Mary KennyMary Flaherty, the CEO of Children at Risk in Ireland has called on former President Mary McAleese to name, publicly, the cleric who, she said, laughed at her when asked to reveal details of sexual abuse in the Church in Ireland.
The cleric should certainly be identified since he is now being judged guilty without any recourse to a defence.
Ms Flaherty says: “This person has shown blatant disregard for the law of the land” and the public needs to be reassured that he “has been properly investigated and is no longer at large”.
Wrong. Every person, whatever their alleged crime or misdemeanour, is innocent until proved guilty.
Mary McAleese made an allegation. We trust that it is made in all sincerity and truth but it would still need to be tested by evidence. The unnamed cleric is entitled to defend himself and give his version of the encounter.
Mary Flaherty is entitled to express concern about this allegation, but she ought not to assume, without any corroborating evidence, that “this person has shown blatant disregard for the law of the land”. You should never jump to the conclusion that a charge of wrongdoing is proof of guilt.
Until further scrutiny is brought to bear, Mrs McAleese’s allegation, although serious, is still unproved. Innocent until proved guilty is also the law of the land.
Depopulation of Protestants
There has been a correspondence in The Irish Times about the decline of the Protestant population in the 26 counties since the foundation of the State in 1923 (following a review of Gemma Clarkís book Everyday Violence in the Irish Civil War).
There was indeed an exodus of Irish Protestants from the 1920s onwards, and the reasons were multi-factorial. Some 200 ìbig housesî had been burned out by the Republicans. Some Protestants felt their allegiance to a British identity no longer accorded with an Irish Free State. Yet many Irish Protestants stayed, and the Church of Ireland Gazette valiantly urged its readers to embrace the new state and their Irish identity.
But Irish Protestant numbers continued to decline because of birth control which can describe a number of strategies ñ celibacy is a form of birth control. A remarkable number of Irish Protestants, from the 1920s to the late 1950s, chose not to marry ñ partly from lack of candidates, but partly from a striking sense of prudence.
The ëlonely heartsí columns in newspapers could set the bar very high for possible mates, demanding a steady job, property ñ and no dancing. Since marriage and mating were late and sometimes infrequent, fertility was low.
Depopulation is the death of any culture ñ strangely enough, even more so than war itself.
Turkey is a country of many enchantments
At 5.30 each morning, the call to prayer, broadcast from the muezzin tower, awoke us. With the greatest respect, I cannot describe it as a mellifluous sound: it is loud, atonal and the only word the stranger can comprehend is “Allah”. We will hear this five times a day in Istanbul.
Turkey is a country of many enchantments and Istanbul is full of variety. The people dress in all kinds of costumes, but the hijab – the Islamic headcovering for women – is a constant. The people are welcoming and unspoilt, the food is delicious and there is, particularly in the Galatea area where we stayed, a pleasing street life of cafes and folk sitting outside.
It is a secular country in its laws but the culture of Islam is everywhere, from the calligraphic art to the lack of portraiture or statues, from the men assembling in great numbers for Friday prayers at the mosque to the long history of the Ottomans. Some of the effects are pleasing.
There are no semi-pornographic images on display, and there is a certain decorum in the conduct of men and women which is dignified and mannerly. And though alcohol is available there are no public drunks.
If you visit a mosque, which you may – outside of prayer time – a marshal ensures you are wearing respectful clothing and that you show an appropriate attitude. In France, cathedrals have to put up imploring notices about not entering a holy place “wearing beach clothes”.
My son and I attended a Catholic Mass, celebrated by two Italian Dominicans, in the 13th Century church of St Peter and Paul at Galatea Kulesi Sok. There was only one other person present, an elderly nun.
Meanwhile, at the frontier with Syria, tens of thousands of refugees flee into Turkey from the horrors of ISIS.