Dublin, yesterday.
Dan O’Neill tweetz:
Check out the undercover bus driver blending in seamlessly with the Gardaí – Shneaky
Yearly Archives: 2016
With their silky skills.
Ahmed Soda (top), age 11, and his family moved to Belfast late last year, fleeing the war in Syria.
In January, Ahmed tried out for football at local club Patrick Sarsfields, and despite some early jitters, has settled into the game helping the club break a dry spell in local under-12 silverware.
Ahmed, from the besieged city of Aleppo, also picked up a hurley for the first time in June, and is a natural, according to coaches.
Send him back.
From top: Bill Kenneally; Irish Times Weekend cover from last Saturday; victim Paul Walsh, human rights lawyer Darragh Mackin, victim Colin Power and victim Jason Clancy
You may recall how the victims of paedophile Bill Kenneally – an accountant from a well-known Fianna Fáil family and basketball coach in Waterford – want a Commission of Investigation.
They believe senior gardai, members of Fianna Fáil, members of the Catholic Church and staff at the South Eastern Health Board failed to act when told about the abuse.
Kenneally was convicted earlier this year, after victim Jason Clancy came forward in 2012, but Gardaí knew about the abuse as far back as 1985.
Further to this…
Saoirse McGarrigle writes:
Last Saturday, The Irish Times published an article by Peter McGuire in which Mr McGuire asked sex abuse victims, abusers and therapists ‘is there a better way to tackle’ the issue of sex abuse in Ireland.
While journalists are not allowed to speak directly with prisoners in Ireland, Bill Kenneally – who was jailed for 14 years in February of this year – was interviewed through an intermediary.
He pleaded guilty to ten sample counts of indecent assault on ten boys between October 31, 1984 and December 31, 1987.
Judge Eugene O’Kelly handed down a 17-month sentence for each of the charges – prompting his victim’s to describe the sentence as “poetic justice” as, they say, he had a fixation with the number seven.
He would give them amounts of money that always ended in seven – £7, £17 or £27.
The Waterford accountant and basketball coach is now appealing the severity of his sentence.
The article in The Irish Times quoted an intermediary saying of Kenneally, “He grew up with a highly critical father he could never please and lacks any self-esteem.”
Colin Power (45) was abused by Kenneally for three years.
He said: “This is no excuse for abusing children, absolutely no excuse. Everybody has had difficulties in their lives, but nobody can use that as an excuse to abuse children. It’s an easy way out to blame his father. It’s a cop out as far as I am concerned. He caused devastation to all our lives and the lives of our families and friends. What he did will stay with all of us forever. He knew exactly what he was doing.”
The intermediary also says that Kenneally claims he did not abuse after 1987 and that “Bill knows he is a pariah, and he hates himself for what he has done.”
But Colin said: “If he was so remorseful and concerned about the children he abused and the impact on the abused he wouldn’t have waited 30 years until the guards came to him. He is sorry only because he was found out. All this is only a way of helping his appeal. And if he really was genuinely remorseful he would be honest about the amount of boys he abused.”
Since the court case, a number of men have approached the five victims who waived their anonymity; Jason Clancy, Paul Walsh, Barry Murphy, Kevin Keating and Colin Power, and revealed to them that they also were abused.
“He said ten victims and that he stopped after 1987, I can say categorically with absolute certainty that he abused far more than ten boys.”
The father-of-four continued: “I was in SuperValu last night and I met a fella in there and he said ‘you know, I think you’re great’. He told me that he was abused as well and it had an awful impact on his life. He had problems with gambling and drinking. He said to me that this had pushed him to go and sort it out.”
He added: “When we were driving to Dublin to meet MEP Lynn Boylan recently to discuss the case we stopped at an Applegreen on the way and I saw a guy there who was abused as well. You can’t just walk in town without seeing a number of people who have been abused. It’s everywhere – a whole generation of men in Waterford who have been abused.”
Colin continued: “I was just talking to a fella last night. He was also abused, but doesn’t know whether to come forward or not. He has low self-esteem because he hasn’t come forward. He feels like he has to but doesn’t know if he can. And I get that. Looking back at myself this time last year, I don’t know how I would have coped if I didn’t have Jason and the other lads. I wouldn’t have coped without them. Biggest thing for me was meeting up with the lads and talking about it. Feeling that you’re not normal.”
“It’s been an extremely hard thing to do. But I am glad that I have done it. I think before I thought that I was living normally. But I wasn’t. It was an abnormal life. It’s only through getting help that you can work it all out.”
Kenneally also claims that he stopped coaching basketball in 1987 and kept a “low-profile” to evade prosecution for the crimes committed before 1987.
