Sen Eoghan Harris blames republicanism for child sexual abuse

[TommyO'Brien]

His point is simplistic but has a bone of truth in it. The issue isn't republicans. It is establishments. The abuses that hit extreme levels after independence in industrial schools etc were not tolerated as willingly under British rule, because the governing establishment didn't have the closeness to the institutions that produced the abusers. The governing elites after independence were closer to the Catholic Church and instinctively willing to allow it a free hand.

In Kincora, and the cases in Britain and elsewhere, as in Ireland, the establishment was close to those who ran the institutions - they can from similar social, cultural and political backgrounds. So as in the south, there was a willingness to look the other way.

It has nothing to do with republicanism. It is to do with establishments. One major negative in independent Ireland was the power of the Catholic Church and that was because the establishment, and indeed the country, was homogeneous and felt a bond of affinity to the Church. That was not the case as much under British rule simply because the key power figures were not Catholics, products of the Catholic educational system and did not have the marriage between religion and politics represented in independent Ireland.

[b.a. baracus]

This man is obviously suffering from Obsessive Republican Disorder, it 5 years time will he be writing articles blaming Republicans on the property crash ,and Nama, and for the people voting yes to Lisbon?

He recently wrote an article blaming Republicans for the violence of the Limerick gangs. They had according to Eoghan "made violence acceptable". As I have said before the IRA must therefore also be responsible for the Bloods and the Crips in LA and the numerous other murderous gangs that operate throughout all cities in the world.

[Cogadh]

I'm just waiting for him to blame republicanism for the recession. It should be genuinely hilarious.

[neiphin]

wnaekr

[SevenStars]

I'm just waiting for him to blame republicanism for the recession. It should be genuinely hilarious.

But it does show that even in its current state of near total defeat the establishment is still terrified of the spectre of Irish Republicanism.

[merle haggard]

[quote=TommyO'Brien;2245289]

His point is simplistic but has a bone of truth in it. The issue isn't republicans. It is establishments.

then it hasnt a bone of truth in it

The abuses that hit extreme levels after independence in industrial schools etc were not tolerated as willingly under British rule, because the governing establishment didn't have the closeness to the institutions that produced the abusers. The governing elites after independence were closer to the Catholic Church and instinctively willing to allow it a free hand.

this is rubbish . even senator david norris who id be no fan of pointed out that the british system of schooling was run upon principles of absolute sadism , his words .

In Kincora, and the cases in Britain and elsewhere, as in Ireland, the establishment was close to those who ran the institutions - they can from similar social, cultural and political backgrounds. So as in the south, there was a willingness to look the other way.

which is in complete contradiction of harris case

It has nothing to do with republicanism.

so theres no truth in it

It is to do with establishments. One major negative in independent Ireland was the power of the Catholic Church and that was because the establishment, and indeed the country, was homogeneous and felt a bond of affinity to the Church. That was not the case as much under British rule simply because the key power figures were not Catholics, products of the Catholic educational system and did not have the marriage between religion and politics represented in independent Ireland.

the catholic church in ireland was an extremely powerful insitution in pre semi independence ireland also , it was an agent of social control then as it was later . This entire abuse scandal remember first broke in the north in the early 1990s with fr brendan smyth and his horrific catalogue of abuse that went back decades - in the uk . The British had an extremely close relationship with the catholic church , maynooth was entirely a british creation . To suggest clerical abuse wasnt as widespread under british rule is absolute rubbish .

[Prester Jim]

its not what this loon says that surprises me . Its that supposedly responsible institutions in this country continually pay him large amounts of money and give him a very public platform from which to say it .

and that other leaders such as Joan Burton publicly agree with his analysis . She went tonto newstalk not long after this vile rubbish and said she agreed with him . The same news station that Eohghan Harris blamed for the Dublin riots and demanded be shut down for being a subversive front or something

Joan Burton should be ashamed of herself for agreeing with him.
that is why I can't vote labour, more than anything else it is their stickie members and CC'OB infused agenda.

[dalywise]

Harris is an obsessive. He gets some mad ideas like thinking Bertie the Liar is Superman and nothing will ever shift him from the madness. The question I often ask is whether he is thick or disingenious when he utters the dreadful garbage and backs crooks like Ahern. But as the years roll on, I'm convinced he has problems. Nobody could be that thick and nobody could be so hard-necked to keep espousing his hopeless causes if he knew they were garbage.

He still credits himself with getting Robinson the presidency which raises peals of laughter in labour circles whenever mentioned. He considers himself an intellectual and has fostered it by delving in more and more detail into the most irrelevant issues. His dullness on the vast majority of issues is legendary.

I knew a guy once who coudl only talk about sky diving. In pubs, football matches, etc, he was liable to come out of the blue with some total irrelevancy about sky-diving when the discussion all round might have been about a new Pope or whatever. Harris is a bit like that. Obsessive.

[merle haggard]

Joan Burton should be ashamed of herself for agreeing with him.
that is why I can't vote labour, more than anything else it is their stickie members and CC'OB infused agenda.

they are scum . Only scum could agree with this mountebank .

im also suprised nobody on politics.ie picked up on it at the time

[liamfoley]

Oblivious to the massive scandals in British care homes , not least the horrors of kincora , the establishment run by a unionist fellow traveller of his own - British intelligence agent William " the beast" McGrath - Eoghan Harris has seized upon the issue of clerical sexual abuse as yet another reason to bang his little British drum .

sorry im so late in posting this but ive only noticed this there now

and Joan Burton agrees with him , praised this speech back in may ( think i was banned at the time)

“Under British rule, these abuses were not practised in Roman Catholic institutions and Protestants did not practise them. The responsibility belongs to the Republic as a whole…
“There was a cover-up of the brutality of the War of Independence and the Civil War. We covered up pogroms against Protestants. We are very good at covering up things which touch on the national question. I have no doubt that every brother and priest involved was a devout nationalist. Indeed, that was part and parcel of the thing. The relationship with the Republic, its professional classes and the republican ethic concerns me. Ministers for Education, politicians, barristers, lawyers, doctors and the entire Irish professional middle class, who all professed republicanism and all wanted a united Ireland, turned a blind eye. It is ironic that if we had never left the British Empire and if the Treaty had never been signed, whatever else we might have suffered, these innocent victims would never have suffered. Our promise to cherish the children of the nation equally turned out to be an empty one.
“I say these things as a warning. There is a deep brutality in Irish nationalism. It came up most recently in the Provos punishment beatings of children in Belfast ghettos. The problem is not simply in the Roman Catholic Church. It is in the republican ethic itself.”

is it just me or does anyone else think eoghan harris is a sick minded sonofab*tch for using these victims as just a cheap excuse to attack republicanism . Particularly bearing in mind his support for fianna fail and the fact he owes his well paid senatorship to them . I note too that he does not include the silence of the rte current affairs department which he and his close chums were running , along with regular media colums , in the above list of blame for the cover ups .

Is this possibly the lowest that this despicable little man has stooped yet ?

Sorry is this has been asked for already but can you reference the speech or article that this comes from?