Long Silence after McCoy Report

Letter by Dr. Margaret Kennedy
Irish Times
January 4, 2010

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/letters/2010/0104/1224261595167.htm

[See the text of the McCoy report. See also the March 7, 2010, RTE Would You Believe documentary about Kennedy called The Spirit and the Letter.]

Madam, – We are entering 2010 with heavy heart following the Dublin diocese commission into abuse. While there is justified uproar and calls for resignations, signalling accountability, no such accountability came after the review into the abuse of learning disabled people in the Brothers of Charity establishment in Galway.

Indeed it appears that following this review absolutely nothing happened on the scale of the Dublin fallout. For a few days we were appalled, thereafter total silence. My critique of the McCoy report, running into 52 pages, was ignored by the Government. My first criticism was that McCoy simply reported events but it was not an "inquiry".

No one was called to account. Senior staff who were present during the times of the abuse were not challenged. The Brothers of Charity responsible for moving sex offenders from Cork (Lota), to Galway to Liverpool remain unscathed by the revelations. The question of collusion with gardaí was not examined. My executive summary, where I critique the McCoy report, runs into 10 pages with 222 questions that still need answering.

Despite Alan Shatter TD and myself making representation to the Dáil and despite an Oireachtas Committee established to examine the McCoy report, little has resulted to further the inquiry into who allowed learning disabled people suffer from horrendous sexual abuse and certainly it seems no one was called to account.

Three years have passed since the McCoy report. Isn't it time we created uproar on behalf of learning disabled people who cannot speak out for themselves? – Yours, etc,

Dr MARGARET KENNEDY,

Specialist on disability & abuse & clergy sexual abuse,

Proby Park,

Dalkey,

Co Dublin.