Colin said: “He says that he stopped coaching basketball in 1987, but in 2013 he was definitely still involved in a basketball club. He was even on the committee. He still had access to young people. Sure it was the reason that Jason went to the guards in the first place in November 2012.”
The garda investigation which led to his conviction this year was triggered when father-of-four and local businessman Jason Clancy made a complaint to Waterford Garda Station in November 2012.
While the Book of Evidence states that the 46-year-old was compelled to come forward on foot of the Jimmy Saville case, he says that he told gardaí he did so because he was “extremely distressed” when he realised that his abuser was “still active in a basketball club, which had a predominantly young male membership.”
Kenneally told the intermediary that he “wishes gardaí had done so (prosecuted him) in the 1980s”.
His victims believe this is “more than just a bit ironic”.
Seven men are now pushing for a Commission of Investigation into who knew about the abuse and “turned a blind eye”.
They say that senior gardaí, members of Fianna Fáil, the South Eastern Health Board and the Catholic Church all knew that Kenneally was abusing boys but failed to stop him.
In 1987, he admitted to gardaí that he was handcuffing, blind-folding and sexually abusing boys, but he was let walk free.
Victims say that two boys were getting counselling from a health board psychiatrist for abuse they had suffered, while Kenneally was continuing to abuse others.
Bill Kenneally’s uncle Billy Kenneally, who was a serving Fianna Fáil TD at the time, was the first person superintendent Sean Cashman contacted when a local businessman made a complaint alleging that his son had been abused by Kenneally. He called the politician before he contacted the accused for questioning.
“What we’re looking for is all of this to be investigated and now ironically we have the man at the heart of it all, the abuser who was protected, saying that he even wishes he’d been prosecuted in the 1980s. Basically he wishes that he hadn’t been allowed to walk free for 30 years…so in effect he’s ironically supporting what we’re calling for,” said another victim Paul Walsh (45).
Human rights lawyer Darragh Mackin last month wrote to the Minister for Justice calling for a Commission of Investigation.
He confirmed this week that he has now received correspondence stating that the Minister has “sought the views of the Garda Commissioner on the issues raised.”
The letter also advises the victims that they can refer the matter to GSOC if they wish to “make a complaint concerning Garda actions”.
Mr Mackin said: “We welcome the Minister’s confirmation, that immediate action has been taken.”
He added: “It is however clear that this is only an initial scoping exercise, in the grand scheme of what is required to effectively investigate the systemic issues. We will continue to liaise with the Minister’s Office to ensure that the Gardai, given their involvement, play no part in the investigation given the need for independence to comply with International law.”
Paul Walsh added that he is “anxious” that any investigation that takes place is “entirely independent”.
“The gardaí cannot investigate themselves that just wouldn’t work. We wouldn’t accept that. But also it has to be understood that it’s not just the gardaí that we want to be looked at, the health board knew what was happening to us, so did people in Fianna Fáil and the Catholic Church.”
The victims are set to meet with leader of Fianna Fáil Micháel Martin this Monday to discuss their campaign.
Waterford TD Mary Butler has refused to respond when contacted.
This week John McGuinness, from Kilkenny, became the first Fianna Fáil deputy to pledge his support to their campaign.
“John McGuinness seems very supportive and I hope other in Fianna Fáil will follow suit. This is not political. It’s just a case of letting the truth about what happened to us come out. I met with John this week and he said ‘it’s not just about ye, it’s the ripple effect that it’s had on our families’ and he’s right there it’s had a devastating effect on everybody. My mother asks me all of the time am I ok,” said Colin.
Saoirse McGarrigle is a broadcast journalist with South East Radio.
Previously: Protected For 30 Years
Last night.
Are Ya Having That writes:
Irishman’s Note 7 Exploded while Live Streaming the third US Presidential Debate…
Design legends Jessica Helfand and Michael Bierut this year became co-instructors of Yale School of Management’s first design course, and in keeping with the times, have begun a new podcast to accompany the course, making interviews and guest lectures from the course available to the public.
Looking at the intersection between design, creativity and business, the podcast, monikered The Design of Business/The Business of Design, will interview creative people from all over the spectrum on design, with the idea of widening students’ and new designers’ frame of reference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFvOoMvpJGE
You may recall how Ellen Coyne and Catherine Sanz, of The Times Ireland Edition, went undercover at an ‘abortion advice’ centre in Berkeley Street, Inns Quay, Dublin 7.
Last month, they reported how a woman working at the clinic, who claimed to be a counsellor, told Ms Sanz that when a pregnancy ended unexpectedly a woman’s reproductive system could be damaged and that it could cause breast cancer.
