Cloyne speech ‘long overdue’

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny’s speech on the Cloyne report was “forthright, honest” and “long overdue”, according to one of the people who wrote to praise him in the wake of the event.

The Irish Examiner yesterday published a cross-section of the letters and emails Mr Kenny received after the historic July 20 speech.

One of the letter writers was Alan Wrafter, a 32-year-old Irishman living in Spain, who outlined to this paper his reasons for writing to the Taoiseach.

“My main motivation in writing my letter was to express my solidarity with the Taoiseach after his speech to the Dáil, and the strong reactions it provoked both in the media and from religious quarters,” he said.

“Having listened in shock to the litany of horrors of child abuse revelations over recent years, I felt that Enda Kenny’s speech was the forthright, honest, if long overdue, response of an Irish statesman to the unacceptable machinations of the Catholic Church and its hierarchy.”

Mr Wrafter said the speech struck an “important note” in the “long, sorry shame” of abuse scandals.

“It was a declaration of solidarity with the victims, of the sovereignty of the Irish Republic as a democratic entity, and the unacceptability of the Vatican’s response and attempted interference with its workings.

“The appalling reaction of the Papal spokesman following the Taoiseach’s speech, where he spoke of the Vatican’s ‘surprise and disappointment at some excessive reactions’ was, I felt, an unacceptable an inappropriate response ...

“Other media commentators, too, had rushed to react, to analyse the detail and look for inconsistencies in what they dismissed as another politician’s speech; the shrill cries and denouncements were startling. In this context, I felt the need to write, to express my support for our democratically elected Taoiseach as he made a historic statement for Ireland, and for its people.”

Under the Freedom of Information Act, the Irish Examiner requested to view the letters and emails Mr Kenny got in response to the speech.

Some 507 messages were released, with 455 (89.8%) supportive; 23 (4.5%) conditionally supportive; and 29 (5.7%) critical.