Dec writes:
As a newbie [to Dublin] What is the best vantage point to see the [St Patrick’s Day parade] in terms of visibility, drama, etc.. I have two chisslers under 4 in tow. Any body with parade experience know?
Anyone?
(Leah Farrell/Photocall ireland)
Discworld author Terry Pratchett at Trinity College Dublin in 2008
Terry faced his Alzheimer’s disease (an ’embuggerance’, as he called it) publicly and bravely. Over the last few years, it was his writing that sustained him. His legacy will endure for decades to come.
Terry Pratchett dead: Author died after struggle with Alzheimer’s (UKIndependent)
From top: Mairia Cahill, Paudie McGahon on BBC Spotlight and Mary Lou McDonald
Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald went on Today with Sean O’Rourke on RTÉ Radio One this morning to defend Sinn Fein’s record on reporting of sex abuse within its organisation and answer allegations made by Paudie McGahon that he was sexually abused by a member of the IRA and then subjected to an internal IRA kangaroo court.
Sean O’Rourke: “Now I gather you heard what Mairia Cahill had to say at the top of the programme. Are you, as she suggested you should be, raising merry hell in Sinn Féin about all of this?”
Mary Lou McDonald: “Well, I’m as disturbed and upset for Paudie, and indeed Maria, as anybody else, listening to their stories, and I’m as anxious as the next person that they achieve justice and I’m, em listened to what Maria had to say and I also got a chance to listen to Paudie, he was on your rival radio station, and, to my way of thinking Paudie has said something very important and he has said it far more eloquently than I can, and I want to reiterate it, and that is that nobody should be afraid to come forward and I’m very anxious that that message would go out that any one who has experienced any kind of sexual violation, the trauma of a rape, however long ago, at the hands of whomsoever but in this instance we’re talking about those that would have called themselves republicans, perhaps IRA volunteers or anybody else, Paudie has said it and he has it in one, no body should be fearful, nobody should be afraid, the only way that we deal with the insidious and awful crime of child sex abuse and sexual violence more generally is when people feel comfortable and empowered to speak out.”
O’Rourke: “But I suppose people are…”
McDonald: “And I want to commend Paudie and indeed Mairia Cahill, both of them, for doing that.”
O’Rourke: ““Now you are saying this and people may or may not take it at face value. i suppose the problem is, when they look at the Republican movement, they hear not just you but they read, albeit something that’s been withdrawn and apologised for, people like [Sinn Fein councillor] Francie Molloy saying another load of rubbish on Spotlight, joint Indo-Blueshirt Production or whatever and they see as well that while you may accept he is telling the truth about being abused, immediately the details are seized on of his story and they are denied about for instance how the IRA dealt with him in the aftermath and they look as well at situations like what happened int he aftermath of the murder of Robert McCartney but all these calls of that type ‘oh come forward tell all you know’ and nobody comes forward.”
McDonald: “Well I hope that people will hear my words and more importantly Paudie’s words and take them beyond face value, I say that, and I mean it, Sinn Fein representatives have said it and it’s been re-echoed and we mean that, and we mean that most sincerely, I would have to say to you that in circumstances where abuse occurred, in any scenario it’s never easy for people to come forward and I understand the difficulties very very, very very clearly m self in regard to that but I just want to repeat that in order for justice to be served and there is an ongoing garda investigation in respect of Paudie’s case, albeit very belatedly, I know all of us wish that investigation to be speedy and to be successful and anybody else out there who has had a similar experience needs to come forward, and then it is a job for an Garda Siochana to investigate matters.
To, just to take the point of you saying that people are picking over details, here’s the position and let me specify it to Paudie since his story, he has come so recently and told his story, the position is this, Paudie tells the story of his abuse he alleges a particular individual who allegedly was a member of the IRA who allegedly was in his home in a spirit of good trust and good faith, just to say to your listeners I’m using those terms very carefully because I’m conscious there is an investigation under way.