Ms Sanz was also told that abortion could lead to women abusing their children in the future.
Further to this…
Ms Coyne reports this morning:
Unregulated crisis pregnancy agencies will be made illegal under a new bill proposed in response to an undercover investigation by The Times.
Brendan Howlin, the Labour leader, is hoping to pass the “much-needed” legislation as soon as possible after a clinic run by a Catholic group was exposed claiming that abortions could cause breast cancer and turn women into child abusers.
The bill, introduced to the Dail yesterday, would amend the Health and Social Care Professionals Act to add crisis pregnancy counsellors to the list of health professions regulated by the state. The move would make them subject to checks and any complaints against them would be examined.
… The [Women’s Centre on Berkeley Street] centre is linked to the Good Counsel Network, a Catholic anti-abortion group that holds protests outside clinics in Britain and has defended the Magdalene laundries. It is also connected to a man who was found in a 1999 High Court case to have used a similar clinic to illegally adopt a baby from a woman who had been talked out of an abortion.
Labour bill targets rogue crisis pregnancy agencies (The Times Ireland edition)
From top: Syrian refugee children at a refugee camp in Jordan; Dan Boyle
Some will take perverse satisfaction that the recent budget instituted a further cut in Ireland’s level of overseas development aid.
But we all lose from this parsimony.
Dan Boyle writes:
This weekend I posted my US ballot paper. The confluence of my American birth along with my partial UK residency, combined with my being Irish, has seen me vote in three different jurisdictions this year.
In making people aware of this quirky fact, it seems that I have upset some. It’s been suggested to me that I am somehow in breach of the ‘one man one vote’ principle.
I’ve always taken that to apply only to a particular election. If taken as being literal than maybe we each should only vote once in an election and then never do so again. Anytime. Anywhere.
It’s a privilege I’m unlikely to hold again. What it raises for me are questions about citizenship and residency. The having of a some sense of belonging.
We Irish have a history of migration. It has been and is part of my own family’s story. Our’s is far from a unique experience. How this has informed me is a lack of tolerance I hold towards people who argue we should ‘look after our own first’.
Outside of the likelihood that people who make this argument don’t usually seem inclined to look after anyone, the question of who gets to determine who our own are is something I find deeply disturbing.
This questioning isn’t purely an Irish experience. We unfortunately live in a time where isolationism, fear of others, and an exaggerated sense of patriotism, hold too great an influence.
Our affinities are and should be complex. We identify with the idea of community at many levels. Investing all, or a high degree of such affinity entirely towards the nation state, diminishes us all. If we ignore the international dimension of our lives we resign ourselves to living in bleak bunkers.
There are many needs within our ambit that we can and should be addressing – homelessness, growing inequality, limiting opportunities.
These are unaddressed needs whose existence shames us. Where our problems differ from those found elsewhere is that we don’t lack the means, but we are unable to provide the will towards solving these social wrongs, once and for all.
This ongoing failure on our part should never be an excuse to ignore our responsibility towards the wider World. The recent budget instituted a further cut in Ireland’s level of overseas development aid. This now stands at less than one third of one per cent of our national wealth, less than half of what we have promised to commit at the United Nations.
Some will take perverse satisfaction from this. However we all lose from this parsimony. A poorer World becomes a more dangerous World – a reverse self fulfilling prophecy where ignorance holds ever greater sway.
Nowhere can this effect be more clearly seen than the collective international response to the humanitarian crisis of our time – that of Syria.
The overwhelming number of refugees, hundreds of thousands of them, are living in tented cities in Lebanon, Turkey and in Jordan. A far smaller proportion of people are seeking new lives in Europe.
For their having the desire to live better lives, they get to be described as a hoard of probable murders intent on undermining our way of life.
Naked racism may be more obvious and more prevalent elsewhere, but that should give no comfort for us in Ireland for failing to live up to our global obligations. We live these days in a more open World, where millions move and are being moved from their homes, their communities, and their long held certainties.
For those of us who live in democratic societies, we have the privilege of encouraging the more effective use of resources, the more appropriate application of policy, the most human approach from our public services.
Wherever my vote can influence such outcomes I will always act to ensure that it will be cast.
Dan Boyle is a former Green Party TD and Senator. Follow Dan on Twitter: @sendboyle
Pic: Getty
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton during the US Presidential Election debate last night
With dignity someone can choose
To stand like a man if they lose
From deep in the pit
You can dig up a shit
Who’ll hint in advance he’ll refuse.
John Moynes
Pics: NBC
Pounce
at
Seth Casteel’s photographs of adorable kitties caught in mid-pounce.
You may know him from the previous, equally aborbz series Underwater Puppies.
Also available in book form.
