Most holy Bertie on the bishops
Posted on | December 1, 2009 | 57 Comments
Here’s former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern talking in the Irish Examiner about the criticisms levelled at the bishops in the light of the Murphy Report:
I mean it’s difficult for them all. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I mean they are all saying different things as far as I can see. Some of them are saying they are going to wait and see the priests in the diocese. Others are saying they will wait to see what the public will say. Over the next week or so, we will see where it goes. Most of the focus seems to be on the man in Limerick. A lot of the others are old and effectively retired anyway.
Oh, poor chaps. It is difficult for them, isn’t it? Having their reprehensible behaviour made public must be tough to cope with. You know, it’s them we should feel sorry for. This all happened years ago and now people want them to be held accountable? What are we thinking? People go on and on about the victims but why is nobody thinking about how hard this must be for the bishops?
And the old and retired ones – sure leave them in peace. They’re just auld fellas now. Who cares if they helped priests rape young children in the past? Thankfully Bertie is around to set us straight. The horrible little prick. A man employed by the Sisters of Mercy before he entered political life. A man who agreed to a deal which saw the taxpayer most liable for the compensation that the religious orders should have paid. A man who is trying to tell us what’s going on at the moment is ‘difficult’ for the bishops?
Give me fucking strength. Yet this is the kind of attitude at the top of Irish political life which has allowed these kinds of crimes to be committed – and it’s not as if he doesn’t have plenty of previous. Aside from Enda Kenny which of our political leaders has said that the bishops should resign? Disappointly, to me at least, Eamonn Gilmore said it was a matter for the religious orders, as did the Taoiseach, but why has nobody apart from the leader of Fine Gael condemned these men outright and said that they should not continue in the roles they currently hold? Why am I not surprised that the Minister for Education is more concered about how he is perceived amongst the catholic zealots than doing what is right?
Technically you might say that politicians have no business interfering with the running of a religious order – but did the religious orders do us the same courtesy? No they did not. For years they ruled Irish life, and Irish people, without any mandate whatsoever to do so. What we did or how we did it was none of their business yet they poked their nose in every which way they could. Why should we now sit back and let them behind technicalities?
Willie Walsh was on the radio today crying about how he was in no position to judge anyone for their behaviour. I’m sorry, but if a man of god can’t judge someone who rapes a child then what is the fucking point? It’s not for god to judge the actions of that person, it is for us and for the courts to judge. As it is with the bishops who were part of the cover up.
Politicians, and especially the leaders of the parties, need to stand up to these people and say they should not continue in their current positions, that they should be prosecuted for withholding evidence of crimes, for enabling crimes to happen. They knowingly sent men to places where they knew they would abuse children. Why the fuck are we pussyfooting around them?
Most likely nothing will happen, but for fucks sake say it. Those who don’t are, like so many, afraid of the backlash from the faithful. Maybe if they grew a set of balls they might just earn the respect of the rest of us.
—
Update: Brian Coward defends the vatican, from where on high the cover-up began and who refused to cooperate with the commission. This is the leader of this joke of a country, remember.
The full text of his statement to the Dail can be found on Irish Election.
I despair.
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57 Responses to “Most holy Bertie on the bishops”
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December 1st, 2009 @ 4:34 pm
The kind of comments you are responding is the one thing that makes me suspicious that Irish politicians of a certain ilk are still viewing this as a public relations problem for the church.
Is speaking out of self-interest when he makes the point that retired people should be left alone no matter what their crimes or obvious aiding and abetting of crimes?
I bet he’d love to see that little theory enter Irish law. It would get him off the hook for anything he did in office wouldn’t it?
The Irish legal system from the courts, the judges and the Gardai MUST deal with these crimes regardless of the uniform the defendants wore at the time the crimes were committed and without favouring the defendants because of their poxy religion.
If not you might as well fuck the Irish Republic into a dustbin for good.
December 1st, 2009 @ 4:41 pm
Every time Bertie took a backhander he went to confession and came out feeling real good with himself. Like a fucking carwash. If he shafts them then they take their revenge. Craw thumping fuck was elected by the Irish people and he now has his eye on the Presidency. Dhia Sabhail.
