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October, 2008
I want to extend my
sincere appreciation to everyone who attended the Second
Annual Fundraiser on Friday, October 17, 2008 at Molly Malone’s
to benefit the Mughamba Scholarship Foundation. For those who were unable
to attend but still made a monetary donation, I thank you for your support.
And to all of my friends from the Irish American Heritage Center who contributed
so much of their time and talents, and allowed me time on their radio
station to promote this event, a very special thank you to all of you.
All funds are used solely for the education of the children in my village
of Mwanda, Kenya, and to date I am able to provide the financial assistance
to more than 80 children with either their high school or their college/university
education. I have also extended my compassion to six children in Tanzania
and two in Uganda.This has been my passion and my goal ever since I was
blessed with the opportunity of coming to Chicago and be ordained a priest
with the Archdiocese of Chicago in 2001. Please know that I could not
possibly have accomplished any of this without your love, compassion and
support.
Fr. Kombo L.
Peshu, Pastor
St. Simeon Church
Bellwood, Illinois
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July 5, 2008
Dear Editor,
In reference to John Fitzgerald’s Letter to the Editor concerning the Christian Brothers in July’s paper, I feel compelled to add my voice and share my own experiences as a Christian Brother pupil of 11 years duration (1960-71). My Primary and Secondary education at Marino and Fairview, Dublin respectively, afford me a long-term perspective and adequate basis for fair reflection of my experiences.
They are most overwhelmingly positive in so many different ways. Over the years I have learned of some horrible departures from my own experience and this letter is not intended to diminish or mitigate any of these crimes against children, but hopefully to show that the greater number of Irish Christian Brothers were exactly as John Fitzgerald and I remember them. Selfless, dedicated and uncompromising in the pursuit of what was for them a vocation as opposed to an avocation. I can recall countless hours of instruction and revision in preparation for exams, hours after school coaching us in Football and Hurling and so on. These “extras” were provided above and beyond what might have been expected of lay teachers. Lay teachers, laden with family responsibilities were, through no fault of their own, limited in their capacities to deliver very much outside “school hours”.
Certainly one was expected to be on time, have homework completed, pay attention in class, be respectful etc. and there were penalties for any shortcomings on our part. However for the most part, and keep in mind that 11 years is a decent length of time, I have no memory of a punishment undeserved or extreme in any way.
Finally, having come to America (University of Pittsburgh) on a scholarship, the preparation provided by these men allowed me to complete a 4 year Undergraduate program (BA Magna cum Laude) in 2 years, at night, while working a minimum of 20 hours a week as allowed under my visa provisions. I can assure your readers that this was NOT so much a function of my own academic capabilities as it was the countless hours of guidance and encouragement of the Brothers who endowed me with the ability to challenge 36 College credits successfully in the basic degree requirements outside my elected major. With no disrespect intended to my erstwhile class mates, the Brothers had fortified me far beyond what I had even realised at the time. I was grateful then and continue to feel a responsibility to raise my voice in support of these men.
Yours Sincerely,
Sean McClorey
Pittsburgh, PA
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Dear Editor,
On behalf of Ireland I appeal to your readers to help us to protect and save the hill of Tara. We have tried every and any way to get our government to re-route the M3 motorway, that is being construtced at the moment, away from the hill of Tara. This Motorway is going to destroy the entire ambience of our beautiful landscape; not to mention the pollution of the sky over Tara at night. Our poet, W. B. Yeats said, paraphrase, there is nowhere in the world on the eve of St. Brigit more mystical in its haunting beauty than the hill of Tara If the M3 is built through Tara the lights from this motor way will pollute the night sky and the stars on the eve of St. Brigit will be shrouded for ever and ever.
Readers please, please help us here in Ireland, in any way you can to pressure our government to re-route the M3 motorway away from our beloved hill of Tara.
the blessings of St Brigit on all our Irish friends away from our mystical land, as spring arrives with Brigit’s blessings in this her beautiful month.
Emma(Sharma-Hayes)
49, Wolfe Tone Close,
Jervis Street,
Dublin 1
Ireland
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Dear editor,
The water is contaminated. The commuter trains that do exist are dangerously overcrowded. Not one inch of new railway line has been built – the old lines are covered in grass. A woman dies in the toilet in a hospital. Facilities for mental illness are sold off but no new facilities appear. Bright young people die of cystic fibrosis in their early twenties, 10 years younger than other countries. Children go to school in rat-infested pre-fabricated buildings. The body politic is shown to engage in corrupt dealings. The finance for roads in Donegal is decimated – high accident black spot. The richest pay no tax at all. The lucky ones shop ‘til they drop in New York.
