way it’s supposed to be but it wasn’t. I didn’t know anything as a child, I was thinking, ‘Is this life?’
“My thing going to school was ‘survival’, ‘let’s hope I’m not picked today’. I didn’t learn anything. I couldn’t read or write, I’m dyslexic.
When a teacher was teaching me I wouldn’t be thinking about what they were saying at all. I’d be looking at them thinking, ‘You just stay away from me today, just stay away.’ My focus was to watch him.
“It was A lucky dip, you felt lucky if you weren’t picked that day and this was going on for the entire time.”
‘A new life, a new Christy’
Rainbow came from a family of nine children and he started contributing to the family financially when he was just 13.
“We come from a working class area and poverty really. I often remember taking my father’s suit up to the pawnbrokers on a Monday morning and getting seven [pounds] and six [shillings] and going into school to get a beating because I was late. But I had to get that for my mother to put food on the table because my father wasn’t paid until Friday.
“I went to England when I was 13 years of age and got on a building site. I studied one night a month and became educated through different types of society, different types of people. I used to send my mother 10 pounds out of my wages every Friday, my mother had nine children and I’m the second eldest. I was nearly earning more than my father at 14 years of age.”
Speaking about moving on with his life, Rainbow said, “When I got out of there I said: ‘That is over, I don’t want this anymore. I want a new life, I want a new Christy.’
“I found my lovely wife and I blanked it out of my head and I thought about my family, my commitment was to my wife and my four children.
When the knock came on my door, everything went out the window. The memories came back.
“When I came home to my wife [from the garda station] I said it was over an accident I witnessed. That’s what I told my wife. I hid all that.
“When I went out [to the station] I told him I didn’t want to talk about it. It brought something back to me.”
However, Rainbow later decided he would confront his past, saying otherwise he would not have been true to himself “and that’s all we have”.
His wife first found out about her husband being abused as a child when he spoke to media on the day a motion was put down in the Dáil seeking redress for the victims.
“I came back home then and she said, ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
“We got the kids together and I said to them, ‘You know what’s happened and I love you more dearly than life.’ My youngest daughter put her arms around me and said, ‘You’ve been the greatest Dad any child could have’.”
‘I should have been protected’  
Rainbow has joined Vocads, Victims Of Child Abuse in Day Schools, and is fighting for redress from the State.
Describing some the men in the campaign group, he says, “They’re amazing people, they’re honest, they’re truthful, they tell you how they feel.
“Everyone has a bad day and a good day … if we do one thing, it’s to be there to support each other when people go through bad places.  If I go through a bad place, I hope I have someone there to say, ‘You know you’re not on your own’.”
Survivors of abuse have a long history of battling with the Irish State.
In the high-profile case of Cork woman Louise O’Keefe, both the High Court and Supreme Court ruled that the State was not responsible for abuse she suffered in primary school, but the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) overruled their judgements.
Following that ruling, the State said it would make settlement offers of up to €84,000 to people bringing cases similar to O’Keeffe’s.
However, the government argues that the ECHR decision applies only to people who were abused after an initial complaint was made against a teacher and no action was taken.
This has been widely criticised with survivors saying it essentially means that the second child abused by a teacher is entitled to a settlement but the first isn’t. O’Keefe described it as “discrimination of the highest order” and Rainbow agrees:
How dare they say that I need to have a prior complaint. I should never have been touched, I should have been protected.
He added: “Prior complaints should be gone out the window, a crime is a crime is a crime.
I was having a chat with a barrister a few years ago and they were talking in legal jargon and I said, ‘Look I don’t have your education but you don’t have my experience’.
He said he feels that the government is trying to forget about the past. “They’re trying to sweep it under the carpet like we have no story to tell, but we do have a story to tell and the story should be that children should be listened to, children should be protected, children should enjoy their childhood.
“Redress would be saying that this isn’t going to happen on anyone’s watch ever again.”
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The Brothers grim
Once, the Christian Brothers wielded extraordinary power – not only over the lives of the hundreds, if not thousands, of children they abused, but over Ireland itself. Today there are only 250 people left in the Irish order, with an average age of 74 – but its legacy still looms large
Patrick Barkham The Guardian 2009



Jim Beresford was 'imprisoned' in Dublin's notorious Artane school when he was 13. 'Never in my worst nightmares had I ever dreamed such a place could exist,' he says. Photograph: Richard Hanson
It is not the memories of the kickings and lashings with a leather strap that make Tom Hayes pause and choke and break down. Nor is it the incessant bullying, the slave labour or the sexual abuse he suffered after dark in the dormitory. The memory that turns the 63-year-old former soldier's voice small with terror is one vivid image from his eight years in Glin industrial school, Limerick. "The first time I saw someone brought back to the school having absconded was one of the most frightening things I've ever witnessed," he says. "His head was shaved as punishment and then he took a really serious beating by two Christian Brothers. I've never forgotten it."
The trauma for Hayes and others has been stirred up again this week by the fourth major report in the past decade investigating the abuse of children by Ireland's Catholic clergy and teachers. A day before the government report made new revelations of the collusion of the Irish police and archbishops in covering up decades of sexual and physical torture, the Christian Brothers, the Catholic lay order at the heart of some of the most disturbing abuses, offered reparations of £145m in cash and land, to be handed over to independent trusts.
The revelations have all but destroyed a dying institution, in Ireland at least, where there are barely 250 Brothers left with an average age of 74. Last year they ceded control of 96 schools to a charitable trust, marking the end of two centuries of the Brothers educating boys in Ireland. The order may be diminished but its legacy still looms large over thousands of lives – and the development of Ireland. As Jim Beresford, who was confined to Dublin's notorious Artane school as a boy, puts it: "Ireland made the Christian Brothers and then they made Ireland."
It is difficult to overstate the Brothers' influence on Ireland. The boys it educated became the men who created the republic, its Dáil and its literature. Of 15 men executed for leading the Irish uprising of 1916, seven were Brothers' alumni. Ireland "owes more than it probably will ever realise to the Christian Brothers," said Eamon de Valera, the independence leader who later became taoiseach and president after attending a Brothers' school. Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, Charles Haughey and Bertie Ahern were Brothers' alumni. Irish writers educated by the Brothers include Roddy Doyle, Colm Tóibín and Ronan Bennett. Even James Joyce, a Jesuit, spent a short time at a Brothers' school. The order followed the Irish diaspora to Britain, Canada and Australia and John Birt, Brendan Barber and Tony Booth, father of Cherie, are alumni of the Brothers' St Mary's College, Crosby.
An Irish merchant, Edmund Rice, founded the Christian Brothers in Waterford in 1802. Dáire Keogh, an Irish historian, says one of their "foundation myths" was that they were established to teach poor boys when in fact they were created to provide a Catholic education, which had been outlawed in Ireland. The Brothers rejected the non-denominational schools system established by the British in 1831 and ran their schools independently. This, Keogh says, was fundamental in forging their uncompromising curriculum, which included an explicitly Catholic and patriotic emphasis, which shaped Ireland's national identity.
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Rice banned the physical punishment of children – a radical idea at the time. So how did his principles become so perverted? Strapped for cash, Brothers were paid by results so they pushed their boys, hard, to get scholarships to stay in secondary education. Outside the state system, their schools were poorly supervised, allowing abuse to flourish. Even when they returned to the state system after Irish independence in the 1920s, they remained relatively unsupervised by state or church. And Brothers' alumni formed much of the new civil service, giving the group powerful political influence. "The lack of supervision is part of the whole problem," says Keogh.
