Granted, Johnnie! The only word which shouted out at me from your post was ‘”Residential” as in residential schools. The latter word ‘residential’ has a distinct connotation here in Ireland – as these said schools were only up and running since the seventies, as in contrast to those in existence in Canada since 1840 (with the last “residential school” closing in 1996). In Great Britain, industrial schools, which were alive and kicking since 1857, were disbanded by the government in 1933. However, Irish “Industrial Schools” (Act of 1868) which were established (as with the British ones) to care supposedly for “neglected, orphaned and abandoned children” were still flourishing right up to the 1970′s. A residential institutional redress board was set up in Ireland in 2002 and countless ex-inmates from the industrial schools could not relate to the ‘resident’ label – to them it was rather a euphemism for detainees, after all they went through the court system and were imprisoned in these child labour camps and did not want their prisoner status belittled. A child prisoner was a child prisoner was a child prisoner and definitely not a child resident or a child pupil – however much the powers that be want to dress down the reality of the title.

BTW, I looked up the word “unfortunates” – they are persons who suffer bad fortune. Archaically speaking, though, they are people who are considered immoral or lacking in religious faith or instruction, esp. a prostitute.? Interesting!

Reform School was the term used here (e.g. Ontario) for an equivalent to your industrial schools and yes once again, there are abuse claims.

Residential schools here were intended to solve the ‘Indian Problem’ and came into being when the government began to fund Mission Schools.

Those who ‘meant well’ in establishing these institutions were too naive to put proper oversight in place. They had not learned from history that power corrupts.

One differentiation between those who went into industrial schools and those who went into Residential Schools is that the former were classed as criminals and the latter were not indeed. Sadly to say, the introduction of Residential Schools in Ireland, did not come into being until the seventies.

Magdalen laundry penitents, as they were called, were teenagers and had very similar lives to babies and children in industrial schools. Nonetheless, in saying this, young children from the gulags, were by far much, much younger, I emphasise, than the ‘penitents’ from Magdalen laundries, yet young children had to do the exact type of work on a daily basis – but nobody has ever made films about them – they have been, up till the Ryan Report, voiceless victims, whom the media had only ever been drip-fed information about them. You see, they are mainly illiterate, having not had any opportunity of being educated by the religious. whose ethos, ironically, in the first instance, was to educate the poorest of the poor. So therefore they were not in the privileged position of being voice their opinions adequately.

The religious were supposed to have laid down their lives to serve the poor , this was their vocation, their calling, from their God to the religious life, yet a certain amount of bad apples amongst them were allowed for generations, to ride rough-shod over vulnerable, defenceless, poor children, who had no choice but to depend on them for their every need indeed.

Speaking of fruit! There are some highly educated people out there in the wider academic world who would rather discuss fruit than engage with the diabolical deathly miserable subject which is contained in the Ryan Report. The English media too would much rather entertain its people with political illegal fees shenanigans than discuss systemic child abuse that occurred in Ireland’s industrial schools. Richard Dawkins talks about religion being some kind of child abuse, I wonder what he would make of the Ryan Report? I have not personally read too much about the Ryan Report on blogs belonging to the educated people of the world – what is it they are afraid of – what, indeed? They would, from my perception, anyway, rather talk about boring mundane things, than virtual horrendous goings-on of babies and children who were left by society to rot in institutions. They probably support charities, like Maddy supports babies on her hips. they doubtless also compartmentalise their emotions – meaning, children outside of their own are of no consequence. Because if they were, interested, they would be shouting with their fountain pens from the roof-tops about the atrocities that occurred to thousands of children in these mini-concentration camps. I say, shame on those who ignore what happened to these children in the past – they have suffered a holocaust of abuse at the hands of the religious and they certainly do not want it compounded by those who have had the privilege of being educated. It is up to all of you who have been gifted with the eloquence of expression to give credence with your gifts to this dastardly horrible subject of child abuse. Students galore used adults survivors to do dissertations and it would be only proper if those who have dissertations in subjects appertaining to the study of human nature to get their act together and write about the Ryan Report. It is after all – Ireland’s mini-holocaust.

Daoloth,

The celibacy thing was one of Oscar’s.

And I think it was Mencken who said that ‘My country, right or wrong.’ was equivalent to ‘My mother, drunk or sober.’

Author bang on form.

Dawkins puts patriotism and religion in the same category when he thinks about what causes our ‘tribal’ group adherence and the resultant conflict and war. We might aptly rework a a certain well known phrase as “My religion, right or wrong!”

Thank you JohnnieC for your link. A very articulate man, and like the second guest in the Donohue clip, one who was raped by priests, and whose anger is all the more moving by his restraint and desire to describe what actually happened, rather than simply rant like Donohue.

I’ve thought for a while that while religion’s claim is that its adherents are more moral than atheists, in fact it is more accurate to say that it sanctifies its adherents’ behaviour, whatever that might be.