December 1st, 2009 @ 4:51 pm
We need the Second Republic and shed the bastards who have owned us for the last 80 years.
December 1st, 2009 @ 4:51 pm
Aherne is up to his neck in the covering up of catholic church paedophiles. The first thing the church does all over the world when things start going public is to try and cut a deal with government on limited liability.
The US govt told them to fuckoff when they tried it there and they are hardly the world’s most secular nation.
In Ireland, however, the church has its peons inside the government. How do you think that in Ireland the law was not allowed to deal with the paedos but a nice long ten year ‘inquiry’ with no basis in criminal law was set up?
Same reason as the Mahon tribunals- it gives the accused a chance to muddy the waters and pretend to the nation that the issue was being dealt with.
December 1st, 2009 @ 5:06 pm
Bertie sticks up for his cohorts, why am I not surprised? Jumped up little shit bertie is so used to riding people up the arse that he has no sympathy for the victims of what was effectively Ireland’s nazi regime: an organised and concentrated campaign against a class of people viewed to be unsuitable for society (the poor). This ‘genocide’ was carried out whether you agreed or didn’t.
Bertie aka cuntmaster flex, must not be allowed to become a mayor in Dublin, a city he constantly finds new ways to shit on after robbing and lying for mush of his rat infested life. If a couple of the priests had a go on his daughters, he’d change his fucking tune
December 1st, 2009 @ 5:13 pm
What surprises me most is that i’m surprised at anything he says. He’s a fucking snake.
December 1st, 2009 @ 5:18 pm
A couple of days back you drew the analogy of a country in the hold of a Stockholm Syndrome by its abusers, which made a lot of sense. This brain washing and conditioning has been going for three maybe four generations and has seeped into the collective consciousness. We’re seeing this lamped rabbit effect every day, and in glaring lights and stark contrast now that the perpetrators are on the run and in the open. The question is how will we heal as a society ? I think what you are doing is part of it, never ever letting anyone of the hook and calling every cheap shot which comes across the airwaves. I think there must be blood too and lots of it. Three generations of abuse cannot be salved with a couple of reports and a load of indignation.
I don’t know how people recovered from that captive syndrome but I don’t think there was a magic pill. A generation maybe, without the religious and after much blood.
December 1st, 2009 @ 6:08 pm
Willie Walsh was on the radio today crying about how he was in no position to judge anyone for their behaviour.
What a cunt. They had no problems sitting in judgement on gays, unmarried mothers, women in abusive relationships who wanted a divorce, women who have had abortions etc etc.
As for Bertie’s crap, it’s not in the least difficult. These are the cunts who have claimed to be the ONLY people able to make decisions on matters of morality.
December 1st, 2009 @ 6:11 pm
If a couple of the priests had a go on his daughters, he’d change his fucking tune
you reckon ? I reckon if the price was right Bertie would forgive.
December 1st, 2009 @ 6:40 pm
Yeah I reckon Bertie would certainly forgive if the price was right!
All the cool kids are joining up <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=186233218119&ref=mf"here!
December 1st, 2009 @ 6:40 pm
Test
December 1st, 2009 @ 6:42 pm
Aren’t priests supposed to live modestly?
The tax defaulters’ list, which relates to settlements made between July and the end of September, included a settlement of €433,475 made by Cork priest Fr Tadhg O’Donovan for undeclared income tax and capital gains tax.
Fr O’Donovan was fined more than €6,000 for tax offences in March 2008 following his failure to disclose income he received from the rental of at least 11 properties over a five-year period. He had previously made a settlement with the Revenue Commissioners for €213,222, including a tax liability of €81,265, a civil penalty of €81,265 together with interest payment on his liabilities and a penalty of €50,692.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1201/breaking59.htm
December 1st, 2009 @ 6:46 pm
So whats the educated viewpoint on all this ?
I mean is twentys blog reflective of a certain stratum of society which appears to repeat the same tired reflections or is there genuine posters here who can offer an enlightened opinion that isnt compromised by their own latent raging inadequacies against society as a whole
just asking like
December 1st, 2009 @ 6:47 pm
Maggot:
They had no problems sitting in judgement on:
-women who wanted to take the pill,
-women who were raped,
-anyone who interfered with themselves,
-anyone who voted for divorce
-anyone who married a protestant
-anyone who didn’t put money in the convenient little envelopes they sent to every Irish family every year, with individual serial numbers.