Ireland only introduced free secondary education in 1968. Before then, the Brothers' cheap schools opened up secondary education to thousands of families who could not otherwise afford it. "That's where they were really influential," says Keogh. According to Barry Coldrey, an Australian-based Brother turned historian who has uncovered evidence of widespread abuse, the Brothers proved "very successful in shoving young men up the social scale". Physical abuse was "tolerated so long as the Brothers delivered educational success" says Coldrey, who recalls a parent saying to him when he was teaching more than 30 years ago: "Do anything you like to him to get him through his exams."
Coldrey argues there is evidence the Brothers' leadership knew of sexual abuse in its schools as early as the 1920s. And the order's real achilles heel, he says, was its Dickensian industrial schools. Hayes was taken to Glin industrial school aged eight in 1954. Woken at 7am for mass, breakfast would be two slices of bread; lunch was potatoes and a bit of meat; supper was two more slices of bread. In the morning he had lessons; then he would work in the school tailors or farm for up to five hours. After tea, he played in the yard before being confined to his dormitory of 40 boys by 7pm. "Night time could be frightening," he says. "My very first experience of sexual abuse was when I woke up to find somebody with his hand under my blanket. He was lying under my bed."
The Brothers ruled through monitors: boys of 16 who kept order by bullying everyone in their dormitories. Hayes was not sexually abused by the Brothers, although he was regularly beaten. But when he complained about being sexually abused by other boys, he was simply beaten up by his monitor.
Why did the Christian Brothers' schools perpetuate such abuse? Hayes thinks "they lost sight of their own founder's expectations" when they ambitiously "moved into educating the elite of Ireland", setting up schools that weren't just aimed at the poor. Meanwhile, their industrial schools became just that: industries, feeding the Brothers' other, more glamorous projects, including Irish sports. "We were free labour. They made a great deal of money from it," says Hayes. "We were just cannon fodder for them."
Attempts to contextualise the abuse can make historians appear to be apologists. While 35,000 children went to Brothers' schools and other church-run institutions in the decades after the 1930s, it is not known how many were victims of abuse. There are plenty of alumni who praise their education. A former pupil of St Mary's College, Crosby, in the 1980s, recalls regular beatings and believes the Brothers' regime was certainly more violent than other public schools. But he says he would still send his children to a Brothers' school if he thought it offered the best education.
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In Ireland, the Brothers' industrial schools were vast and anachronistic. "Artane was a residential school for 900 boys," says Keogh. "These were Victorian institutions that died out in Britain in the 19th century. They survived in Ireland until the 1970s and that is the problem." Keogh argues that the Brothers gave Ireland the schools it demanded. "That's what the Irish wanted: containing people who didn't fit through the cookie cutter – the poor, problem children, single mothers. It was the architecture of containment."
Now a semi-retired teacher who lives in Huddersfield, Jim Beresford was forcibly removed from his family by the Irish courts at 13 and says he was locked away for two years in what he still calls "prison": Artane. When he escaped, the gardaí pursued him – a practice the latest report reveals was commonplace. "Never in my worst nightmares had I ever dreamed such a place could exist," he says. "When I arrived, I was shocked by the wretchedness of the prisoners. I had seen the newsreel footage of the liberation of Belsen and that's what it looked like. Many of them had their heads shaved off as punishment and were behind bars."
Beresford argues that the Brothers' brutality is rooted in the teachings of Rice, its founder, who modelled himself on Ignatius and was "heavily into self-mortification". Self-flagellation was then routine in the Catholic church. "Pain and suffering was good for the soul. If suffering is good, it's a short step to saying, 'why not inflict it?'" Brothers joined the order as teenagers; they were taught to whip themselves as punishment for their sexual urges and discipline their pupils for sexual indiscretions. In an institution that demanded celibacy and yet was riven with "sexualised violence", some Brothers became sexual sadists, argues Beresford. The impact on Ireland has been profound. "The politicians, the businessmen, the priests, all went to Christian Brothers schools and absorbed the diet of violence, religious intolerance and sadomasochism," he says. Beresford wrote in the Irish Times: "To a large extent [the Christian Brothers'] mindset is Ireland's mindset. Their sadomasochism is an unacknowledged part of Irish male identity."
