Irish Examiner view: Immediate intervention required

The State has a deep responsibility to minors who have disappeared from its care, but this obligation is not being met. Picture: PA 

The revelation that co-ordinated networks of predatory men are potentially targeting vulnerable children missing from State care is something that should spark an immediate intervention from the authorities.

This newspaper revealed on Monday how 28 teenagers have disappeared from State care this year and that the whereabouts of 22 of them is still unknown and rarely publicised.

The State has a deep responsibility to these minors, but this obligation is not being met and there are genuine fears that the children may become reliant on people only too willing to exploit them for nefarious purposes.

On the margins of society, these youngsters will, if they come under the influence of predators, become even more alone, vulnerable, and ripe for exploitation.

While we know that Tusla, the child and family agency, is conducting a review into concerns about children in residential care, following the Protecting Against Predators report by the University College Dublin Sexual Exploitation Research Programme last year, it seems clear now that co-ordinated State action is needed.

It is not good enough that children who have had to be taken into the care of the State appear to be going missing, but that they might then be manipulated by immoral criminals beggars belief.

It is positive that Tusla is working with the UCD research team, as well as the Garda National Protection Services Bureau, to strengthen the response to child sexual exploitation and trafficking and is developing and implementing staff training to better cope with the threat.

That it is also reviewing child sexual exploitation concerns for those in residential care is another positive. However, the parents and families of vulnerable children who have to be taken into care need to be reassured that it is not the case that such measures are merely a precursor to further trauma and turmoil in these children’s young lives.

Unlikely support for Ukraine

Ukraine got a most unlikely saviour last weekend in the shape of Mike Johnson, the Republican leader of the US House of Representatives.

Mr Johnson, who got the job after the Trumpian Maga caucus in Congress forced former incumbent Kevin McCarthy out of the post because he was not far-right enough for their tastes, was supposed to be a puppet whose strings they pulled.

By passing a $61bn aid package for Ukraine on Saturday, Mr Johnson cut loose from the ties that bound him and enraged those who made the former Louisiana backbencher one of the most powerful men in the world.

Unburdened by the expectations of those who elected him House speaker, Mr Johnson made the difficult decision to secure bipartisan support for the aid package, knowing full well it could cost him his job.

Saying he believed this to be the right thing, he made his decision in the face of threats from an angry and vocal cadre of hard-right Republicans using a conservative megaphone to try and bully him into deserting Ukraine.

The House speaker dithered as he analysed his own Maga background and as Ukraine began to face overwhelming battlefield superiority from Russia, but eventually he made the right decision.

He might well now be a pariah in certain Republican circles, but Mr Johnson has stood on the right side of history — and by the people of Ukraine.

Simply the best

Trainer Willie Mullins reacts after securing his 100th Cheltenham Festival victory. Picture: David Davies for The Jockey Club/PA

Every sport goes through a period where there is one dominant personality or team, and there are numerous examples right now. Scotty Sheffler and Nellie Korda in men’s and women’s golf; we have had years of Lionel Messi in soccer, culminating in the 2022 World Cup victory for Argentina; there’s been double rugby World Cups for South Africa; Max Verstappen has been unbeatable for nearly three years in Formula One; Limerick are going for an unprecedented five in a row in hurling. The list goes on.

No less impressive than any of the above has been the dominance of Willie Mullins in National Hunt racing. The modest Closutton maestro has not only closed out the Irish trainers’ championship this year for the 18th time, but last Saturday a monster 4,462/1 four-timer at Ayr put him in line to win the British equivalent.

Not since 1954, when the legendary Vincent O’Brien won that British title, has an Irish trainer achieved the feat and Mullins’ victory in the Scottish Grand National with Macdermott, along with other wins at Ayr for Sharjah, Quai De Bourbon, and Chosen Witness, put him through the £3m barrier in UK prizemoney this season and some £182,000 ahead of his nearest rivals for the title, Dan Skelton and Paul Nichols.

Having clocked up a remarkable 100th winner at Cheltenham last month including wins in the Gold Cup and a Champion Hurdle, and won the Grand National at Aintree last week with I Am Maximus, the 67-year-old’s achievements are nothing short of astonishing and will undoubtedly stand the test of time.

This is unwelcome news for an increasingly jingoistic British racing establishment for whom Mullins’ successes are ever more bothersome, leading former Grand National winning trainer Richard Newland to claim Irish dominance of British jumps racing — read Mullins — was “killing” the sport. 

While his views were openly derided across the racing industry, the fact is that the Carlow trainer has rattled his K cohorts to an unprecedented degree and by wrapping up their trainers’ championship next weekend at Sandown, he will only underline his imposing grip on the sport in these islands. And the Punchestown festival is yet to come.