‘Of course the donations are anonymous Mr.Murphy’
The list is endless
December 1st, 2009 @ 7:01 pm
Cowen says Vatican acted in ‘good faith’
The Taoiseach has defended the Vatican’s dealings with the Commission of Investigation into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin, saying its approach was consistent with normal diplomatic procedures.
Brian Cowen said he believes the Holy See acted in ‘good faith’ in its dealings with the Commission, even if the best outcome was not achieved.
The Vatican refused to deal directly with the Commission and advised the Irish Embassy to the Holy See that it could only work with the Government.
December 1st, 2009 @ 7:17 pm
Is it just me or is anyone else just fucking weary of Bertie Ahern re-establishing his utter utter cuntiness with unhelpful little utterences on things he should just shut the fuck up about?
I know its his way of letting everyone know that he’s still about (“Infacta,buy me aul book”) and has a massive horn for the Presindency..and im sure the Church will be there to give him a hlpinh hand on the campaign trail..
December 1st, 2009 @ 7:18 pm
CRITICS WHO blame the Government for the economic crisis should “dig the garden or grow bluebells or do something useful”, former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said.
In an interview, Mr Ahern attacked “cynics and knockers, people who always see the glass as half empty. I can’t understand people who are always bitching, saying ‘It’s the Government’s fault, it’s the doctor’s fault, it’s the cat’s fault.’ It’s everybody’s fault except their own.
“I don’t know why they wouldn’t go out and dig the garden or grow bluebells or do something useful! I like doers – people who paint their house, bake, work, whatever,” he told the latest edition of VIP magazine.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1130/1224259709843.html
December 1st, 2009 @ 7:26 pm
I rest my case..
He likes Do’ers?
How about co-operating with the Tribunal?
or
Telling the truth?
or
Heeding the many many warnings that the property bubble was going to burst?
or
Not resigning just before the shit hit the fan?
Spinless fucking no-mark…
December 1st, 2009 @ 7:34 pm
GRRRRRRRRRR.Twenty,you’re gonna push me over the edge.
Can somebody please take matters into their own hands a la Charlie Bronson.He got away with it for 5 films.Surely no-one will miss that squalid little shit bucket.
I’m willing to provide an alibi for even the most obvious and messiest of slayings.
December 1st, 2009 @ 7:45 pm
”Speaking in the Dáil this afternoon, Mr Cowen said the Vatican acted ”in good faith” and within agreed diplomatic protocols”
from the IT.
What is the Taoiseach doing defending the Vatican? Isn’t that the vatican’s job? The influence of the Catholic Church in FF seems to go all the way to the top and everyone underneath (with the exception perhaps of the White Rabbit O’Dea who called on the Bishop of Limerick to resign)
I thought FF were saving face with their voters. The older people in Ireland are the most religious and always remember Charlie Haughy for giving them the bus pass.
This though goes beyond a joke. Surely its outside the scope of the Governments responsibilities to defend the actions of another state?
December 1st, 2009 @ 7:46 pm
Cowen’s full statement here – http://www.irishelection.com/2009/12/brian-cowens-statement-to-the-dail-on-the-report-of-the-murphy-commission-of-investigation-report-into-the-catholic-archdiocese-of-dublin/
December 1st, 2009 @ 7:53 pm
Three sentences in.
At the outset, I want to say it is our duty as a society to confront and address the sexual abuse of children and to bring healing to those who have suffered the traumas of abuse”
He has already dropped the ball in this duty.
Near the end:
”There have been improvements in the practice of the Archdiocese of Dublin, and of the Church in Ireland generally, in relation to the care of children and in dealing with allegations and reporting them to the civil authorities”
Thank God, I was afraid there was still a problem.
December 1st, 2009 @ 7:55 pm
Ah well, at least Mary McAloose has dedicated the tree to the flood victims.
December 1st, 2009 @ 8:09 pm
It’s a blatant case of not pissing off the god-fearing fuckwit religious electorate of this country while enraging those who aren’t religious and want justice. They’re a bunch of spineless cunts the lot of them. Politicians, that is. The clergy are just cunts anyway.