Paudie has named a particular individual in respect of what he says was an IRA investigation the person that he has named has refuted through their legal representatives that it was them at all and has said that they’re happy to co-operate with the Garda Siochana to clarify that matter and then you come to somebody like me and you ask me questions about it and the only thing that I can say and I think in all fairness the only thing you could say if you were called on to make any kind of definitive statement about this is that the Gardai are best placed to actually adjudicate what precisely happened and I want to emphasise…”
O’Rourke: “Well I’m not sure that they are, actually. If they don’t get the full co-operation they’ll find out nothing.”
McDonald: “Oh, well they need to get full cooperation.“
O’Rourke: “Well do you think the Gardai are in a better position to find out who ran that kangaroo court than for instance you or Gerry Adams?”
McDonald: “I think absolutely, I think the Gardai…”
O’Rourke: “Well who’s going to tell them?”
McDonald: “Sean, I think the Gardai are best equipped to investigate any and all of these matters. That’s not my job, I’m not equipped to do it.”
O’Rourke: “We don’t have to go into the whole history of all this, of nationalism, Sinn Fein and the Republican movement, who held what position or who was and who wasn’t a member of the IRA. The fact is, there was an internal IRA investigation into the allegations made by Paudie McGahon, an individual he named has said, nothing to do with me, I was never there and I never met this man. Surely there are people you know and who Gerry Adams knows… if it wasn’t the individual named by Paudie McGahon, who was it?”
McDonald: “Well listen, let me say this Sean there is a Garda investigation underway in respect of Paudie’s experiences, his abuse and all that flowed from it and everybody needs to co-operate fully with that.”
O’Rourke: “And part of that co-operation might be finding out, Gerry Adams, the local TD in Co Louth, finding out who did run the kangaroo court and giving those names to the Gardai?”
McDonald: “Now Gerry has made it very, very clear that he will bring forward as is absolutely correct any information, any names, anything that he comes across he’s furthermore called on people to come forward…”
O’Rourke: “Now hang on, isn’t that being far too passive, is he not in a position to go and find out?”
McDonald: “I don’t accept, I don’t accept that that’s passive, in fact I would say to you Sean this is the only method by which you actually get to the truth and get information, that’s to call on people to come forward, to emphasise the absolute necessity of it, and then to create the atmosphere in which people actually come forward.”
O’Rourke: “But the track record, the track record is such that nobody believes that will happen.”
McDonald: “Well, I don’t accept that that’s the case, em, and I believe that it will happen, I believe that people will come forward, I believe that people must come forward and I believe…”
O’Rourke: “So do you believe that the people who…”
McDonald: “And i believe Sean that if for instance and I hope that this will happen if for instance the Taoiseach were to respond positively to what has been proposed by Martin McGuinness by way of a joint effort and initiative between the Dail and the government here in Dublin and the selective in the north I think that many many people will come forward and I think that it could create exactly the atmosphere in which people who have been reluctant or afraid to speak would in fact come forward.”
O’Rourke: “But you see, the people who come forward, if they are to come forward, won’t be people who run internal IRA investigations they will be people perhaps who pick up the courage to do as Mairia Cahill and Paudie McGahon have done and say this happened to me too this was how it was dealt with and then what we can expect is that senior Sinn Fein people will say, well we accept that that person was abused, of course they’re telling the truth and if there was an IRA inquiry they should never have dealt with this, this should have been dealt with by the authorities and by the way further the person who is said to have chaired or presided over that internal inquiry well they say well you know nothing to do with me I wan’t there you got the wrong guy here and I’m prepared to go and tell the guards I had nothing to do with it and again another brick wall…”
McDonald: “There’s no brick wall here but I think I think the difficulty is Sean you’re asking me to do something that in fact I can’t do…no hear me out, heer me out and I want to emphasise that this isn’t me gainsaying Paudie, Paudie is Paudie, he tells his story and I respect the integrity of that but you are asking me in circumstances where not Sinn Fein or me but the person who is named asserts it is not them through their solicitor, you are asking me, a person who was not there who isn’t possession of all of the information, who isn’t in possession of any witnesses or any individuals to make a judgment call on things.”
