Benedict Retires

Sinead O'Connor
February 12, 2013

http://www.sineadoconnor.com/

I would like to congratulate Pope Benedict on his wise decision to retire before the very worst of what has been going on is discovered. I appreciate his alluding to some of it in his statement and assure him The Most High forgives those who can faithfully say they did wrong.

I also note with with interest the choice of a day so close to St Bernadette’s feast day to make the announcement. Perhaps her body could now be given a respectful burial and cease to be exploited in the macabre way it has been for decades.

The church has been brought into dreadful disrepute by lies and blasphemies against The Holy Spirit. Benedict’s greatest achievement is this act of retiring. There is a chance now for the church to be re-built and made fit to house The Holy Spirit.

When I saw the statement from the Sisters Of Our Lady of Charity on friday, the last sentence shocked me so much, (because its implication seems proper records may not have been kept regarding my friend’s baby) that I made a formal statement to the Irish police force.

Now that has been done I wish to address the rest of their statement.

They did not address the issue I had raised. Which was that a more fitting apology is owed to my friend and possibly other women, in other institutions, who were put under severe duress to give away babies they manifestly did not want to give away and were not supported in keeping.

The tone of all the church and govt apologies did not address those women or even acknowledge their existence.

Rightly, the Sisters say they do not comment on individual cases. But a general apology to any woman who experienced what my friend experienced really doesn’t seem to me that hard to issue if you have a heart, and some respect.

Certainly I hope the Sisters see fit to communicate a suitable apology privately to my friend.

Whether or not you call these children ‘stolen‘ is semantics and the church is earth’s semantic genius. Remember ‘Mental Reservation”? (who does not know can google and be highly amused. If you can’t find it let me know here and i will explain)

A girl in An Grianan was placed under extreme and unbearable duress to give away a baby boy I saw on the premises. She was on the premises pregnant. I saw her pregnant there.

Whatever details anyone witnesses or not, no one with hand on heart who was there, could witness other than she was profoundly distressed at giving the child up and suffered agonisingly afterward.

None who witnessed her distress and had a heart inside their body could give a toss whether she signed the papers or not. If she did that doesn’t make it right.

She and other women this may have happened to deserve a more appropriate apology than the sisters issued the afternoon The McAleese report came out.

The task force behind the McAleese report is still ongoing in its investigations. It is EXTREMELY important that these matters be looked into thoroughly so that the historical record may be correct.

It is extremely important they examine whether or not proper records were kept since the report “finds no evidence that babies were born” to mothers resident in laundries.

I do not believe my friend’s baby was born on the premises, but he was born to a mother who dwelled at An Grianan.

It is extremely important that anyone affected by these issues, who feels strong enough to, go to their local police station and make a report and or statement which can be passed to the task force so they may be certain everything is above board.

I hope the church and State see fit sometime soon, to issue a special apology to any girls or women who were put upon to give up babies they wished to keep.

As well as apologies from the State and church to all those who lived in institutions and laundries, apologies are owed from the Irish people, who were complicit in the whole thing. Had we not been the type of people who turned our faces from children (as we did again on November 10 2012) none of it could have happened. We are the final piece in the puzzle as to why and how. We let it happen. We knew the tall walls. the threat of them was always there. Until the people apologise and their involvment is documented justice will not have been correctly served nor the historic record left accurate.

THE MCALEESE REPORT CONFIRMS THERE WERE FAMILIES COMPLICIT IN THESE MATTERS, WHO CHOSE TO PLACE THEIR DAUGHTERS IN LAUNDRIES. WE DIDN’T NEED ANY REPORT TO LET US KNOW THAT. THERE WERE SOCIAL WORKERS, PSYCHIATRISTS, DOCTORS, ALL MANNER OF PEOPLE.

INTERESTING FACT FOR ANYONE WHO HAS TIME TO PURSUE IT.. ONE OF THE PSYCHIATRISTS OF DUBLIN WHOSE NAME COMES UP ON THE RECORDS OF CERTAIN GIRLS WHO WERE AT AN GRIANAN IS PAUL MC’QUAID, NEPHEW OF BISHOP JOHN CHARLES.

I WISH I HAD TIME BUT DO NOT, TO RESEARCH TO WHAT EXTENT THE BISHOP WAS CONNECTED. AND I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW WHAT IF ANY KNOWLEDGE OR CONNECTION DE’VALERA HAD. SIMPLY, I’D LOVE TO KNOW AT WHAT POINT IN IRISH HISTORY DID A BUNCH OF MEN FIRST SIT DOWN AND DECIDE TO CONTROL THE POPULATION BY CONTROLLING THE WOMEN, AS THE CONSTITUTION DID DURING THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE TIME ALL THIS HELLISHNESS WENT ON. HOW DO YOU BEST CONTROL THE CHILDREN? DEMORALISE AND FRIGHTEN THE WOMEN. STOP THEM WORKING WHEN THEY GET MARRIED. LOCK THEM AWAY IF THEY DO NOT FIT THE ‘DANCING AT THE CROSSROADS’ MODEL, AND IF THEY DON’T FIT TELL THEM THEY ARE UNFIT TO KEEP THEIR BABIES.

“STEAL A LITTLE AND THEY THROW YOU IN JAIL, STEAL A LOT AND THEY MAKE YOU KING” (Bob Dylan.. Sweetheart Like You)