December 1st, 2009 @ 8:09 pm
Oh we’re a fucking mess of a State.
Brian Cowen is openly defending the Vatican. They all talk of healing and never of prosecution. They’re basically saying get over it because we’re not going to do anything about it.
I used to love my country.
December 1st, 2009 @ 8:12 pm
Unfuckingbelievable- http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1201/breaking75.htm
December 1st, 2009 @ 8:20 pm
The Knackers hold the answers, come Saturday we will know something, they are not taking any chances this time,they’re taking several van loads of their own Virgins, just in case the Catholic church was using Mental reservation about the present incumbent, Gates, Rugs, and carpet off cuts have reached souvenir status, prices are rising, it looks like a Bull market.
December 1st, 2009 @ 8:38 pm
“within the institutional church there has been no change of heart, only a change of strategy”
The same could be said of Fianna Fail.
December 1st, 2009 @ 9:13 pm
twenty – you’ve hit the nail on the head again.
dont these fucking cowards realise that what has happened is a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY.
seriously – this is on a level with the Nazis. it is THAT bad.
this has only started – ever hear of the common knowledge about orphan graves in Innishannon, Co.Cork?
dont want to libel your site, but i think you can infer what i am saying.
it has only *started* matey.
December 2nd, 2009 @ 1:24 am
Being a survivor of sexual abuse perpetrated by a priest I’ve decided I can take no more of the shite I hear in the press defending the vatican, defending guilty as sin bishops, I swear, I’m gonna fuckin start burning down churches unless something, anything is done to appease the victims of these crimes.
I’ve started a blog as a result of the Murphy Report being made public (to which I gave evidence of the crimes committed against me) and it can be found here…
http://murphyreport.blogspot.com/
I’ll vent my spleen on it over the coming weeks and months because I feel trapped right now and I don’t know how else to express my anger and rage at the church and our useless, gombeen government.
December 2nd, 2009 @ 2:00 am
‘Burn down churches’ is the best idea I’ve heard! The State should confiscate all church lands but since they won’t do that (yet), let’s start the process and burn the church to the fucking ground.
December 2nd, 2009 @ 3:28 am
Whilst I agree with your sentiment and that of your supporters Twenty ,may I ask …..what have you done about it ?
what inspired actions of yours have been initiated on behalf of the victims of this terrible abuse,surely a man like yourself who writes so vehemently of such blatant wrongs and abuses of power,has a cunning and deviant plan to right these wrongs..maybe even going so far as to commit an illegal act in defiance of,or directed at,the same state bodies that were complicit in these vile acts and whom now refuse to accept any blame or point any fingers….
You do have a plan dont you?
Or are you just another opinionated angry young man hoping to inspire his minions to do his bidding ?
And,not putting your bin out on the alloted day doesnt count……you have my email address,I await your (or anybody elses!) plans to right the wrongs….
Yes,this country is suffering from an acute case of I`m so angry I could blog/write about it all day long….now if only I could get up off my arse and do something about it !
`Burn down churches…don t make me laugh,go and put the kettle on and catch up on the Wire……….
Your welcome,
December 2nd, 2009 @ 4:33 am
The Emperor’s new Clothes.
Religion is obviously laughably STUPID.
A human Virgin Birth. Rubbish that should be all
that needs to be said but no surely my Teachers , parents leaders etc wouldn’t believe it unless it was right Problem is their all afraid of each other . Once you accept and respect someone because of his place in a Hierarchy of folks that dress funny and talk with certainty and rules about what NOBODY understands then you open the door for this shite
ALL religion should be laughed and disrespected out of any position of power and influence.
No more valid than astrologers
December 2nd, 2009 @ 5:48 am
I TELL YOU WHAT I’M DOING MICK CAVANAGH – BOYCOTTING THE DOG-COLLARED SCUM. TOTALLY IGNORING THEM, WON’T HAVE ANY BUSINESS WITH THEM NOR SPEAK NOR ACKNOWLEDGE THEM IN ANY WAY, NOR THE HARRIDANS OF NUNS NEITHER…
December 2nd, 2009 @ 8:00 am
I’D VOTE FOR THIS ONE IN A HEART-BEAT
(IRISH INDEPENDANT LETTERS SECTION)
I LOOK at Ireland and think of the aftermath of Nazi Germany. The crimes are not the same, but the ensuing challenge is similar: a society that has collectively failed its most vulnerable must confront and take responsibility for its failures, fears and destructive patterns.