O’Rourke: “No, I’m not suggesting that for a minute…”
McDonald: “Sorry, that is, that is what you’ve asked me to do and because, Sean, I’m not prepared to do that because it’s not my function or my appropriate role to do it it’s appropriate for the Gardai to do it, because I say that, you accuse me of brick walling, can I just say I’m not interested in brick walls on this I’m not interested in the standing or the sensitivities of Sinn Fein or anybody else, I’m interested that a young man Paudie says he was raped and brutalised at the age of 17 and the person who did that needs to face the full rigours of the law, the full consequences and the full penalties for his actions. That’s my only concern.”
O’Rourke: “Well now…”
McDonald: “And my further concern if there are other people who have had that experience listen to what Paudie is saying listen to why I am saying and take that in good faith, don’t be afraid, step forward step forward now don’t delay.”
O’Rourke: “Yeah that’s grand and that’s very welcome and I don’t for a minute question your sincerity in saying that, by the way, and also I’m not suggesting for a minute either is that you stand in judgment on anyone or to make a judgment what I’m suggesting to you is that if it is the Sinn Féin position that the individuals named by Paudie or an individual as having presided over the internal disciplinary process is not the one who did that you and others at senior level in the republican movement are in a position to find out who did so preside and to persuade and direct those people to they themselves come forward and assist the Gardai in bringing about a conclusion with justice for people like Paudie.”
McDonald: “And let me reiterate over the airwaves, if I might, anybody with any information on this, anybody who is approached by an Gardai Siochana the appropriate investigating authority should co-operate fully…”
O’Rourke: “But what I’m saying is that people like Gerry Adams are in a position to find out information that others in the Republican movement have no intention of giving to the Gardai…”
McDonald: “Well look, and what I’m saying by way of response that its for the Gardai to investigate all of those matters and I’ve also said that I fully expect any person who has information on this, Gerry Adams or any other to bring that forward and to it without delay and then I expect and I have confidence in the capacity of the Gardai in this instance to investigate to examine evidence to speak to witnesses, to cross examine them and go back again and again to build a case,
I have no doubt about their capacity to do this and I am urging people in the strongest possible terms, to co-operate and I believe that they will, and more so saying to people who may have been victimised and traumatised in this way and who are listening to all this playing out again on the airwaves to please come forward in the manner that is best for them, and to bear in mind also that there are support networks and services for people for whom a story like this isn’t just a story, it’s a very personal thing because they have been through something very similar themselves.”
O’Rourke: “Mary Lou McDonald, Deputy Leader of SinnF thank you very much for joining us.”
Listen here
Meanwhile…
A message is being advanced that what happened, and how it was handled, in both rape cases has to be viewed in context: either the Troubles, or the swirling aftermath. Just as we’re told that all the killing and maiming through those lost decades has to be seen against the background of an unjust society.
Listening to the way Sinn Féin people speak about victims sexually abused by their members, and abused in a different way by those operating kangaroo courts, I hear echoes of an earlier form of rigidly rehearsed language. I hear the unconvincing apologies offered for the ‘collateral damage’ caused when civilians were killed in explosions. That was supposedly all about context, too.
Has nothing been learned? Nothing at all about humility or fellow feeling? I understand that war strips people of some or all of their humanity, and that a number of those in the upper echelons of the party have come through a war. I accept it is a brutalising process. These men and women look whole, but they aren’t. They left part of themselves behind.
But there is a generation behind the Troubles leaders in Sinn Féin. Where is their compassion for rape victims? Why are they unable to step outside the formulaic phraseology about victims, and communicate directly? Why do all of them toe the party line so obediently on every issue, even this one?
No amount of Sinn Féin spin can undermine these victims’ stories (Martina Devlin, Independent.ie)
By Birmingham-born, Irish-reared graphic designer Emmet Doherty
Emmet sez,
For this piece I wanted to go a little outside my comfort zone, it’s my first gif and my first attempt at animation, but I really enjoyed the process so it won’t be my last, although it was a steep learning curve….
Taoiseach Enda Kenny
A survey of Department of the Taoiseach employees has found a shocking one-in-four civil servants believe they have been bullied or harassed while at work, the Irish Independent can reveal.
