Yesterday I posted a letter to my 25-year-old self, I wrote recently for a feature in the Irish Independent. In that post I mentioned that a few years ago I had been asked to contribute a similar letter, on that occasion to my 16-year-old self, to a book published to raise funds to the Irish Youth Foundation. The book was called ‘With Love, from me…to me: A Letter to my Sixteen-Year-Old Self.’ I have been asked to post that earlier letter on this blog. Which caused a bit of a dilemma as I couldn’t find it. But it turned up, or rather the fabulous... [Read more]
A few years ago I was asked to contribute a piece to a book to raise funds for the Irish Youth Foundation. The book was a collection of letters written by public figures to their 16 year-old selves. I had thought I had posted the piece here, but it appears not. I’ll hunt it out and stick it up at some point. Anyway, I was recently asked to write a similar letter to my 25 year-old self. The piece was for a series which appeared in the Irish Independent newspaper: Dear 25-year old Colm, I know that life is not easy right now. I know that you are not happy. But... [Read more]
The following is a short opinion piece I wrote for the Irish Daily Star newspaper in response to the report of the Vatican’s Apostolic Visitation to Ireland. It appeared in the paper on March 21st, 2012. I read a newspaper report yesterday that sickened me to my stomach. It told of how at least ten teenage boys or young men were surgically castrated while in the care of the Dutch Roman Catholic Church in the 1950’s. It focused on one case, the story of a man who, after reporting in 1956 that he had been sexually abused by Catholic clergy in a care home, was sent... [Read more]
Like many others who were lucky enough to have known or worked with Mary Raferty, I was deeply saddened to hear of her death yesterday, January 10th. Mary’s passing is a loss to us all, but most especially of course to her husband, her son and wider family who are very much in my thoughts. The following is a tribute to Mary I wrote for the Irish Independent. I never once came away from a conversation with Mary Raftery without learning something. She had an incredible mind; an extraordinary ability to absorb and store information combined with a gift for insight and... [Read more]
On September 26th 2011 Amnesty International Ireland published the results of a major research project which seeks to promote the need for a broader response to the Ferns, Ryan, Murphy and Cloyne reports into institutional and clerical child abuse in Ireland. The following blog post is the preface to the research publication. More information and a download of the research can be found here. There is an obvious clear and compelling reason why Amnesty International Ireland might commission research such as ‘In Plain Sight’. The issue central to the research, the abuse... [Read more]