Keogh disagrees. "I don't think there was anything in the theology which made abuse OK. The problems were in the structures," he says. Self-flagellation was a universal idea in the Catholic tradition until the early part of the last century. "To make the jump between that and abusing children is oversimplistic and a misunderstanding of the theology," he argues. "The whole Christian Brother phenomenon was of its time. They mirrored society rather than moulded it."
The Brothers' influence faded with the introduction of universal secondary education and the increasing secularisation of Ireland. Then came revelations of abuse. The Christian Brothers apologised in 1998 but victims were dismayed at its half-heartedness. Earlier this year – after Brothers' legal action successfully preserved their individual anonymity – the Ryan report confirmed that sexual abuse was "endemic" in boys' institutions, chiefly those run by the Brothers. Many victims, however, remain sceptical that they will ever see any of the proffered reparations money and are convinced that the authorities continue to conceal the scale of the suffering.
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Its Irish victims are also appalled that the order continues to thrive outside Ireland. These days, the Brothers' leader is Indian and the order is active in India, 13 African countries and across north and South America, although with more of an emphasis on social work. "They are one of Ireland's major exports," says Beresford. "This isn't just an Irish problem. These guys went all over the world and carried their evil methods with them."
In Ireland, the Brothers run retreat centres, help prisoner rehabilitation and, according to Brother Edmund Garvey, a member of its Dublin-based European leadership team, have spent the past six years critically examining their religious life. Part of the problem, says Garvey, was their "dualism" that separated human life from spiritual life; living in small centres, some of the order are now considering whether to permit non-celibacy. He says the order is very willing to meet victims and has done so since the Ryan report. "If anybody wants to meet with us we are totally open, willing and ready," he says.
Asked about the positive contribution of the Brothers, Garvey points out: "There is a huge number of Brothers who never sexually abused or physically abused people in an unwarranted way. The abusers are not the total story."
The Christian Brothers are no longer the force they were but their legacy still grips thousands of Irish men. Like many victims, Tom Hayes fled Ireland. He found refuge in the British army, where he served for 42 years. "Many of us still suffer from some kind of post-traumatic stress disorder. Many of us are loners. Many of us are workaholics or alcoholics or take drugs. Fear and insecurity has plagued me throughout my life."
For much of our long conversation, Hayes is polite and almost meek towards his abusers. He says he still feels angry though, because he believes the Christian Brothers are still in denial and refuse to engage with victims. "They seem to be totally disinterested in hearing from us. No matter how well we have done or how sane we are, they still regard us with contempt." It sounds almost like he is still seeking their approval. "We were children. We didn't do anything wrong. We were used and abused and yet even to this day somehow we have a sense of guilt that we can't for the life of us get rid of."
Additional reporting by Ian Sansom
How the church's secret came to light
June 1995 Father Brendan Smith is sentenced to jail in Belfast for a catalogue of paedophile crimes. The failure of the Irish state to initially hand him over to the authorities ultimately leads to the fall of the Fianna Fáil-Labour party coalition in Dublin. Victims begin to speak out about widespread clerical abuse.
October 2005 The Ferns report is published detailing extensive child abuse and cover-up in the south-east of Ireland. Among those investigated was Father Sean Fortune. He later committed suicide rather than face his victims.

