Dublin diocesan report

In the Irish Republic a commission headed by High Court judge Yvonne Murphy has reported on the physical and sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests in the diocese of Dublin.  It is a damning and devastating report and it reveals an appalling story of physical and sexual abuse.  Not only did the abuse take place but senior figures in the Roman Catholic hierarchy did not report these crimes to the police because of a culture of secrecy in the church and a desire to preserve the power and aura of the church.  As a result clerical rapists were able to continue their abuse of young and vulnerable children.

The Irish Times has provided good coverage and analysis of this issue and on Thursday (3 December) its religious affairs correspondent Patsy McGarry looked at the government's response to the report.

Is it not remarkable that the Taoiseach can be so sanguine about an institution which covered up chidl rape?

Listening to Taoiseach Brian Cowen in the Dail on Tuesday as he delivered his semper fidelis (always faithful) defence of the Vatican and the papal nunciature to Ireland over their lack of co-operation with the Dublin diocesan commission, was to be reminded of other days and another taoiseach.

In April 1951, during debate on the ill-fated Mother and Child Scheme, opposed by the Catholic bishops led by Archbishop John Charles McQuaid, then taoisach John A Costello felt impelled to announce, 'I am an Irishman second: I am a Catholic first and I accept without qualification in all respects thet eachign of theh ierarchy and the church to which I belong.'  He told the Dail, 'I, as a Catholic, obey my church authorities and will continue to do so.'

It is hardly unfair to suggest that in his doughty defence of the Vatican's non-co-operation with a commission of this State, set up by a Government of which he was a member, our current Taoiseach has discovered he too is 'an Irishman second'.'

Pasy McGarry's article also highlighted the difficulty for the investigating commission in dealing with the Vatican and this was taken up by the Irish Times in its editorial.

The Vatican does not do things lightly.  When it refused to deal with the commission except through diplomatic contacts at the level of one state to another, it was not being precious.  It was asserting a claim that is rucial to its efforts to avoid the consequences of itso wn policies.  The insistence on being treated as a state rather than a chruch is the key to its claim of sovereign immunity.

The reputation of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, the Vatican and the government in the Irish Republic have all been damaged by these revelations. 

In recent days there have been several other reports of sexual abuse.  One case involved a sports coach and another an elder in an evangelical fellowship.  Such cases are equally appalling and the suffering of the victims will have been just as great but the abuse in Dublin and other Roman Catholic dioceses in the Republic is different in several respects:

1. the scope and the scale of the abuse

2. the extent of the official cover-up, where men of authority put the reputation of their institution above the welfare of young children
3. the failure of the Garda Siochana to investigate reports of abuse

3. the reluctance of the government to confront the Vatican.

It will be some time before we really know the impact of this report on the Roman Catholic community and their relationship to the church.  Meanwhile questions are now being asked about the extent of clerical abuse here in Northern Ireland.

Ulster Architectural Heritage Society

The Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, which is campaigning against the demolition of a fine Victorian building in Belfast city centre, has overcome a major hurdle in its campaign.  A High Court judge has ruled that the UAHS would not have to pay a government department's costs should its application for a judicial review fail.

The society is trying to stop the Athletic Stores in Queen Street from being demolished.  Carlisle Property Developments Ltd want to remove the building and replace it with a nine-storey complex with 69 apartments and street-level shops.  Planning permission for the scheme was granted but the process is now being challenged through a judicial review.

In his ruling Mr Justice McCloskey pointed out that some people viewed the building as a 'prince among paupers' in a city whose built heritage had been depleted'.

Rita Harkin of the UAHS welcomed the decision and said, 'It's obviously a critical case which will establish whether Planning Service is prepared to use its own policy to protetc buiuldings in areas it itself has designated for their architectural or historic interest.'

Cinemagic celebration

This evening was the closing celebration for the Cinemagic International Film and Television Festival for young people.  It was held in the Odeon Cinemas at Victoria Square in Belfast and I was welcomed by Joan Burney Keatings, chief executive of Cinemagic.  The festival included the showing of films for young people, a schools programme for nursery, primary and secondary schools, and master classes in acting and other aspects of film making.

The closing celebration showcased some of their work and acknowledged the most promising participants.  There was a special showcase screening of short films that have been made by schools from throughout Northern Ireland who took part in the BT Vision Schools Filmmaking Project and the veening closed with a performance by the young participants from the ‘Songs from the Movies’ festival masterclass.