Not a South American banana republic but 2008 banana republic Ireland.
A bright new motorway is being built; it will be completed ahead of schedule (P. Malone, chairman of the NRA, Irish Times, 26 January 08). Money is available. €900m to be exact. It will feed into the M50 car park. It will be tolled twice. There is a railway – unused. Protesters are arrested, jailed, harassed. At least 40 archaeological/historical sites have been destroyed - the dwellings and burial grounds of Irish royalty.
Why this motorway above all others? Why this route? It’s aimed at the heart of early Irish culture? If this area can be destroyed – nowhere is safe? Who will gain from this project? Is this the Tara tribunal of 20 years hence? How will they negotiate Rath Lugh? Will it eventually collapse on said motorway? Endless unanswered questions.
Historians will judge Bertie Ahern’s legacy not by his triumphs in the North/South solution but as the man who allowed the land of Ireland to be scarred by motorways “criss-crossing the country” (Noel Dempsey, TD. County Meath, Irish Times, 26 January 08) instead of decent hospitals and schools. Anyone for Cuba …Venezuela – can I have a lift?
Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin
58 Laurence Avenue
Maynooth
Co Kildare
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I just returned from dinner. Since I was alone, I picked up Irish American News, January '08. Mike Morley's well crafted, interesting column leading off with "Black 50" is one of the best newspaper articles I've read since Mike Royko died!
On a single page, he gave me my first understanding of what lay behind the "Potato Famine", English bigotry, Conrad Black's arrogance and much more... The good that came of all the suffering and killing was an American population where the Irish continue to flourish and contribute much to build our country.
Only in America can one as me (Polish heritage) go to a Greek Restaurant in Round Lake, IL (mostly Latin) and read something really good about Irish history. The English continue to wither because they still can't reconcile themselves to the relatively recent freedom of those whom they oppressed for hundreds of years. Still, they've had their royal hooks into our body for far too long.
Thanks for your passionate, interesting prose Mr. Morley.
Thaddeus Kochanny
Ingleside, IL
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The story of the horrors perpetrated in the Magdalene laundries and industrial schools of Ireland has shocked and sickened all decent people in this country. I know how I felt when I watched the film Song for a Raggy Boy, about the systematic abuse of pupils in a Catholic school, and The Magdalene Sisters, which depicted the abuse of young women in one of those Hibernian gulags to which single mothers were dispatched by supposedly “devout” families.
Both films recall an era when a form of religious fascism held sway
in Ireland, distorting values and turning the concept of “parish
pride” into a narrow parochialism that encouraged silence and turning
the other way in the face of gross violations of human rights in state-run
institutions.
But what I find almost equally disturbing is the litany of false accusations
of abuse against priests, nuns, and Christian brothers that have come
to light in recent years. I have just finished reading a book on this
subject, Kathy’s Real Story, by journalist Hermann Kelly.
It details a number of high profile cases where people, mainly involving
clergy or members of various religious orders, who wrongly accused of
physical or sexual abuse, only to be later cleared of these allegations
when the accusers withdrew them. The suffering endured by the victims
of these accusers can only be imagined.
From the moment the allegation is made, the priest, nun or Christian Brother is under a dark cloud of suspicion. Though completely innocent, he or she has to live with the unfair and undeserved stigma that a malicious fellow human being has conjured up.
The “crucifixion” of ex-nun Nora Wall is examined in the book, among other harrowing cases. Nora was declared innocent after the false allegations against her were withdrawn and shown to be completely without foundation.
Her friend Pablo McCabe who had also been wrongly accused was vindicated only after his death. He died bearing a burden that no human being should be saddled with.
Both Nora and Pablo had their reputations shredded in the media before
being exonerated.
Recently, a man was jailed for concocting a false abuse story about a
priest. Other fabricated allegations of abuse concerning priests have
been quietly withdrawn following retractions by the accusers. Surely this
is a scandal of immense proportions?
RTE and the print media have explored in excruciating detail the institutional
abuse that characterised the “Hidden Ireland” of the past.
Would it too much to expect that they would apply their investigative
skills to ascertaining how widespread is the phenomenon of false abuse
accusations and report professionally on the effects of this evil on those
afflicted by it? Fair is fair.
Hermann Kelly has done a great service to the cause of justice and human
rights in Ireland by exposing the dangers inherent in blind or unquestioning
acceptance of abuse allegations that lack credibility or that cannot be
substantiated by independent witnesses.
Sexual abuse destroys lives. But so does a false accusation of sexual abuse. That ought to go without saying. There should be no hiding place for anyone who commits either of these crimes against humanity!
Thanking you, John Fitzgerald
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