2005 The Murphy Commission is established 10 years after complaints by more than 400 people against 43 priests in the Dublin diocese. Costing more than €3m (£2.7m), the inquiry takes four years. Former victims who played a key role in exposing the scandal included Andrew Madden, who was abused as an altar boy.
May 2009 The Ryan report focuses on church-run industrial schools, orphanages and the Magdalene laundries. The main religious orders criticised include the Irish Christian Brothers and several orders of nuns including the Sisters of Mercy. The report vindicates claims by hundreds of former inmates and orphans that they were subject to regimes of physical brutality and sexual exploitation. Among those who led the campaign to reveal the truth was Thomas "Anto" Clarke. He spoke to the Observer in 1998 and his testimony prompted other victims to come forward and establish the campaign group Irish Survivors of Child Abuse, which fought for an Ireland-wide inquiry.

November 2009 A report on the abuse of children by clergy in Dublin from the early 1970s to date is published. It accuses the church hierarchy in Dublin of covering up reports of abuses, and says Ireland's police force colluded. Victims' campaigners are now demanding that Pope Benedict (pictured) personally apologises. Two priests have been suspended. Henry McDonald


PAT SAYS

What can I add to this horrendous story?

86 comments:

  1. Nothing new... Capuchins were just as bad...
    what great memories.. not!

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  2. The church was never good at chosing membership of the clergy... today is no different. False hope and control has allowed it perpetuate.

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  3. Dermot Clifford should be suspended from a crane and his balls cut from him.

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    Replies
    1. Don't assume His Disgrace Dermot has balls. He is more famous for being a prick than having a prick.

      By now he is surely preserved in whiskey and hidden from the public.

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    2. He is preserved in the guise of Bishop Len Brennan.

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    3. Why? What has he done? Isn't he just a retired clergyman who deserves to enjoy his retirement!

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    4. 12.10: Anger management classes might do you a favour, as would read I g the gospel of Jesus about how we treat one another, as would learning to control your hate language. What purpose is served by this language except to belittle and dehumanize yourself.

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    5. Track records including,
      Destroying the lives of priests,
      Destroying the faith of the faithful
      The man even refused to reply to applications for seminary resulting in Cashel & Emly having no ordinations for nearly a decade and a half.

      That is even before we explore the cover ups in his archdiocese and the religious orders he left work in it.

      He is know in Thurles as 'The Bollox', a summary of his capacity for manners, or lack there of.

      His legacy is that of destruction.

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    6. Sounds like Dermot deserves a blog day of his own to see we what info is out there

      Delete
  4. Ian Paisley publishing a letter today from a Priest who supports the DUP on abortion. I wonder who that is? Priests should not be using their homilies to tell people which political party to vote for, it's an abuse of their position.

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    1. I agree but they’ve been doing it for years! I remember several sermons explicitly telling people to vote for pro life parties which at the time were limited to Ulster Unionist (not likely) DUP (less likely) SDLP and Sinn Fein..... now times have changed I wonder will they do the same and continue to tell people to vote Pro Life? In this part of the world effectively meaning they should vote DUP? ..... can I get out my good set of Protestant Clothes now and be a DUP voter? Lol

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    2. He claims it’s a priest in his “constituency” so that narrows it to that area. He’s an idiot for writing to that clown. If the DUP were the last party on earth, I wouldn’t vote for them - no matter how anti-abortion they are.

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    3. I totally agree with Rusty @ 09.29 & 09.36. I think the Priest is an idiot and now his identity will be revealed. Someone should have told him never put anything in writing as apart from anything else the Church keeps every little note on you. Paisley has had to reveal the identity after people accused him of making it up lol.

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    4. Priests should preach the truth on faith and morals, even if it makes nominal Catholics squirm. I bet a lot of those complaining don't even go to Mass.

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    5. Priests should not be involved in party political broadcasts. It amuses me that idiots like Cartar 10.33 assume that people with an opinion don't go to Mass. Get a life will you and catch yourself on.

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    6. 09.36
      What price is a baby’s life worth?
      Oh sorry, I see what’s its worth to you

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    7. 11.35 I happen to agree with 09.36 in that Paisley is a clown, the Priest who wrote to him was a greater clown and your contribution, well, dare I say it, you are a worse eejit.

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    8. A priest should preach on the Scripture readings. If a priest wants to he should read the catechism out to his parishioners. But he should never allow confusion or ad lib preaching. Stick to the teachings, nothing more, nothing less - no vote canvassing, people need to make up their own minds freely and without force.

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    9. 12.14 Spot on! No talking about their relations and their holiday travels. No appealing for money or looking for congratulations from the Congregation.

