Time to cherish all citizens equally

It is now 2012, Irish society has moved on a great deal, but sadly many institutions such as the Christian churches, some Government departments and their civil servants remain in their bunkers.

As we are in a new century, now is the ideal opportunity for such organisations to come out of their bunkers and properly serve modern day Ireland.

They can only truly serve all of the people of Ireland by putting aside and burying the cankerous prejudices of the past.

This cannot happen if such institutions remain in a state of denial about the wrongs of the past.

The modern day Irish citizen will not accept this outdated, and corrosive culture, which has corrupted our past, blights our current situation, and which threatens to endanger our future.

As there are more and more citizens who do not consider themselves attached to any branch of Christianity, they therefore do not condone the previous thinking which has shamefully ruled our country, and they are no longer prepared to accept it. If we want an Ireland that is at peace with itself, this part of history has to be addressed.

There is no room left for any government minister in modern Ireland today, to make national statements purporting to right the wrongs of the past, when they continue to exclude citizens from the non-Catholic minority community.

In order to assist all survivors and all citizens of Ireland to have closure on this horrifically bad and sad chapter of Irish history, which has also affected the Christian churches in Ireland, government ministers must make statements that embrace all our citizens, and our civil servants must be brought up to speed so that they are capable of serving all of the people of Ireland, in an open and all-inclusive manner.

All of our church leaders in Ireland must also be working to that end.

No more must the citizens of Ireland be disadvantaged, irrespective from which denomination they may or may not be from.

The announcement made by Education Minister Ruairí Quinn regarding the €500,000 memorial for the victims of abuse in Catholic institutions, as recommended by the Ryan report, is a gesture that excludes other citizens.

But thank goodness, the citizens of Ireland today reject the inwardly-looking and outdated philosophy of past governments and civil servants.

The people of Ireland demand an enlightened and all-encompassing attitude towards everyone.

Seen from the abused minority Protestant perspective, who have not only had to live with such abuse, but have also suffered the pain and disadvantages due to the abuse not being taken seriously by the State’s civil servants.

I have a dream that one day very soon, this culture will be no more.

Derek Leinster

Chairperson

Bethany Survivors Group

Rugby

United Kingdom