Dáil debates

Thursday, 11 June 2009

Ryan Report on the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse: Motion (Resumed)

 

4:00 pm

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

We had what Senator Harris, in an article he wrote in the Sunday Independent some two weeks ago, referred to as a kind of toxic cocktail of nationality, land and religion, as described by Daniel Corkery. That produced a culture of cruelty, secrecy and denial. I hope we are moving away from it.

The children who were detained in adult mental institutions are not referred to in the Ryan report. Perhaps in some ways the only people who have captured the enormity of what has been done here have been our artists. I think of Sinéad O'Connor acting as the Virgin Mary in "The Butcher Boy", the notion of the appearance of Our Lady in accordance with, if I may term it, Catholic mythology and stories, appearing as a point of hope in an otherwise horrific life.

Yesterday I met Andy Smith, who was a Workers' Party councillor on Dublin City Council, who lives close to here. He now writes poetry about his experiences. One of his poems speaks of:

The Big Men in their Long Black Frocks,

Behind the High Dark Walls of Daingean.

It begins:

I still hear the cries of the beatings, the torture and the pain,

I still see the faces of the sorrowful young boys,

Behind the High Dark Walls of Daingean. ...

When they release us,

Back onto the Streets of Dublin - Illiterate,

Not able to read or write,

No confidence in ourselves,

All alone and no one to help us.

Many people made that journey and made something of themselves, their children and their grandchildren, and of that they must be very proud. Like many others who listened to what happened yesterday, I both cried and felt immensely proud of the people who were on the platform that they survived, and their survival will ensure that future generations will not forget this story.

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