Taoiseach’s office staff ‘bullied and harassed’ (Philip Ryan, Independent.ie)
This morning
The Department of the Taoiseach has claimed some staff members confused bullying with not receiving a response to an email when filling out a recent workplace survey.
This afternoon
(Leah Farrell/Photocall Ireland)
The Spire, O’Connell Street, Dublin.
To mark St Patrick’s Day and International Year of Light
When do they go on anyone?
Thanks Matt
Robbie Loughlin tweetz:
A quick ‘shop for the hundred hero on Sat[urday]!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvP71iA0Cdc
Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
A St Patrick’s Day 2015 g’day.
Mark Geary writes:
He repeats last year’s line about the English making the laws, etc. and seems to think it’s all about alcohol. He is a devout catholic, so celebrating a saint’s day is something he can believe in…
Needs more budgie, in fairness.
From top: Helen Rochford Brennan asking a question during The People’s Debate with Vincent Browne on TV3 last night; and a panel in the IFI last weekend, after a screening of Still Alice, including Helen, third from right
You may have seen The People’s Debate with Vincent Browne last night.
Helen Rochford Brennan, from Sligo, who was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s in her 50s, addressed the panel with this question:
“I have Early Onset Alzheimer’s. I’m chair of the Irish Dementia Working Group and, unfortunately Vincent, I have to read my question because I’ve been robbed of the ability to ask a question.
There are 48,000 of us living in this country, 4,000 of us under the age of 65 and there is no cure and there are no services for people under 65. Globally, dementia is recognised as a major health priority, as outlined in the World Health Organisation and the G8 health ministers. I would like to ask the panel what they plan to do, at national level, to address dementia?”
Helen also spoke about her condition at the IFI last Saturday, during a panel discussion about Early Onset Alzheimer’s, following the screening of Still Alice, starring Oscar winner Julianne Moore as a sufferer of Early Onset Alzheimer’s.
The panel discussion, organised by the Alzheimer Society of Ireland (ASI), was chaired by director and producer Anna Rodgers, and featured Tina Leonard, Head of Advocacy at the ASI; Hilary Moss, Director of the National Centre for Arts and Health; Helen, who is chair of the Irish Dementia Working Group and vice-chairperson of the European Working Group of People with Dementia; Ronan Smith, who was was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s at 56 and who is an advocate for the Irish Dementia Working Group; and Bairbre Ann Harkin, Education Curator at Butler Gallery Kilkenny.
Addressing the audience, Helen said:
“I suppose Alice was my own journey. With the condition, I very much identified with the examples; of forgetting words, stopping mid-sentence, wondering what I was about to say, covering up, forgetting appointments, you know, maybe taking three days to write something or now maybe taking three weeks. Words, like Alice, in front of me and you cannot reach them. Look I had a wonderful life, it was full of love and now sadness, I suppose over life’s journey coming to an abrupt halt.
But the movie depicts the devastating illness which many people do not understand and our eventual demise and how it affects those we love. But it also shows something that we are fighting hard for here in Ireland and that is how dignified and how graceful the in for Alice was in her own home. There’s very little funding in Ireland, I’m afraid, for packages, for us to stay in our own homes. I believe the research, it really was outstanding. And when she [actress Julianne Moore] went and visited people, she really mirrored my life and many people like me.”
“I felt sometimes I was watching myself. And I hope you saw the positive message in it and Tina [Leonard, of The Alzheimer Society of Ireland] mentioned it, about how Alice was getting on with her own life and she spoke at an Alzheimer’s conference and she was doing all this while Alzheimer’s was attacking all she had worked for.
Like Alice, I had a wonderful career and an active life and then I had the grieving of coming to terms with the fact that life will never be as it was. I wonder if many of ye noticed the clock [a bedside clock that appears in several scenes in Still Alice, when Alice gets up in the middle of the night]. I suppose the clock, for me, is the hardest… and that’s because we all have those feelings. And sometimes I sneak out and try and keep Sean [Helen’s husband] from waking him up and I go down the stairs and think about what maybe the future might be.
