If the perpetrators with their masters the catholic church refuse to compensate the abused I suggest that all churchgoers instead of putting more money into the coffers of the church with their weekly contributions give the money directly to a fund for the abused.   Watch 'Holy Mother Church' and its prompt reaction then.

It is a real disgrace!!!!  No shame, no life, and they should be put through hell for everything!

Though I was subject to some cruelty by a religious order throughout the sixties....it was nothing compared to the many that we've been 'witness' to over the last while!

I voted 'combination of all three' above....as I firmly believe that none of these abuses could have been perpetrated without the acceptance.....or at least the knowledge...of all three....that something was amiss.  The excuse that...'We didn't know' always comes from the 'upper echelons' of society !!

Numerous journalists over the last few weeks have affirmed that....of course....this would not have happened to children from the wealthier parts of society at the time !!

Trouble is....if we accept that the above is true/correct.....why are we allowing the present children (the poorest) to 're-live' this neglect....?

How many TDs or government/Senate children would/have/did suffer this??

The latest corruption is that the govt/Cowen says that the law may not allow an adjustment/change so that the perpetrators could be brought to justice; The State is 90% responsible he said !!  What he means is.....the tax-payer will pay that 90%....and the religious will get away scott-free !!

Well....how appropriate.....isn't that the same as the tribunals....where...after the law-society gained millions....nobody spent any time in jail for criminality !!

Witness the amount of politicians who will get away in Brittain soon...despite their 'crimes'.....and you will see what will happen here.....what a joke of a country this is !!

Let those in glass houses not throw stones. Similar type violence was common in private houses all over the land as young children were whipped into submission to the state and church rule and the state and church worked together to keep the populace under control and parents did their bidding. Like the Celtic Tiger and the boom - we must all take our share of the responsibility and no one should try to ease his/her conscience by shifting the blame on any particular group of groups. Until we all face up to the realities and our responsibilities we cannot move forward and it can happen again.

Anti Abuse Equality and Dignity should become part of the constitution. Severe penalties should be given for anyone who abuses children (and Adults)

We have to remember that these were different times. The church was all powerful. It would have taken a very brave and possibly silly civil servant to challenge them. He/She would have been out of a job pronto! The perpetrators should be hunted and charged and serve their sentence. I don't think any amount of monetary compensation would alleviate the memory of such abuse.

We must all take our share of the responsibility and no one should try to ease his/her conscience by shifting the blame on any particular group of groups.

I am sorry but I have a problem with such generalisations. I am not responsible for what happened to these children, I wasnt even born when a lot of this was going on! When we talk about blaming "groups" why is our focus not 99% on the ACTUAL perpetrators. Yes its terrible that people may not have spoken out or may not have known, but dont let that deflect attention away from those who actually CARRIED OUT the acts.

The abuse should not be condoned- regardless of what way society was or is, the abuse of young innocent vulnerable children is wrong whether in or out of an insitiution.

What makes this so disgusting to me is that it would seem that Church, State and society knew to at some level or another and did nothing to prevent it.

What a cowardly country we are to let our children suffer so much and not apply Justise to the abusers.

I don't know that God could forgive this- certainly the victims can't.

The sub human scum who perpetrated these despicable repugnant acts of evil against innocent children, while the cowards hid behind the cloth, should be hunted down like they dogs they are! No words can express the total revulsion felt by millions of decent people at the unimaginable evil innocent little children were subjected to. Jesus said, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Mt. 18:6). Personally I would prefer burning at the stake! They should all be fast tracked back to hell from where they came! God help those poor people who suffered.

For too long the church has ruled this country. Aided by successive governments they allowed the nuns to imprisoned women using them for slave labour in launderies simply because they had a baby out of wedlock. Those babies were then forcibly removed from the women and given up for adoption. Other women who were sent there were victims of rape. If they tried to escape the gardai brought them back. These women committed no crimes yet they were treated worse than prisoners in Mountjoy. Some were confined for years with no release date.

I remember when myself and my brother went up to receive Holy Communion at the age of 4 and 5. We thought everyone was getting sweets so we went up too. Well, all hell broke loose in the school the next day! The nuns took the two of us around to all the classrooms and told everyone what we had done. They called it a sacrilege against the church. At the last classroom they lashed us across the hands with a broad stick. We were absolutely terrified! For years and years I kept going to the church every day begging God to forgive me for what I had done.

What seems to be overlooked by people and the media is the effect long term that this has had on the families of those who suffered under the state and church and health boards.

There are many many people who are the Children of these victims who are suffering today because of what was inflicted upon heir parents

It is a chain of abuse that has infected the souls of many in Ireland

Unfortunately what was done unto their parents was in a lot of cases done unto the Children of the victims of abuse.

It is something being overlooked in my opinion and is something that definitelu needs to be looked at.

I am a daughter of a survivor of institutional abuse and I can quite honestly say that my family was destroyed by what my father endured while he was a child in Letterfrack.

All of my borthers and sisters to this day struggle to deal with life because of teh abuse inflicted within our family by my father

I in the end hold no blame towards him but I hold the government and church responsible for what we endured because of the damage done unto my Father in the institutions he was sent to.

The legacy of this abuse reaches very very deep into Irish society today.

All you have to do is look around you to see the damage which runs through Irish society as a result of the abuses inflicted upon many thousands of children over the last 100 yrs

Ireland has such a dark past when it comes to the Catholic Church. These poor innocent children were left at the mercy of these religious orders and so many Brothers and Sisters and Priests, who instead of protecting them abused them in every way possible. These abusers were cruel people who really believed they were untouchable; and they were untouchable because their own institution protected them. It makes me feel ashamed to be Irish. And what about the holier than thou Pope John Paul II? He did nothing about it nor did the Pope before him. Ultimately, it was the people high up in the hierarchy who could have stopped it. The State had a responsibility to these children, but in typical fashion, shirked their responsibilities.

