The words of Bertie Ahern
Posted on | May 21, 2009 | 56 Comments
One of things overlooked yesterday when the report came out was the recommendation of the commission.
The report calls for a memorial to be built and inscribed with the words of Bertie Ahern, who apologised in 1999 to victims of the abuse.
While the survivors of the abuse have been vindicated there is to be no justice due to the collusion between state and church, which allowed the abuse to happen unfettered and then essentially gave the religious orders a free pass when it came to being prosecuted for their despicable crimes.
Yet the commission recommends we build a monument with the words of the former Taoiseach, the man who led his government through a frenzy of greed, fraud, cronyism, nepotism and back-slappery which sees the country on the brink/in the throes of financial meltdown. A man whose government did deals with the religious orders which saw the taxpayer front the bill for compensation while they kept their buildings, their land, their power and influence over schools.
So Bertie Ahern apologised unreservedly to the survivors of the abuse. If it wasn’t him it would have been somebody else. And it would have meant just as much.
A man who said of Ray Burke, monstrously corrupt Fianna Fail politician:
I always found him to be a proud honourable man, loyal and true, persevering and principled, caring and committed but tough and a person who often lost friends very easily. On behalf of the Government and particularly on behalf of the Fianna Fáil Party, I thank him for his distinguished years in the service of his constituents and his country.
A man who, when questioned about his personal finances said:
I’m not answering what I got for my Holy Communion money, my Confirmation money, what I got for my birthday, what I got for anything else, I’m not into that.
Of course he was above having to be answerable to the people of Ireland, despite what he said in 1996:
The public are entitled to have an absolute guarantee of the financial probity and integrity of their elected representatives, their officials and above all of Ministers. They need to know that they are under financial obligations to nobody.
What an utter hypocrite.
I think a monument to honour the survivors of insitutional abuse is a good idea. It should serve to shame and remind us what depravity and iniquity we allowed in Irish society, it should stand as a testament to those who were brave and courageous enough to speak out, and to those who cannot despite suffering at the hands of those evil men and women.
But must we taint it with the words of a man like Bertie Ahern? Have the survivors not given us more eloquent, more moving, more honest words than his?
We owe them better.
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56 Responses to “The words of Bertie Ahern”
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May 21st, 2009 @ 10:40 am
it’s all so fucking depressing. just when you think this country can’t get any worse, it does. if you tried to find a better way to insult the survivors of catholic abuse, you couldn’t do any better.
as for locations for monuments, one outside the entrance to every monastery, convent and priest’s residence would be a start, followed by one outside dail eireann cataloguing government complicity. it’d be big enough to stop all those cunts from getting inside and fucking up the country any more.
May 21st, 2009 @ 11:03 am
this article highlights how much any monument with the words of the state on it means. words of apology from a government that is fighting victims of abuse in court so they and their religious cronies can deny responsibility? insulting
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0521/1224247036973.html
May 21st, 2009 @ 11:22 am
How about Bertie be encased in a cement block that forms the plinth for the memorial. That’d make me a bit happier.
May 21st, 2009 @ 11:24 am
A monument is a pretty weak response to one of the most shameful episodes in any country’s history. Here is what to do: take control of education back from the church(es) and run a secular education system. There are 2 reasons why the church runs education in this country – 1 because the church want to control what we are taught and 2 because the state is too lazy/incompetent to run it.
Also, lands owned by church where former industrial schools should be confiscated and put to some use for the common good. A monument is a joke. You can be sure it will cost a fortune, be ugly as hell, be in the wrong place and have Bertie fucking Ahern’s meaningless drivel on it. Total seperation of church and state is called for like in any normal country.
May 21st, 2009 @ 11:49 am
Great timing – The Installation of the Archbishop of Westminster live on TV – blech!
May 21st, 2009 @ 11:54 am
There are 2 reasons why the church runs education in this country – 1 because the church want to control what we are taught and 2 because the state is too lazy/incompetent to run it.
Not sure about 2 – 1916 was a Catholic Revolution. You found a Catholic state then you have to accept that schooling will be best run by the church.
May 21st, 2009 @ 12:32 pm
Why are the shower in CORI given so much power in the running of the state with their meddling in partnership agreements? Surely it’s time for mass arrests of those obstructing justice and for CAB to move into church institutions to relieve them of their ill gotten gains?
May 21st, 2009 @ 12:45 pm
I thought 1916 was about independence not religion. Anyway lots has happened since then, – War of independence, formation of the Republic, the 1960s for fucks sake. Just because the main religion is Catholic doesn’t mean that education shouldn’t be run by the State. We pay taxes to fund education, money that, right now, goes to the Christian Brothers, Sisters of Mercy and all the other fuckheads who are denying that this stuff ever happened. Don’t tell me this is the best we can do. Cut them out of the system like a cancer and let them fade into obscurity where they belong.