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    10. 12.11
      Thank you for your learned contribution.
      If you wish to call me an eejit for wanting to protect a defenceless baby that’s entirely up to you.

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    11. 13.46 Those are your words not mine which you very conveniently twist for your own agenda. It was said in the context of paisley as you well know.

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    12. 13.55
      It’s quite clear what you said at 12.11 and my only agenda as you call it, is to protect the defenceless babies
      What’s your agenda?

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    13. I would say look after your own babies and never mind sticking your snout into anyone elses babies. Go and live with Arlene, you'll be in the right place there.

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    14. I agree with Magna, and Paisley and the priest. In fact every priest is duty bound to tell the followers of Jesus that it is a sin to promote a party which is pro abortion. It's interesting in this blog to see the bolshiness of so many nationalists in their hatred of Unionists, which is just more evidence that there is no true peace process in the north but a strategic cessation of violence.

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    15. 16.54
      So you don’t like Ian Paisley
      You don’t like the priest
      You don’t like Arlene Foster
      You don’t like me for speaking up for innocent babies.
      You sound such a lovely person.
      If you’re an example of a new Ireland, God help us!
      PS that’s hardly your post at 19.08 bottom of the page, spot you a mile away.

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    16. 19.34 Sorry to disappoint you dearie but thats not my post at 19.08 so you don’t seem to know much about anything. That figures.

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    17. 20.26
      Still at the name calling I see!
      If it’s not you, it must be birds of a feather then.
      Another hero of Ireland.... your ancestors would be proud of you....

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    18. Trying to reason with Shinner cyber-warriors is totally futile. SF is a cult.

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  5. Carta or whatever the name is - I bet you are one to talk about going to Mass. Fool.

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  6. Abuse abuse abuse again! Nobody bothers with Catholicism's habit of spiritual abuse of children. A Jesuit priest said when one begins to talk about who is or is not allowed to receive communion, one is on dangerous ground because that one is standing between God and his people.
    My response: Does not change the fact that communion is passive aggressive according to the following teachings of the apostle Paul. It is not a parent's right or choice to let a child have anything to do with it. Some things are non-negotiable. "Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering. If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God. In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. --- Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world. So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together. Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment."

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    Replies
    1. Communion is 'passive aggressive'? Huh?

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    2. MournemanMichael4 June 2018 at 16:58

      Magna you pick up on "passive aggressive ".
      At point where I read that I was shaking my head wondering what the comment was about. On reading it all I felt inclined to reply: "Which goes to show .....what?"
      On reflection I decided there would be little point or hope of getting any sensible reply.
      We can but wait and see.
      MMM

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  7. 10.51 I shouldn't waste my breath if I where you on Cartar, the person is a total gobshite.

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  8. Father Gates was in fine singing tune at Weekday Mass this morning, he was chirping like a little bird. We said afterwards he seemed to be in top form as he doesn't usually sing during the week. It was just a little unfortunate he wasn't aware the people could hear him shouting at the parish Sister as to the whereabouts of the tabernacle key. I guess microphones left on can be a problem.
    P
    Magherafelt

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    1. That's the problem with Gates.

      Public angel - private devil!

      He will fall yet, you mark my words.

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    2. Pat @14.03 Some long standing regular weekday Massgoers have been very surprised to learn that Fr. Gates was not ill in anyway but went on a sunshine holiday instead. Why where people misled into praying for someone unwell when they were clearly in good health. What's with the lies? Not impressed that People are being treated like mugs.

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    3. 15:42: That's what the so-called 'shepherds' think of their 'sheep'.

      BAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

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    4. Once s bully always a bully. He will never change. Let’s hope those holy rollers that witnessed him shouting at the nun now know what we are all talking about. Needs run out of town again for good

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    5. In reply to 13:45. I heard it all at Mass today. I had welcomed the return of Fr Gates and now I’m not so sure !!!!

