How one voice shattered the shameful silence on clerical abuse: ‘You don't know what happened there. You haven't the foggiest... You don't know the hurt'
Today at 21:30
When Mary Raftery's groundbreaking 1999 RTÉ series States of Fear aired, one line, narrated by Áine Lawlor, stood out. 'So far, only a fraction of the potential damage caused to children by these paedophiles is even known about.'
That stripping of reverential titles from those inflicting harm on children and referring to them as they behaved instead was important — to the victims who needed to be heard, and to the public, who needed to understand that no longer could we place on pedestals mortal men and women with divine calling, who behaved abysmally.
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RTÉ News
2 days ago
- RTÉ News
Indian man warns community not to go out alone after assault
An Indian data scientist who was set upon and beaten by a group of teenagers in Dublin has warned other members of his community not to go out alone, and be cautious at all times. Speaking to RTÉ's This Week programme, Dr Santosh Yadav, appealed to members of the Indian community to be vigilant, after the unprovoked attack, which left him with a fractured cheekbone and other injuries all over his body. He feels the only reason for the attack was the colour of his skin. Dr Yadav, who has been here for over four years, said he knows of at least 50 such attacks on Indians around Dublin in the past year. He said: "Since the attack, I've been contacted by at least 50 others from my community reporting how they had been viciously assaulted as well. "My advice to other Indians is neve to go out alone, always walk in a group and be cautious at all times and never make eye contact with these groups of teenagers." Dr Yadav is hopeful the culprits will be brought to justice. "I hope they will, but the law does not allow for much to be done by way of punishment against these gangs. They seem to know that no action will be taken against them," he added. Dr Yadav was walking after dinner with a friend near Clondalkin when a gang of up to six teenagers set on him. "They approached me from behind and smashed my glasses and began hitting me all over and then ran away. But, when I began to video the incident, they came back and threw away my phone and hit me on my face, back, legs and everywhere. "I was on the pavement bleeding badly but managed to call the gardai. A bone close to my nose is fractured and I've a lot of swelling on my body," Dr Yadav said. After the assault he was taken by ambulance to Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown where he received a CT scan on his head and a full body X-Ray. Dr Yadav said that he is still in shock after the attack and suffering from trauma. "Definitely, an incident like this makes you feel scared about going out, because I know there has been other such attacks. "I will be taking precautions when I go out again," he added. Despite the horrific attack, Dr Yadav, said he would remain here and work in Ireland where he has many friends and colleagues. "The Irish people are the best, I've amazing colleagues, but these teenagers are creating issues for us all," he added. In a statement, the Indian embassy in Dublin said there had been an increase in attacks on Indian citizens in Ireland recently and it has been in touch with the relevant authorities. "All Indian citizens in Ireland are advised to take reasonable precautions for their personal safety and avoid deserted areas, especially in odd hours," it said. On its social media platforms, the Embassy of India urged all Indian citizens in the country to avoid going to deserted places and exercise heightened caution. The Embassy also provides emergency details for concerned or affected citizens to contact. Census figures show that there are up to 46,000 Indian citizens living in Ireland.