May 21st, 2009 @ 1:19 pm
Ha Ha what a bunch of winging fuckers the Irish are,
oohh its all the catholic churches fault,
Like no one knew it was happening
Every fucking dog in the street was aware what went on in Artane and every other shit hole like it
Mothers threatened their kids “i’ll send you to artane if you dont behave”
Yet now shock Horror some one put it in writing and It’s all if only we knew
Fuck off the whole country knew and did nothing because they didn’t give a shit ,
And look at who is running the country now do you really think any thing has changed.
Has it Bollox
May 21st, 2009 @ 1:21 pm
You stupid, stupid cunt
May 21st, 2009 @ 1:38 pm
Has a point though
May 21st, 2009 @ 1:44 pm
A point that has been made by pretty much everyone else.
May 21st, 2009 @ 1:48 pm
No harm in ramming it home
May 21st, 2009 @ 1:49 pm
True, but he’s preaching to the converted here.
May 21st, 2009 @ 1:56 pm
The Church in Ireland is damaged beyond repair – but will anything be done? If enough people demand it will people be punished – both in Church and state – and will that deal with the Church be reversed ? Or will the establishment plan to stall until something else catches the Public eye succeed ? Stall, limited disclosures, allow the public to vent a bit and then it will be announced that it is ” Time to move on” – That what has happened in respect of the terrible crimes and injustices of the past 40 years in Northern Ireland.
Fuck them all.
May 21st, 2009 @ 2:15 pm
Englishman, Scotsman and Father pat on the Titanic as she starts to go down. Legging it for the lifeboat the stiff upper lipped pom says ‘I say, chaps, children first’. The rough and ready Scot, says ‘Nae, fuck them” and Father Pat looks at his watch says ‘Well, if you think we have time …’
I’m sorry, sometimes I over compensate in the face of horror. It’s like smiling at funerals.
May 21st, 2009 @ 2:26 pm
@ taya
So eh, what did you do about it? You’re clearly Irish yourself.
May 21st, 2009 @ 3:28 pm
I bet you Ahern is wetting himself with glee at the thought of his words being immortalised forever. Cunt!
May 21st, 2009 @ 3:46 pm
They should put this blog post on the stupid cuntin monument.
May 21st, 2009 @ 3:49 pm
“Yet the commission recommends we build a monument with the words of the former Taoiseach, the man who led his government through a frenzy of greed, fraud, cronyism, nepotism and back-slappery which sees the country on the brink/in the throes of financial meltdown. ”
His legacy
http://www.cnbc.com/id/30308959/?slide=1
May 21st, 2009 @ 3:58 pm
Anybody else need a drink? Badly?
May 21st, 2009 @ 4:53 pm
“Anybody else need a drink? Badly?”
Yeah.. after i found out today that the taxpayer will foot the bill for church abuse , while the church gets off scot free..
plus the commission report – all evidence used CANNOT be then reused in prosecutions…
but i really needed a drink when i found out that the church abusers are now protected by anonymity conferred by the commission report…
May 21st, 2009 @ 6:19 pm
I can’t begin to express my anger at the decision not to prosecute those beasts. I know there is no point in sending men in their seventies and eighties to jail, but we as a society owe it to the victims who are still alive, and whom we failed for so long and totally at a time in their lives when they were at their most vulnerable and helpless, to let them see those scum stand where they belong – in the dock – and, if convicted, justice will have been served in that they will die bearing the stigma of criminals that they so richly deserve.
–
On another theme, you couldn’t make stuff like this up:
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/courts/soldier-cleared-over-failure-to-repel-woolly-intruders-1744512.html
Calling sheep girls??? When I was a kid, soldiers on the Curragh used to wear leather leggings. Now I know why they were taken away from them.
May 21st, 2009 @ 6:37 pm
I know there is no point in sending men in their seventies and eighties to jail,
Why not ? They deserve it, it would help their victims and it would send a powerful message to the Church and society.
Eamonn McCann is worth a read
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/eamon-mccann/eamonn-mcann-why-pope-must-pray-victims-forgive-vaticanrsquos-role-in-abuse-14308688.html
Unless there is severe punishment it will be “back to business as usual”.
May 21st, 2009 @ 6:51 pm
well seeing as they think god is going to forgive them SOMEONE should punish them
May 21st, 2009 @ 6:56 pm
maggot said:
May 21st, 2009 at 6:37 pm
“I know there is no point in sending men in their seventies and eighties to jail,
“Why not ? They deserve it, it would help their victims and it would send a powerful message to the Church and society.”