Outrage and contrition from a few enlightened ones won’t suffice.
How can you go to Mass without asking your church authorities a lot of hard questions?
What happened to your sense of justice when you can bay for any ordinary sex offender’s blood, yet feel the need to protect powerful clerics who ensured that serial abusers could poison and cripple many more lives?
How are you going to explain all this to your children?
Nothing and nobody is beyond redemption. In Germany it began with the emergence of personal accountability as a universal yardstick; but before that a whole generation despaired of their parents’ silence and denial.
You have the chance to do better than that.
PETRA KINDLER
Waterford
December 2nd, 2009 @ 9:06 am
MickC made a fair point. It would be interesting to turn all this creative indignation into some creative productivity. Starting with the legal options, what can be actually done to those two worm-riddled institutions that are keeping the country in the middle ages.
My question: Is it your constitutional right to be able to send your kids to a non-religious school and is it the government’s duty to provide this? If this is the case then is there a way that Irish Family Associations could sue the government for not providing secular schools? If this is possible, the pressure on the government to loosen the church’s stranglehold on the educational system would be immense. And as someone has already mentioned, education is the key.
Check out part 3 of Article 44 below and even more interestingly subsection 4º of part 2 of article 44.
http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/attached_files/Pdf%20files/Constitution%20of%20Ireland.pdf
Happy now, Mick?
December 2nd, 2009 @ 9:35 am
Interesting, Lung. So technically, is the deal that the Bertie government did with the church unconstitutional since, ‘The State guarantees not to endow any religion.’?
December 2nd, 2009 @ 9:39 am
152 paedo priests in one diocese in Dublin over 3 or 4 decades. What percentage is that of the number of priests assigned to that diocese over the same period?
Worldwide the figures on convictions for catholic clergy for abuse of children is staggering.
Just shows what happens when one vested interest organisation is give a free rein to hide behind religion.
That organisation should be fucked out of Ireland. Papal Nuncio, Cardinals, Bishops, the half-mental religious orders lock stock and barrel.
If christians don’t like it they can get on a fucking plane.
December 2nd, 2009 @ 10:44 am
The State acknowledges that the homage of public worship is due to Almighty God. It shall hold His Name in reverence, and shall respect and honour religion.
We’re fucked from the start with this bollocks in our constitution.
December 2nd, 2009 @ 10:58 am
“Fr Tadhg O’Donovan, who is curate in the parish of Whitechurch, and a convicted tax evader also called them ‘an almighty shower of cunts’”
http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/1202/odonovant.html
December 2nd, 2009 @ 11:06 am
My daughter will be no longer making her 1st communion with the Catholic Church.
I think if more parents were to consider this action country wide, we might have the start of something to move forward on.
Indoctrination by 1st communion is a hugely symbolic ceremony for the Catholic Church involving thousands of children annually.
We need to send a message that our children will no longer be offered up for this rite.
Start there and you nip it in the bud.
If the Church has no followers, then there is no Church.
December 2nd, 2009 @ 11:18 am
Fair play, Swe.Ge – hopefully more people will take that kind of stance.
Holemaster – that is very funny, but how the fuck did a priest get that much money to make that kind of payment?!
December 2nd, 2009 @ 11:28 am
That’s my point too Swe.Ge, but merely abandoning the church’s rites is a slow process that will take at least a generation to show any real results.
But if all those disillusioned parents who want nothing to do with the church get some constitutionally legal leverage, then you could reach the same objectives, only much more quickly.
There must be a few non-Opus lawyers out there ready to fight the good fight.
December 2nd, 2009 @ 12:29 pm
I’ve said it before, start a petition to stop the Fiftieth Eucharistic Congress being held in Ireland. Make it plain that if it goes ahead it will be picketed by protesters and survivors to maximise embarrassment.
