Irish Examiner view: Abuse victims really deserve better than this
Abuse survivors who waived their right to anonymity in the public gallery of Dáil Éireann for the official State apology for its failings regarding the abuse in Waterford by Bill Kenneally. Picture: Oireachtas
This week, the victims of paedophile Bill Kenneally received an official State apology in the Dáil in the Dáil from the Taoiseach.
It has been a long and difficult road for them.
Kenneally’s history of abuse in Waterford dates back to the late ’70s, and when he was investigated in the ’80s, there were serious failings, as identified by a major report published last month just before Kenneally’s death in prison.
This week, those victims welcomed the Taoiseach’s comments, in which he stated that he apologised “unreservedly, on behalf of the State, to the victims of Bill Kenneally for what was a clear and serious dereliction of duty”.
The fact that this resolution has been decades in the making is extremely disappointing, but the victims’ expressions of closure and vindication show it was worthwhile.
Justice minister Jim O’Callaghan also confirmed this week that a compensation scheme is to be developed by the Department of Justice following consultation with the victims.
These are welcome steps, but they should be considered alongside a development this week in another abuse scandal which dates back over half a century.
Education minister Hildegarde Naughton has told the Cabinet that the Government will enter into mediation with 19 women abused at Dunderrow National School in Cork.
Again, while this is positive news, the timeline here is depressingly long.
Some of this abuse occurred in the 1960s, but abuser Leo Hickey was only convicted of his crimes in 1998.
In 2014, Louise O’Keeffe won her case relating to abuse in Dunderrow at the European Court of Human Rights, but a redress scheme which the then government set up collapsed in 2019, while many survivors were ineligible for a revised redress scheme which operated from 2021 to 2023.
Delaying justice and closure for decades, literally, in these cases, is completely unacceptable.
The State, which should be seeking to right these wrongs as a matter of urgency, seems incapable of responding compassionately and promptly in these matters. It must improve its performance sharply.
It is an image redolent of one specific aspect of an Irish summer, often associated with a specific event in a particular Kerry town.
For generations, supporters of the Cork and Kerry football teams have walked up from Killarney town centre to Fitzgerald Stadium, and many of those glorious summer Sundays were so hot the tar was melting on the roads — in the memory, at least.
Now, climate change and heat domes are creating summers more arduous than glorious, and all roads are showing the effects.
As reported here this week by Sean O’Riordan, the current heatwave has seen the closure of several roads because the tar is melting in surface temperatures reaching 50C or more, according to thermometers installed on them.
Padraig Barrett, Cork County Council’s director of roads and transportation, who oversees more than 12,000km of roads, said crews have had to treat roads with sand and grit to stop them from melting and to keep them open.
Mr Barrett added that this may necessitate changing from standard road surfacing materials to premium polymer modified emulsion, or PPME, which can withstand road temperature variations from -15C to +60C. Unfortunately, PPME can be up to 20% more expensive than standard materials.
There are further complications: Road resurfacing is usually undertaken in summer, because conditions are too wet and cold for that work in winter, but the current heatwave means road temperature is currently too high for resurfacing. In addition, years of underfunding mean it has been estimated that €1bn may be needed to bring our road network up to scratch.
The road network is an essential part of our national infrastructure, one we cannot afford to see fall into disrepair if our economy is to maintain its competitiveness. A major road repair and rebuilding programme seems non-negotiable.
This is one of our first glimpses of the sweeping changes which climate change may impose on us as we grapple with a changing world. It will hardly be the last.
Friday sees the release in cinemas of The Odyssey, the new film from director Christopher Nolan.
His last effort was the blockbuster hit Oppenheimer, for which Cork man Cillian Murphy won an Academy Award.
Because of the success of , there is a great deal of interest in Mr Nolan’s latest effort, which is a retelling of Homer’s epic poem recounting Odysseus’s various adventures as he tries to return to his wife Penelope, at home in Ithaca, after the Trojan War.
It seems extraordinary that a story which is believed to date back to the sixth century BC retains the power to capture audiences, but even those of us with no feeling for ancient Greek will recognise the themes and characters.
Odysseus’s long wanderings and wish to return home are sensations familiar to us even now, while some of the characters he encounters on his eventual journey are immortal.
Even now we can recognise the sirens, whose songs lure unsuspecting sailors to their deaths; the lotus-eaters, who encourage visitors to become lazy and forgetful; and Polyphemus, better known to us as the cyclops, a giant with one eye in the middle of his forehead.
It remains to be seen if Mr Nolan’s film does justice to Homer’s work, but even if it proves to be disappointing, that will hardly inflict serious damage on the reputation of a poem which is almost 3,000 years old.
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