– I hear you, Maggot, and I’d have no sympathy for them, but you’d probably have the State having to pay vast sums to take care of gaga old geezers, whom the religious orders should be made support.
I believe that bringing them to justice and, if they are convicted, letting them end their lives as what our society will have finally acknowledged that they are – criminals – will also send a strong message.
Mind you, I’d leave the last word to the victims. And if they prefer a neck-tie party, I’ll be happy to help them grease some ropes.
May 21st, 2009 @ 7:01 pm
well seeing as they think god is going to forgive them SOMEONE should punish them
heh, very true though.
May 21st, 2009 @ 7:02 pm
Under maggot rule Church assets will have been sequestered Fintan – there will be loads of money!
May 21st, 2009 @ 7:04 pm
ibanez- i dunno dyou really think they even believe in god?
May 21st, 2009 @ 7:07 pm
I read somewhere that in the eyes of the Church sexual relations with children is less sinful than a priest having sexual relations with a woman.
May 21st, 2009 @ 7:16 pm
Maggot, the Church sees little difference between fucking twenty-eight year olds and fucking twenty eight year olds. Shame on them all.
May 21st, 2009 @ 7:24 pm
Walter – I don’t think that is true.
But what can be done with an outfit that canonises a monster like Stepinac, a convicted war criminal ? That protected priests involved in Genocide in Rwanda ? Look at the present pope – just 12 days after his election he honoured Cardinal Bernard Law FFS.
May 21st, 2009 @ 10:56 pm
Might be a stoopid question and maybe asked before, but couldn’t the surviving abusees just bring charges against the surviving abusers? It’s not like they’re going to forget the name of the abuser in a hurry. And if the church doesn’t co-operate with police, it gets charged with obstruction. In a corporate environment, the CEO can be charged for a corporate crime, why not the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland? That would get some action lower down the food chain. Maybe it’s a bit simplistic, but doesn’t it just need the will to do something?
May 21st, 2009 @ 11:47 pm
“Might be a stoopid question and maybe asked before, but couldn’t the surviving abusees just bring charges against the surviving abusers?”
Not a stupid question, IMHO.
But the law is a very complex beast. There are so many avenues open that it is difficult to chose which one to go down (e.g. libel, corporate negligence, civil litigation, tort, etc, etc.). Only the victims can decide how to put these terrible events beind them. If a victim decides that a memorial is the right option for them, I’m with them all the way — and vice versa.
May 22nd, 2009 @ 3:02 am
The names should be published on every sign post in Ireland in letters 10 feet high. And they should be stoned if they ever tried to leave their holy churches. And they should have bracelets on them with GPS systems so they’re tracked 24/7/365 and they should be stripped of all their wealth and it should be put into trust for their victims and their victims’ families and they should wear itchy rough tweed clothes with no underwear and heavy hobnailed boots and share swill with pigs and no human will ever speak to them again, they will be silenced for ever to contemplate their evil.
May 22nd, 2009 @ 5:44 am
Marinkina said:
May 21st, 2009 at 11:44 pm
“Пора переименовать блог, присвоив название связанное с доменами :) может хватит про них?”
–
какая ерунда!
Have you heard about the new sex manual for Russians?
Putin, takeout — repeat as necessary.
May 22nd, 2009 @ 6:58 am
Could the CAB not get their hands on some of the church’s loot? Bear in mind that they had kids working in slave-like conditions so that the church could make a few bob. Seems like some of their assets could be considered the proceeds of crime
May 22nd, 2009 @ 8:30 am
Monty said:
May 22nd, 2009 at 6:58 am
“Could the CAB not get their hands on some of the church’s loot? Bear in mind that they had kids working in slave-like conditions so that the church could make a few bob. Seems like some of their assets could be considered the proceeds of crime.”
Good idea in principle, but even if they take everything except the black gear the priests and other religious are standing up in, it will hardly cover the total compensation bill that is likely to arise from a spate of claims. I’ve seen figures as high as €10 billion being mentioned.
May 22nd, 2009 @ 8:35 am
I doubt if your politicians have the guts to act. The church assets – property and funds – should be sequestered.
May 22nd, 2009 @ 9:22 am
but i really needed a drink when i found out that the church abusers are now protected by anonymity conferred by the commission report…
To paraphrase:
A nun ,a priest and a bishop walk into a Bar.
The Barman says “Get the fuck out of my bar!”