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    6. Never thought I'd see the day I would agree with Mags @ 16.36 so here goes:
      BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

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    7. 13:45 What a hypocrite you are, only out of Mass and following into gossip.

      What a pathetic individual!

      I was at Mass also this morning and never heard anything.

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    8. 19.33 I didn’t “follow into gossip” as you suggest but based my post on what I seen and heard myself at Mass. The poster @ 18.37 also heard the same. Maybe you are partial to the gossip yourself for choosing to join in this conversation but the parish centre is your best option for gossip.

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    9. You can chew the alter rails all you like but Ill keep telling about the shouting and bullying by Gates and his sidekick

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  9. Pat. Methinks you know much more about Gates than you’re letting on

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    Replies
    1. 100% correct.

      Would have preferred not to go down that road :-(

      Delete
    2. Bishop Pat, the next chapter on Gates is beginning. I hope the info that was sent to you earlier was helpful. It's a waste of time sending it to Armagh and the Nuncio as they don't reply to anything. Please feel free to copy it and send it to the relevant Department in Rome.

      Delete
    3. Thank you.

      I am surprised/shocked at the details :-(

      Delete
    4. Is it financial or sexual? Or both.

      Delete
  10. I've reason to share information on a topic.

    If I post on this blog is my identity or particulars known to you are anyone else?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is no way either I, or anybody else, can know, find out who you are when you post anonymously.

      Delete
    2. Thank you. I'll blog when the information I'm hearing is 100% right.

      Delete
    3. Thank you Mr Donnelly.

      Delete
    4. There's plenty of stories to be told about the parish centre.

      Delete
    5. Some one actually stated backed a few weeks ago that he new the posters identity and I do know it stopped a few people from blogging, a pity.
      Freedom of speech for all!

      Delete
  11. Not long before this very important topic was hijacked and derailed by the Magherafelt mono-maniac. He's ruining the blog, Pat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 17.27 You are ruining things for people who have an opinion. Stop whining and trying to dictate what's discussed on the blog.

      Delete
    2. Pat was raising a tragic account of child sexual abuse and then you have to come along and trot out the hackneyed, ill-written and unproven allegations which have been repeated for weeks. You need serious professional help.

      Delete
  12. 17.27 I think Pat is more intelligent than you give him credit for, it's his blog not yours. I think Pat is more than capable to decide if anyone is hijacking his blog or not.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You may think that. At least one other doesn’t.

      Delete
  13. I take it that the Christian Brothers you’re referencing in today’s are different from the De La Salle Brothers over here in the USA. You know the ones who wear the bibs like old fashioned Anglicans.

    Most of their alumni speak fondly of them and are even proud of their boxing encounters.

    For example: An old uncle told me that he had to box with a De La Salle brother due to some infraction, and once he had his own gloves on the Brother told him that he would be subject to automatic excommunication if he actually hit him. My uncle said he didn’t care and proceeded to beat the stercus out of the Brother, or so he claimed. Nonetheless he still gave to the S. LaSalle fund every year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed, CB and De La Salle's are two distinct teaching orders

      Delete
  14. The de la Salle's were big in Downpatrick 's Red High Grammar school. Most were okay: using nicknames some might recognise: Sweeps was fair, as was PQ, and Anthony. Charles was strict and respected and Ignatius kindly firm and tolerant. Snowball was "intellectually challenged ". It was all surpassed by the Head Brother Albert. That man I now know and remember 60 years later to have been a sadistic vicious bastard who slapped young lads mercilessly for minor transgressions with implements like a hammer shaft, broom handle sawn in three in aďdition to the traditional cane. I feared and despised him and all he represented.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Head Brother Albert remminds me of the PP of Magherafelt.

      Delete
    2. The De La Salle brothers have an abuse history too:
      https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.scotsman.com/news/politics/de-la-salle-brothers-failed-abused-boys-1-4477322/amp

      Delete
    3. 18.40: I was educated by the De La Salle Brothers for 5 years in late 70's Never had one bad incident. Strict at times but all very honourable. In fact some of the lay teachers were terrors. I got a good education and was greatly encouraged. I am sorry for your memories. I hope you have found healing.

