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	Gardai As Bad As the Abusers Herald November 27, 2009 http://www.herald.ie/opinion/gardai-as-bad-as-the-abusers-1956233.html DARK DAY: Our police force was in connivance with the very ones who brutalised our children What hope was there for the child victims of rogue priests when even the Gardai would not do their duty? That is the question that must stand out for many of us as we read the findings of the Murphy Report. The Church's practice of keeping complaints of abuse within its own walls was a major facilitator of the exploitation of children. But the reluctance of Gardai to deal with complaints of abuse by priests practically guaranteed these priests a free run. It meant those who were abused had nowhere to turn. Think of the enormous emotional toll of making a complaint. Imagine that you are asked to describe your most recent sexual act, in detail, to a stranger? You would be embarrassed, wouldn't you, no matter how normal that act was? Now think of a child having to describe that act to a parent. And then think of the child having to describe that act to a Garda. What an ordeal. Is it any surprise that many children could not bring themselves to say the words? So if the child goes through that ordeal to the extent of describing the act to a stranger, a Garda, then the child has made an enormous effort. Adding to the stress of making the complaint is the fact that it is against a priest, at that time the most respected figure in society. And then what does the Garda do? Not his duty, which is to investigate the complaint. No, the Garda goes to an archbishop, a bishop or a priest with the complaint. He washes his hands of it. He hands it over the very organisation whose representative has abused the child. It is hard to imagine the despair which this must have induced in those who were treated in that way. They were not important enough, as people, even to be protected by the law of the land. authority Were the Gardai in question bad people? Not necessarily. They were a product of a society in thrall to the Church. Many were themselves in thrall to the Church. The parish priest was a higher authority than the sergeant. The Church itself thought it had an interest in protecting the abusers. Better that children should suffer than that the name of the Church should be dragged through the mud. This consideration surely did not apply in the case of those Gardai, who failed to do their duty with regards to the investigation of complaints of clerical child abuse. Or did it? The fact that some junior members of the force went ahead and investigated complaints suggests that these junior members were not in awe of the church. That in turn suggests that some of their seniors allowed their awe to override their duty as Gardai. What an appalling trap that created for children. What an appalling opportunity it created for rogue priests. The children were locked out, their complaints unheard. Authority turned to them a hard face and a deaf ear. Garda Commissioner Facthna Murphy was right when the said there had been inappropriate contacts and relationships between gardai and the Archdioces of Dublin at a time when society showed "misguided or undue deference" to religious institutions. criminal He was also right when he acknowledged that these relationships could have no place in a criminal investigation. Had the Gardai in question done their duty, would rogue priests have been stopped in their tracks? Or would they themselves have been stopped in their tracks by Church bullying? We will never know. But what we do know is that they should have tried. That was their duty.
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