At the start of the evening I spoke to the audience about the value of this high-quality festival and I am delighted that my department is able to support it through Northern Ireland Screen, which is one of our arms-length bodies.  Other organisations that support Cinemagic include Coca Cola, Arts and Business NI, Titanic Quarter, Belfast City Council and Invest NI.

After returning home and listening to the news I was sorry to hear of the death of the British actor Richard Todd.  His father, who was a doctor, was of Scottish and Irish descent and he spent some of his childhood in the village of Toomebridge.  He is remembered for war films such as The Dam Busters, The Hasty Heart and The Longest Day.  In 2001 Todd revisited the family home in Toome and was accompanied by BBC Newsline.

Second Great Awakening

Tonight I watched the latest programme on BBC Four in a series entitled A History of Christianity.  The series is presented by Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch, who is professor of church history at the University of Oxford.  The subject was Protestantism - The Evangelical Explosion and part of the programme was about the growth of evangelicalism in America.  It covered the Great Awakening in the early 18th century, before the American Revolution, and also the Second Great Awakening, an evangelical revival which started in Kentucky at the start of the 19th century.

My attention was taken when he stated unequivocally that the Second Great Awakening arose among Scots Presbyterians who moved to Ulster and then on to America.  It was particularly good to hear a prominent historian use the word Ulster and of course he was talking about the Ulster-Scots who emigrated from Ulster to America in the course of the 18th century.  The Ulster-Scots who crossed the Atlantic had a significant impact on the religious life of America and especially on the development of Protestantism. 

Too often the Ulster-Scots influence in America is seen as simply a series of presidents and pioneers of Ulster descent.  In fact the Ulster influence is much broader and much deeper.

160 years of art

After a busy round of departmental and other meetings, including one with the Irish Football Association, and then a meeting of the Executive this afternoon, it was good to be able to visit the exhibition in the Ormeau Baths Gallery to mark 160 years of the Belfast School of Art and Design and the University of Ulster.

The works on show were all by people who had trained at the college in Belfast and there were some magnificent paintings and drawings, by such famous Ulster artists as John Luke, Frank McKelvey, Paul Henry, Basil Blackshaw and James Humbert Craig, as well as some sculptures by F E McWilliam.  The exhibition is certainly worth a visit.

North-South meetings

Today I attended my second NSMC meetings for the North-South Language Body and Waterways Ireland.  I did not have to go too far as we held the meeting in my department offices in Belfast.  The Irish Republic was represented by Eamon O'Cuiv, the minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.

The first meeting was in relation to the North-South Language Body and we received the reports from the Boord o Ulster-Scotch and Foras na Gaelige.  We also noted the draft business plans for 2010 but work on these is ongoing.  As a result of resignations, there are currently three vacancies on the Boord o Ulster-Scotch but these will be filled at an NSMC meeting later this month.

After a five minute break we held a second meeting to consider Waterways Ireland.  We received a report from the chief executive, approved the 2009 business plan and noted the draft business plan for 2010.  There was also a presentation about developments on the Shannon.  When I was at primary school many years ago we were taught the names of the loughs on the Shannon - Lough Allen, Lough Ree and Lough Derg - and it was interesting to see the work that is ongoing to improve this waterway for tourists.

I hope to report to the Assembly next Tuesday on the Language Body meeting and then to report on the Waterways Ireland meeting early in January.

Mary's Gift Foundation

ary’s Gift Irish Language Foundation is an American charity dedicated to ‘supporting Irish language education for the children of northeastern Ireland’. It was founded by Michael K Breen, an Irish-American lawyer, and named after his grandmother Mary Clifford who emigrated from county Roscommon to New York city in 1929. His paternal grandparents were from county Kerry.

Michael Breen was in West Belfast on 17 September 2009 to launch the charity and said that his aim was to support Irish-medium school in ‘Belfast and throughout the North’. During his speech he said, ‘In creating this project, one of my sources of inspiration has been the visionary Irish patriot Padraig Pearse.’

It is notable that Breen referred to Pearse as an ‘inspiration’ because Pearse was a member of the supreme council of the Irish Republic Brotherhood and one of those involved in the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin. Here once again we see the influence of Irish republicanism on the Irish language movement.  It may be argued that Pearse was also an Irish-language enthusiast but Breen does not refer to Pearse’s passion for the Irish language. Instead he describes him as an Irish patriot.’

Earlier this year Michael Breen was honoured by the Irish Echo at the ‘Forty Under Forty Awards’. The Irish-American newspaper is part of the Belfast Media Group, which is owned by former Sinn Fein councillor Mairtin O Muilleoir.