Being betrayed as a child leaves a lifelong feeling of disgust

I empathise with your columnist Victoria White, (Opinion, Sept 13,) especially on the matter of keeping silent on the subject of child abuse.

This is especially true In my case looking back to the 1950s when nobody would listen to you, not to mind believe such a thing could happen.

It took years for me to speak out on the fabric of abuse in one of the most elite secondary boarding schools in Munster.

It is also a shame on the superiors who kept shifting these abusers around with continuing access to children.

Young prefects, some of whom knew about this matter and are now priests themselves, failed in their duty to report the crimes to their immediate superiors. I don’t know if it would have mattered, but still they should have acted.

One should remember also that boys who passed through this school and who are now in positions of authority in some of the highest professions in this State, and the Catholic Church, haven’t given voice to their opinion on the matter.

They should now right the wrongs.

Fifty-eight years down the road I can still smell the predator’s clothes.

The mental scars are the hardest to cure and they continue to erupt and weep.

People who continue to abuse and misuse authority should be rooted out like a pernicious weed that soaks up the room and good from the best of people.

Being betrayed and let down when you are a child leaves a lifelong sinking feeling of disgust, an open wound which refuses to be healed.

What people say about me is none of my business and neither do I care, I am a survivor.

In Victoria’s (White’s) own words in the column, “does anyone give a toss”about what happened to innocent children?

John Tobin

Leap

West Cork