When are we going to wake up and do something about this disgrace. We need to seriously restructure the relationship between church and state. I'm a primary teacher and I think they've no business in our schools. Does anybody have an email address or contact number where we the puplic can lodge our support and solidarity with the victims of this atrocity?

Why are people still going to mass? what kind of message is this sending out?

Hi-we should get a petition going.

As important as the money is for those who have been ruthlessly abused, our main priority should be to prosecute all of the perpetrators of the abuse and send them directly to jail for a long time. They should not get away with this.

And to make an example of them. What kind of message are we sending out if we let people away with this atrocity? "here lads it's ok, come over to Ireland if you want to fulfill your sick desires - they dont punish child abusers over there! Better still, get yourself into a nice state school or become a priest - that is the ultimate immunity from the law" - we need to get real!

If anyone spoke out against the abusers they were hounded from the pulpit. One doctor who tried to raise the alarm almost had his career and practice destroyed. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

For once I agree with Mary Harney, the abusers should be prosecuted. Ten years ago the government made a deal with the religious orders to pay 1.27 million towards compensation to their victims. Did the State give immunity from prosecution to the abusers as part of this deal and also promise not to name them. I believe they did, this is why they keep saying they can't go back ask for more in case it comes out. 

I'm glad our President called for the perpetrators to be prosecuted. I doubt if it is feasible to get many of them but they know who they are and I hope that any of them that beat  a child that soiled his pants years ago will be shitting in their britches every time they see a squad car for the rest of their lives!

Vaccine Trials child abuse cases 1960s and 1970s should be revisted.

Vaccine Trials child abuse cases 1960s and 1970s should be revisted.

Ireland has no vaccine injury compensation payments unlike the UK and USA.

I think anyone who caused such suffering of little children and young adults are to be condemned and every help should be given to those victims- monetary or other wise.

Unfortunately we are too willing to blame this sector or that for all this misery. I think we should spend more time ensuring that this. will never happen again. Learn from the past but dont get stuck there . We must try to give our young people hope for the future of this country and show leadership in dealing with this dreadful history which we all have to face.

What do vaccines have  to do with the child sex abuse scandal?? How can someone try to equate the two??

We all know the church is to blame for the child abuse holocaust, it actually executed it.   The state was too much in the grip of the church as the church pervaded every part of society and sadly this is true even today.   Just watch the politicians pussyfooting around the bishops and cardinal.  Nothing will change until the people of Ireland forget the brainwashing of centuries and stand up to the church, and find their own way to God.   I would like to know how many of the abused still believe in Catholicism being 'The One True Church'.  Let the churches stand empty, if you want to pray to God do it in your time in your own way.   Donate your body to medical science in your will.  

Agreed Marsy, I cant believe some of the things my mother and father tell me about how much of a hold the church had over schools in those days. The problem (or at least part of it) was that they had so much AUTHORITY over the education system. There is no way a religious institution should be allowed to have ANY kind of say in how a school is run, never mind overseeing it. Academia and religion are totally separate and should be kept as such. If a parent wants their child to have a spiritual education then they should look after that OUTSIDE of a school environment. The Church had NO BUSINESS being in schools in the first place, and now look at the path of destruction.

To quote Martin Luther King - 'I have a dream'.

My dream is to see Vincent Browne interview Cardinal Brady, Cowen and Kenny together. I like his terrier with a rat in his jaws approach when he meets a waffler who tries to deflect the question.

Ireland is guilty of covering up the abuse, because they knew what was going on for decades.  The Dept of Education received commplaints about the treatment of children at industrial schools but they said it was grossly exaggerated.  The Irish state stands accused of crimes against humanity.

There is a common theme running through all our postings - the Government is still in thrall to the catholic church.  Does anyone know how many non catholic TDs we have?  Has anyone any idea how we break the monopoly of catholic TDs in the Dail?

I read somewhere where we need  Bono or Bob Geldorf to motivate the people to rebel and insist on all the vile specimens of humanity to be punished, but in my opinion we need more than that.   We need to rid the country of the stranglehold Catholicism has on it, we desperately need to mature as a people and stop believing in such a corrupt evil regime which has held us in fear of eternal damnation if we do not do their bidding. 

They have the affrontery to talk about canonising the last pope - he is as guilty as the rest of them, sitting on the dark horrors of all the abuses and doing nothing.  Watch them come up with some miracle soon which they can attribute to him so that they can speed up his promotion to sainthood. Then all the poor deluded people will be rushing out to buy medals, 'holy' pictures, memorabilia of him, adding still more to the coffers of The Vatican.  

I despair.

We definitely need to break their connection with our schools, that is where the brainwashing starts - get the little children believeing and you have them for life.  Get the Church off our Boards of Management.

It is obvious the Government will do nothing.  It has to start with the ordinary man and woman in the street.

Even a a child of 6 I realised that something was amiss when the teachers used to keep talking about hell and how we would be all damned if we didn't do as we were told.  We were caned for the least little thing.  One day this teacher caned me across the knuckles.  We weren't bad we were just being kids.  They the RC  church and the schoolshave been trying to brainwash us for years.  My parents  told me if we didn't go to mass every sunday it was a mortal sin.  I never believed that rubbish because I could think for myself.  I attended a state school in England for a while and it was a lot better than catholic schools.

What do vaccines have  to do with the child sex abuse scandal?? How can someone try to equate the two??

Buzz- some children in the care of the state were used in drug trials as guinea pigs.