Child abuse in Ireland like slavery in US

“The privilege of opening the first trial in history for crimes against the peace of the world imposes a grave responsibility.

The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant and so devastating that civilisation cannot tolerate their being ignored because it cannot survive their being repeated”

– Robert H Jackson, Chief of Counsel for the United States at the Nuremberg trials, November 21, 1945

These words spoken more than 50 years ago are applicable today to describe the horror of this state’s own holocaust, as outlined in the Ryan report on child abuse in state institutions.

This vile period of Ireland’s history is comparable to slavery in the United States. We as nation shall revisit this period of history with the same disdain and disgust as we do the Great Famine.

Even after the Ryan report was published, it took Michael O’Brien to really hammer it home to all of us. He moved me and a nation to the tears. He spoke from the heart and with common language. His only crime was the death of his mother.

How dare any of us judge those victims – we should all be ashamed. How dare any of us question their honesty and integrity.

Instead of celebrating the Easter rising next year, for we have done everything contrary to the proclamation we claim to uphold, we should have a day of remembrance for those who suffered at the hands of the state.

We all failed in our duty as outlined in that treasured document to protect the children of this nation – “cherishing all the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien government which have divided a minority in the past.”

How those who gave their lives in the spirit of freedom and liberty must be spinning in their graves.

It is essential that every citizen ensures no generation will ever again have to suffer at the hands of the state or any institution. It is therefore an imperative that those who perpetuated these heinous crimes are brought to justice for, in Jackson’s words, “civilisation cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated”

Muiris Walsh

Ballymacarbry

Co Waterford