Fury As Victims Kicked out into the Rain at Briefing, Michael Lavery, Herald, May 21, 2009

Fury As Victims Kicked out into the Rain at Briefing

By Michael Lavery
Herald
May 21, 2009

http://www.herald.ie/national-news/fury-as-victims-kicked-out-into-the-rain-at-briefing-1746846.html

Kevin Flanagan, whose late brother was a victim of abuse, was among those barred from the briefing.

ABUSE victims reacted angrily when they were barred from attending the press conference launching the abuse report at a Dublin hotel.

At one stage, gardai were called as a crowd formed around the secretary of the Child Abuse Commission as she attempted to explained it was a press-only event and would not go ahead unless they stepped away.

One of the victims said: "We promise to be dignified and to respect the office of the judge and the position he holds.

Angry

"What we're asking is to allow us in there. By not allowing us in, surely to God you know we're going to be angry?"

When two gardai arrived at the Earlsfort room in the Conrad hotel, John Kelly of Survivors of Child Abuse, and a victim of abuse, could not believe he was about to be escorted out into the rain.

"We represent 4,000 victims. You need to listen to us. We promise to be dignified. This is an absolute farce," he said.

But an official told him; "This is a press-only event."

After a statement read by Mr Justice Sean Ryan to journalists, the victims outside were left to give what reaction they could.

"The scars and wounds are still left open," said Mr Kelly.

Earlier, he said the institutions detailed in the report "weren't care homes, they were gulags."

Children were "rented out to farmers as slave labourers," faced regular floggings and were known by numbers, not names, he said.

He described how he lived in an institution run by a Catholic religious order in a former British military barracks.

"There were 30ft walls. It was a military garrison.

"It was maintained that way with the holding cells being used for children. They didn't use your name. We were each given a number.

"I wasn't John Kelly, I was number 253, I will always remember that," he said.

"We were known as residents but residents don't get dragged out of their bed and flogged naked in the middle of the night."

"They didn't have to get out of bed in all weathers and work for farmers for money for the religious orders and the State.

"We made our own clothes, we made our own boots. We didn't get much of the food from the farms where we worked. The brothers and priests got it.

Evil

"We made the straps they beat us with to their particular design. Some of them (the religious staff) were so evil that old English three-penny bits had to be sewn into the straps. Some used bits of copper or lead. We were making the instruments of our own torture."

He feared that thousands of victims would be left bitterly disappointed and feel "cheated and deceived" by the report.

Contact: mlavery@herald.ie