RTÉ News
3 days ago
- RTÉ News
Assault victim links attack to racism and rise in misinformation
Several recent attacks on migrants in Ireland, some reportedly linked to racism and misinformation, have sparked growing concern among some minority communities. One recent victim, an Indian man, says he believes he was attacked without provocation because of his skin colour. On Sunday night, 27 July, an Indian man was walking with a friend near Clondalkin Fonthill train station in west Dublin, when a group of teenagers approached them from behind. "Suddenly, these five, six teenagers, came from behind and snatched my glasses. I asked [for] my glasses back, and then they all started hitting me," Dr Santosh Yadav, who has lived in Ireland for four years, told RTÉ. Dr Yadav said he was punched and kicked repeatedly. "They hit me on my face, on my head, and on the back, on my chest, and leg, and knees, and everywhere. I was getting blood from my cheek, from my nose, from my ears, everywhere. "It was so sudden and so shocking that I could not even see their faces properly." Dr Yadav said the attackers fled the scene immediately and he called gardaí, who arranged an ambulance to take him to Connolly Blanchardstown Hospital. He remained there for over 12 hours, undergoing scans and X-rays, which showed a fractured cheekbone. Gardaí told RTÉ they "received report of an alleged incident of assault" in the area at that time and that a male was brought to hospital "for treatment of serious injuries." They said investigations were ongoing. According to Dr Yadav, racist incidents targetting members of the Indian community have become more frequent in the past year. He says he was the victim of an unprovoked racist attack. "I see in the last year, these incidents are increasing... Before that, it was good, but in the last one year, these cases are happening a lot... This time, I was somehow unlucky enough," Dr Yadav said. Dr Yadav first came to Ireland four years ago to work as a postdoctoral scientist. He spent his first 18 months in Galway before relocating to Dublin, where he now works as a senior data scientist at one of Enterprise Ireland's European Digital Innovation Hubs. He said the impact of the attack has been severe. "It's very painful and also frustrating whenever I remember that incident. It gives me so much anxiety and frustration." He says it makes him question whether "living in Dublin [is] safe." Following the attack, he was contacted by the Indian Embassy, who told him similar incidents have been happening with increased regularity. Many Indian students and workers who face racism are reluctant to report it due to fears around visa status or employment, according to Dr Yadav. Within the "Indian community, especially, everyone is scared of going out and many people have decided to leave this country," he added. As well as being fuelled by racism, Dr Yadav also believes the attack was motivated by misinformation. "I feel that we are being targeted because we have a different skin colour... I think some misinformation or some belief they we are taking their job or something." "But we are working so hard. We are paying 40% of our salary every month," Dr Yadav said. Just over a week earlier, on Saturday 19 July, another Indian man was violently attacked and partially stripped in the Kilnamanagh area of southwest Dublin. The high-profile incident was covered widely in the media. The attackers, who took the man's trousers and beat him in the street, also falsely accused him of acting inappropriately around children. While attempting to seek help, the man was allegedly subjected to a second assault, believed to have stemmed from false claims about his conduct. An Garda Síochána say that the allegations against the victim were unfounded and are treating the incident as a potential hate crime. Footage of the aftermath of the attack, along with false claims about the victim, spread rapidly online and were amplified by known anti-immigration accounts. The man, who had arrived in Ireland just three weeks earlier to begin work with Amazon, sustained multiple injuries and was taken to hospital for treatment. On Friday, the Indian Embassy issued a safety advisory to its citizens, following what it described as "an increase in the instances of physical attacks reported against Indian citizens in Ireland recently." "All Indian citizens in Ireland are advised to take reasonable precautions for their personal security and avoid deserted areas, especially in odd hours," the advisory said, adding an emergency contact number. The recent attacks are not limited to Indian nationals. In recent weeks, other migrants have also been targeted, often following false claims spread online. Earlier this month on 1 July, an Afghan man who is seeking asylum from the Irish State was attacked in the Parnell Street area of Limerick city a day after false accusations were made about him approaching children in a video posted on social media. Gardaí described the claims as "misinformation and disinformation." In another case last year, Nigerian architect Onyema Udeze was attacked in Dublin after being falsely accused of rape. Mr Udeze was in Dublin to speak at a construction industry event at the RDS. Gardaí said the allegations were unfounded, but they again gained considerable traction online. Rise in hate crimes The number of hate crimes recorded by gardaí has increased over the past four years, following the introduction of a standardised hate-crime recording system in 2021. That year, gardaí recorded a total of 448 hate crimes and hate-related incidents. That figure rose to 582 in 2022, 651 in 2023, and 676 in 2024 - the highest total since the system was introduced. However, Gardaí note that hate-related crime is under-reported in Ireland. Race has consistently been the most recorded motive for these incidents.