The state should freeze the Church assets and nationalise their schools and hospitals.
Do that and they WILL pay attention.
December 2nd, 2009 @ 12:35 pm
how the fuck did a priest get that much money to make that kind of payment?!
“income he received from the rental of at least 11 properties ”
One thing that really interested me , in one of the books I’ve been reading it makes the point that one of the big reforms in the Irish Catholic Church way back was to get assets out of the hands of Individual priests and into the coffers of the Church. In fact in the past there were actual fights between priests and brothers over revenue from masses, weddings and burials.
Looks as if things have come full circle.
December 2nd, 2009 @ 12:42 pm
Well done Swe.Ge.
My 2 daughters are not baptised and will be kept far away from any contact with the Catholic Church to the best of my ability. My partner’s parents still won’t come to terms with this after 3 years and continually go on about it. This week’s revelations will do nothing to change the unthinking allegiance of many people to all things Catholic.
I mean, if someone wants to go to church there are many other alternatives around, C of I, Methodists etc…
Not going to happen in Ireland.
December 2nd, 2009 @ 12:50 pm
“I’ve said it before, start a petition to stop the Fiftieth Eucharistic Congress being held in Ireland.”
Absolutely. I’m thinking of starting to butter my bread on the other side. (become a member of the Church of Ireland).
December 2nd, 2009 @ 12:54 pm
Twenty, RTE have amended that earlier link to delete the reference to cunts. Must have been one their Opus Dei spies in the news room.
December 2nd, 2009 @ 1:55 pm
“One thing that really interested me , in one of the books I’ve been reading it makes the point that one of the big reforms in the Irish Catholic Church way back was to get assets out of the hands of Individual priests and into the coffers of the Church. In fact in the past there were actual fights between priests and brothers over revenue from masses, weddings and burials.”
As far as I know, that was the reason for the vow of celibacy in the first place maggot. The church didn’t want a priest’s wealth going to a wife or any ‘legitimate’ children. When he died his assets would automatically go straight to GHQ Rome.
December 2nd, 2009 @ 2:21 pm
Twenty, RTE have amended that earlier link to delete the reference to cunts. Must have been one their Opus Dei spies in the news room.
That is mental – and there’s no mention of him calling them cunts anywhere else as far as I can see.
December 2nd, 2009 @ 2:44 pm
Nope. Makes you wonder who ordered that and how many other reports get doctored by vested interests.
December 2nd, 2009 @ 4:14 pm
Poor old raping bastards indeed. Why is that the likes of an SS officer who acted under orders would be dragged up for war crimes on their death beds, yet these sick fuckers who raped young children of their own free and depraved will should get away scot free. Like they’ve learned their lesson or something?
Reson to emmigrate: number five thousand and fourty-fucking-two.
December 2nd, 2009 @ 4:41 pm
Start at the top, get rid of the Papal Nonce!
December 2nd, 2009 @ 5:04 pm
As far as I know, that was the reason for the vow of celibacy in the first place maggot. The church didn’t want a priest’s wealth going to a wife or any ‘legitimate’ children. When he died his assets would automatically go straight to GHQ Rome.
Internationally yes, but it was a major problem in the Irish Church long after Celibacy was nominally in place HM. It was one of the things addressed by the Devotional Revolution.
December 2nd, 2009 @ 6:59 pm
Start with expelling the Papal Nuncio for disrespecting the Irish People and State in failing to respond to the Inquiry, then prosecute the surviving Archbishop of Dublin, cancel the Eucharistic Congress(I wonder how much Irish tax money that will need) And PROSECUTE every bastard who knew or even suspected for conspiracy and Treason.
December 3rd, 2009 @ 5:58 pm
And now the Sisters of Mercy are offering up €128 million to buy Sudocrem for all the chapped asses they beat down the years. Bertie is just fucking deluded, like Nixon at the end…
December 3rd, 2009 @ 8:32 pm
Personally I couldn’t give two shits if the bishops and their minions retire or resign or whatever. Nothing to do with me – I’m not a member of their church.
However I think they should all be prosecuted and jailed for holding back information from the police about child rapists.
Let them keep their bishoprics and holy sees – but let them rule from fuckin Mountjoy.