But, thankfully, like Alice, you know, I suppose many times, I try to be bright, be positive. And then there’s often times, I know it sounds a horrible thing to say, but I, too, wish I had cancer because I know that people would treat me differently, I know they’d want to go and do walks for me and I know they’d want to stick on ribbons and I know they’d want to come into the house and talk to me. But you see they look at Alzheimer’s in a different way.
And then Alice talked about the conversation with the family and I remember the conversation with my only child, my son. And she talked about how it affected them and how they were going to cope and, in particular, that it was familial and being told that there’s no cure.
Because there is no cure. And her husband was wonderful, like my own and she didn’t want, in the end, to derail his career I suppose. So, in my opinion, the film is hugely important for Alzheimer’s advocacy. As, it is such an accurate portrayal of what the condition is and Alice did her advocacy and our role as advocates is to help to bring dementia out of the shadows and get people to talk about it – particularly early onset Alzheimer’s which affects, as Tina said, 4,000 people.”
“Yes of course it wasn’t easy to watch but [Still Alice] explores many important aspects of dementia and, in particular, the burden us women have. Both in terms of much higher prevalence rates and in terms of bearing the burden of carers. We are twice as likely to get dementia as breast cancer… I’ve always been a community activist, no matter where I lived, and human rights have been very much to the fore, for me. I’ve been an advocate for as long as I can remember and now I find myself fighting for my own rights and for the rights of everybody with this horrendous illness. You know I realise there was really something wrong, you know, with my memory being impaired and my intellectual abilities weren’t functioning the way they should be. I had slow thinking, it gave me huge problems. You know, sometimes, I was at meetings and I just couldn’t remember the words, words that I had just newly learned, something I had read in the paper, and Sean and myself talk a lot about what’s in the news, and I’ll learn it today but I’m afraid that 90% of it is gone tomorrow – as today will be…
“There’s nowhere for us to turn under 65. In Ireland, there just aren’t services for people who are under 65 and, especially if you want to get on with your life, and if you’re working. Unfortunately, because I didn’t know how to handle this I had given up my job. I threw in the towel before really maybe it was necessary to do so… Believe me, this illness tests friendships. Some will stick with you, I’m afraid most leave you and they leave you with a feeling of isolation…”
“We need to have our basic human rights met. All we’re asking, is that our human rights are met. You know that I’m under 65, or over 65 shouldn’t really matter what should matter is that my illness is taken care of and that is not happening. So we want to see that change. And we want the state to honour the fact that if we want to live and die with dignity, like you saw Alice, the end of her life, it was so dignified and beautiful, that she was able to stay in her own home. We want to see that there are home care packages for our carers and that we don’t have.
So I will continue to advocate for dementia awareness, just like Alice. Not everyone can become an advocate because it drains the life right out of you. But we put our emotions on the sideline and we tell our story but the rewards are huge. Not for us, but for all people suffering with dementia. As advocates we’re creating a better quality of life that, some day, we will all benefit from.”
Meanwhile, after the panel discussion ended, Dr Suzanne Cahill, director of the Dementia Services Centre at St James’s Hospital, who was sitting in the audience, asked to address the panel.
Dr Cahill said:
“Clearly, yes, there is a need for awareness and there’s a need for really de-stigmatising dementia but, in my view, I’m really very disenchanted with the Government’s whole approach to dementia. We were commissioned to undertake the research review for the Dementia Strategy and it was three years before a strategy came out, by which time our statistics were out of date. The strategy was launched before Christmas. We’re now three months into, we’re through the first quarter of this year, there’s no visible signs of any new services in my view. I listened to [Health Minister] Leo Varadkar last week, in Trinity College, provide his outline of services for this coming year – no mention of dementia at all in his service plan for 2015.
“And, as recently as Friday, a circular was sent to me, an excel sheet to complete, regarding our commitment to dementia for the coming years. There’s going to be a big dementia forum in Geneva, held by the World Health Organisation, and led out by the UK on the 16th and 17th of March. And when I replied to the Department of Health and asked which of our ministers will be attending this conference, I was told there’s no minister available. So that’s how bad it is and I really, really appeal to people like Helen and to Ronan to keep the pressure on. There are people desperate out there for help and for services and it’s so wrong and so immoral.”
Listen to a podcast of the full panel discussion here