May 22nd, 2009 @ 9:23 am
He’s a slimebag alright. Who was it elected him again? And they shouldn’t be prosecuted and put in prison, they should be hung by their fucking heels. There is no, and never has been, accountability or transparency in the governing of this country. And it will never, ever change.
May 22nd, 2009 @ 10:23 am
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said they needed a mechanism to re-open the indemnity deal done with the religious orders who paid about €127 million towards redress payments to victims of abuse, but the bill for the taxpayer was 10 times that amount.
He referred to the report’s conclusion about the “deferential and submissive attitude of the Department of Education towards the congregations” and said that the “same deferential and submissive attitude was alive” when then minister for education Dr Michael Woods concluded the agreement in 2002 with the religious orders.
He’s the only one who seems to be arguing this way…
May 22nd, 2009 @ 10:39 am
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0522/breaking28.htm
cunts
May 22nd, 2009 @ 10:41 am
Last night’s Prime Time – http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1048409
May 22nd, 2009 @ 11:09 am
If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a large millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned at the bottom of the sea.” (Matthew 18:6)
May 22nd, 2009 @ 11:10 am
It all begs the question.
What shit do the church(in particular the Nuns) have on Bertie?
As each day goes by the more i wish there was a fatal accident on the cards for that cunt..
May 22nd, 2009 @ 11:18 am
What shit do the church(in particular the Nuns) have on Bertie?
Married man swanning round with mistress yet wasn’t denounced by the Church ? Look no further.
May 22nd, 2009 @ 11:23 am
Surely this is a get out ?
It emerged, after the deal had been concluded in 2002, that it had been agreed to by Dr Woods and the then department secretary general John Dennehy, despite opposition from the Department of Finance and without advice from the Attorney General.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0522/1224247112795.html?via=rel
May 22nd, 2009 @ 8:13 pm
just reading the executive summary of the report, stomach churning stuff (and that’s just the basic summary, haven’t even gotten into the individual reports yet). This is waht Bertie said that day (to be fair, the recommendations don’t mention him by name, just as Taoiseach. I hate him as much as the next person, but his words were an apology from the government at the time, which is an important thing)
“On behalf of the State and of all citizens of the State, the Government wishes to make a
sincere and long overdue apology to the victims of childhood abuse for our collective
failure to intervene, to detect their pain, to come to their rescue.”
I can’t believe how much of my taxes are going towards carrying the can for the Catholic Church. The whole institution should be looted and burned to the ground.
May 23rd, 2009 @ 1:26 am
Can you nationalise a Church? No harm trying. Didn’t Henry VIII do it a while back? How hard could it be?
May 23rd, 2009 @ 1:38 am
The more I see and hear from that cunt that heads the christain brothers (from Prime Time on Monday) the more I think Bertie was a complete cocksucking cunt for making a sweetheart deal with those bastards so they can keep their land and their money and those paedophile fuckers that are still alive can stay retired and anonymous.
Fuck you Bertie, you may have fucked this country with a property bubble but for shaking hands on a deal with those sodomite cunts, you will be remembered for pissing and shitting all over the brave victims that came forward.
Bertie: May the worst details of the worlds most violently disgusting version of the aristocrats joke happen to him before he dies.
Whew! Glad I got that off mychest…
May 23rd, 2009 @ 11:30 am
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May 23rd, 2009 @ 11:34 pm
Fucking Hell – read the words of William A. Donohue
President, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/opinion/l22ireland.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=ireland&st=cse
May 24th, 2009 @ 12:27 pm
I often wondered where the Nazi’s got the people to run their camps.
Now I have a good idea, anything can be done in the name of the organisation, and everyone and everything must be protected at all cost.
“I was only carrying out orders” says the Christian Brother.
“Discipline must be maintained” says the nun
Slave labour camps ran by perverts with the blessing of the government.
May 24th, 2009 @ 6:19 pm
If any other organisations,like The Catholic Church and The Fianna Fail party (They have been in Government longer than any other political Party, into the bargain they have destroyed the economy) had commited and allowed such atrocities against this nations children they would be proscribed organisations.
Since the foundation of the state The Fianna Fail Party and certain senior civil servants have colluded with the Catholic church to prolong and perpetuate this abuse.
Again we have no
culpability.
Responsibility.
Accountability.
The Civil Service is the one common denominator since the foundation of the state.
They have shown themselves to be utterly incompetent. instead of whingeing about the levie they should be glad they are still employed. and some of them not charged with criminal neglect They would not last a week in the private sector.
“Oh Suffer litle children and come unto me”. I now know what that really meant.
May 25th, 2009 @ 10:25 pm
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