      Delete
    4. Bishop Buckley in Cork is famous for having thrown a student down the stairs in Farrenferris, breaking that student's arm.

      Delete
  15. Pat things are not all well in Keady

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Any problems in Keady are nothing half as bad as what we put up with in Magherafelt.I could write a book.

      Delete
    2. Seems leaflets handed out at a fundraiser for parish condemning homosexuals and quoting bible. Other damnation quotes as well. Surprising this was allowed saying the parish own PP is homosexual and visited a gay site. When I phone the parish office today. I was told that they know nothing about it. Strange saying the Priest in charge was at the fundraiser. People not impressed.

      Delete
    3. 20.33: Go write a book but make sure you tell the TRUTH.

      Delete
  16. Perhaps the “ PaisleyPriest” can be narrowed down further. Not only is he in north Antrim but the observation me noticed a bit in his letter on tv saying that he didn’t have a tv.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 19:08 sounds like a Penal Laws priest hunter.

      Delete
    2. 19.08: Tell us, what is the purpose of chasing down this priest? What's his crime? P S. - you could retype your last sentence: it's confusing and almost illiterate. Instead of preying on this priest, you should educate yourself and learn the true meaning of charity.

      Delete
    3. The priest's crimes, as far as the illiterate Priest Hunter is concerned are that he expressed support for the DUP's stance, and he expressed a view. I think the illiterate is probably an angry Shinner (though is there any other kind)?

      I've been a Catholic DUP voter for years over abortion but I think it was unwise and possibly opportunistic for Ian Paisley to have disclosed lines from a private letter. That is unless the priest gave him permission to do so.

      Delete
    4. 22.56 Wise up you numpty. Catholic DUP voter my arse, another attention seeker wanting attention.

      Delete
    5. Opportunism is a very strong temptation for politicians.

      Take SF and the SDLP for example. They have had road to Damascus conversions once they sensed the direction of public opinion. The same with FF and FG. At least lost causes such as the Alliance and UK Labour have been consistent and principled and not flip-flopped.

      It's hard to believe that there is now only one pro-life party on these islands. So the DUP will pick up Catholic votes because, for pro-lifers, it's now the only show in town.

      Delete
    6. Have you thought about this? There's hardly any stigma about adult illiteracy nowadays, so go for it!

      http://www.nrc.ac.uk/part-time/adult-essential-skills/

      Delete
    7. 22.56 I see the name caller @ 23.09 is at it again just like his earlier postings.
      All Catholics are duty bound to protect the life of an innocent baby, it’s not good enough to just refrain from voting, stand up and be counted and give the babies a chance. Please vote DUP to prevent the genocide of Irish babies and save your own souls as well.

      Delete
    8. 20:03 A sentence can’t be illiterate. It can be illegibile, illogical or ill conceived. The person attempting to read it can be illiterate - in both languages. ��

      Delete
  17. "Observation me noticed" lol. Why are illiterates so ready to opine here in such an unlearned way?

    ReplyDelete
  18. It was a typo you trumpet !!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pull the other one, there is no way it's a typo. They occur when people misspell a word. How could I become me?

      Delete
  19. 21.41. Why don’t you go and pull your plonker and bring a bit of joy into your life. Much more fun than being a bishops man and a pioneer. Over zealous oul twat.

    ReplyDelete
  20. As regards Magherafelt, I apologise if I missed it (it can be tricky to follow all the blog entries sometimes), but did someone report on what actually happened at the confirmation in Magherafelt?
    Pat, where you there? Was there a protest? Was there a reaction? What is the next step? It seems, from some of the comments, that the original priest is now back and everything is normal.

    ReplyDelete
  21. + Pat why do you never write about the Rosminians and all that has gone on with them ? Father Barry Farmer , Father Bernard Collins ? Father Kit Cunningham to name a few ?

    ReplyDelete