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Irish Times
Politicians want to ‘look tough' on crime, but locking people up in dysfunctional prisons is not the answer
This summer marks the 40th anniversary of the Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Penal System, commonly known as the Whitaker Report. It was the most comprehensive investigation ever conducted into Ireland's prisons . However, unlike earlier anniversaries, there are no reflective events marking this one, no looking back to explore lessons learned. This is regrettable as the malaise in Irish prisons Whitaker identified is far worse now than 40 years ago. The report saw Ireland's propensity to send people to prison as excessive, but the rate of incarceration today is more than twice what it was in 1985. READ MORE The Whitaker Report was critical of prison conditions then, saying: 'The triple depressant of overcrowding, idleness and squalor ... dominates most Irish prisons'. All these aspects are worse today. In a recent interview on RTÉ's This Week programme, the Inspector of Prisons, Mark Kelly, used the words 'inhuman', 'degrading' and 'deplorable' to describe life in Irish prisons and noted that 'in some instances conditions can be said to be life-threatening'. He spoke of people 'crammed into cells which were designed for one person', many 'sleeping on thin rubber-coated mattresses on the floor ... their head next to an unpartitioned toilet'. The Inspector said the 'highly volatile' environment 'would be a lot worse ... if the general quality of relations between staff and prisoners wasn't as good as it is'. [ More early release needed to alleviate overcrowded prisons, says Irish Penal Reform Trust Opens in new window ] Is there another way to respond to the troubled and troublesome in our society? He said that treating people in this way and then releasing them back into society was very unlikely to lead them to be law-abiding people. Asked about the Government's plan to create 1,500 more prison spaces, he said that a focus on capacity exclusively would 'absolutely not solve the problem'. Inspector Kelly's approach is in harmony with Whitaker, but the Government is heading headlong in the opposite direction. The Whitaker view was that 'most crime ... originates among unemployed youths in disadvantaged urban areas' and was best addressed by 'the promotion of social advance and social equity', which 'requires effective policies for employment ... for education, for housing and for health and welfare'. His Committee recommended limiting the number in prison, more use of non-custodial penalties and the decriminalisation of some offences. Since prison is costly and likely to be harmful, the core of policy, its members said, should be 'minimum use of custody, minimum use of security and normalisation of prison life'. This approach is based on the concept that the deprivation of liberty is in itself a sufficient punishment. So, in contrast to recent Ministers for Justice who seek to make very long sentences even longer, Whitaker proposed shortening sentences by various means, including greater remission, judicial reviews and 'supervised release at any stage if recommended by ... all the services operating in a prison'. The Whitaker Committee proposed basic living conditions in prison, but the standards they stipulated for every person in prison (single cells, daily out-of-cell time of at least 12 hours, good access to structured activities, dignified family contact) were abandoned wholesale in subsequent decades, leading to the dehumanising conditions that prevail today. Most Irish prisons are also now dysfunctional, at least partly, in that thousands are left with little or no access to basic services such as education, or support for issues such as addiction and mental health. This arises in large part from what John Lonergan describes as a warehousing approach, building cell spaces without providing the necessary services, supports or activities. While Whitaker advised institutions of about 100, the warehouses of today have become ever larger, as cellblocks for hundreds are shoehorned into already overcrowded places, as happened in Midlands, Castlerea and Wheatfield prisons. Today, Midlands and Mountjoy prisons each hold over 1,000. [ Bunk beds purchased to deal with prison overcrowding Opens in new window ] Widespread segregation, and often segregation within segregation and self-separation through fear or anxiety, make conditions worse and increase lock-up time hugely. The current programme for Government envisages intensifying this pattern and speaks of 'expanding existing capacity by 1,500' and recruiting additional prison officers. It makes no reference to providing any of the crucial 'caring services' which Whitaker advocated for all in prison – 'work, education, welfare and psychology'. The Whitaker Report recommended a prison system built on combining 'a caring as well as a custodial role'. Over a decade later, another Government report likewise advocated a rebalancing of custody/ care in the direction of care through 'strengthening of healthcare and of the psychological, educational and training elements'. Yet, prisons have moved decidedly in the opposite direction, driven by politicians seeking to look tough on crime. The Government view is that extra spaces are needed to lock up 'dangerous people', but that is a false characterisation of most people in prison, some of whom may be troublesome but who are more often deeply troubled with complex needs. It leaves those running the prison system, at all levels, in an impossible position. There is something very problematic about the current political approach to crime and punishment, repeatedly cramming more into prisons, all the time making things worse. Moreover, in an era when resources are again scarce, and the capacity of the construction industry in particular is insufficient to meet critical housing and infrastructure needs, can we really afford to splash over half a billion euro on building more substandard prison spaces? The current capital plan allocates €548 million for 1,100 spaces. This July, the Minister for Justice announced that this number will now rise to nearly 1,600 spaces, but the cost of the further expansion has yet to be published. And such outlays will have to be followed by inordinate day-to-day spending to hold people in counterproductive prison conditions. When full current public expenditure is calculated, it comes close to €100,000 per prisoner per year in prison. Surely, as the Whitaker Report indicates, there has to be another way to respond to the troubled and troublesome in our society? Kevin Warner worked for 30 years as national coordinator of education in Irish prisons and received a PhD for research on Nordic penal policy
