Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Irish Redress Board Condemns Innocent People.

Setanta. | 14.05.2008 00:34 | Repression | Social Struggles | World

An innocent person can be named by any applicant to the Redress Board and falsely accused of the most terrible sex crimes and child abuse. The unscrupulous applicant gets paid for doing so, is protected by state secrecy, and the innocent victim is destroyed for life.

The Irish Residential Redress Board is no better than Soviet Show Trials

The Redress Board was set up under the Residential Institutions Redress Act,2002 to make fair and reasonable awards to persons who as children, were abused while resident in institutions subject to state regulation or inspection……states the Reform Group.

While the legislation served a purpose in so far that it fast-tracked the various claims and expedited the whole affair, it was nonetheless deeply flawed.

Many suffered as a result, people were accused on hear-say, branded as abusers without any come-back. All that the claimant needed to do was name an abuser. Anyone that was associated with a school or orphanage in any way could be roped into the net. The flimsiest of evidence was sufficient to institute a claim.

In normal court procedure, the presumption of innocence is paramount until the opposite is proved. The accused is entitled to his rights until the evidence weighted against him is substantiated. The Redress Board turned this logic on its head. Once a claimant named a person, that person was immediately considered guilty and treated with all the igonamy usually attached to criminals.

This was a throe-back to the days of the inquisition, when a person was convicted on the hear-say of another. Any person behaving in an odd manner, or not conforming to the fashion of the time could be named as a witch. Peculiarities or eccentricities were attributed to the devil. The more the victim protested his or her innocence, the more this was seen as confirmation of possession. There was no escape. Once the victim was fingered, the outcome was a foregone conclusion.

The accused ended up in the torture chambers, or was burnt at the stake.

In more recent times in the Soviet Union, a word from on high was sufficient to condemn a man. Tyranny was the order of the day. The Irish Redress is therefore not a new phenomenon. The dark shadow of oppression hangs over every generation. Civilization is no buffer against barbarism and no guarantee of justice.

Ask any victim of the Redress Board. How many have suffered at the hands of modern day inquisitions ? People who knew the injustice of the whole thing, and kept quiet.

It paid them to keep their heads down. The whole thing was a gravy train. The Irish Police force knew that innocent men were falsely accused. They knew the game and allowed it to continue. The state knew that innocent men were being used as fall guys, taking the blame so that others could prosper. Yet it sat idly by and allowed this horrible injustice to continue.

The Irish State was cleaning up a mess. Generations of institutionalized abuse had taken place, a remedy was needed. The legal eagles came up with a solution, a deeply flawed one. One that protected the establishment, and hung out the individual to dry. Those that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time were sacrificed. The throw of the dice decided the fate of many.

It is a sad indictment of our society that such an injustice was allowed to happen. schools, orphanages and convents were involved. In order to protect their own integrity, these establishments allowed innocent men and women to be destroyed. They colluded in the charade; another Soviet show trial. It is a disgrace.




Setanta.

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. Info — Helping Hand

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech