Comments on The Pensive Quill: Ballymurphy Rape

Courage indeed is required. We require some journa...

2010-01-23T10:48:35.667Z

Courage indeed is required. We require some journalist or blogger who has the information (and I am sure there must be many) to find the courage to publish the identity of Ms Cahill's offender, for only then can they, with full integrity, condemn the culture of secrecy that allowed him to act as he did with impunity.

Of course there are risks, but what meaninful course of action does not involve risk and what really can he do? Shoot the messenger? Unlikely. Sue for libel then? A possibility of course but I think he might be deterred by the example of Oscar Wilde who, oh so rashly, sued the Marquis of Queensbury for libel, lost and then, as a result of revelations made during the course of that trial found himself in the dock on criminal charges.

To hell with bourgeois jurisprudence, let's have some real community restorative action here, let's name and shame.

But only for a start.

Tony, yes he is still alive. I have not heard of h...

2010-01-21T05:49:00.708Z

Tony, yes he is still alive. I have not heard of him in a long time.

hi anthony is this IRA guy still Alive?

2010-01-20T23:17:36.241Z

hi anthony is this IRA guy still Alive?

courage is the word alright.... will there not be ...

2010-01-20T18:20:40.784Z

courage is the word alright.... will there not be an uprising in ballymurphy and west belfast in general against the adams faction, these bastards should be punished, and yet they walk among our people preaching to us about morality.
i await the phoenix.

I agree wholeheartedly with Fionnchu, until I saw ...

2010-01-19T16:20:02.305Z

I agree wholeheartedly with Fionnchu, until I saw your blog in relation to the Massereen shooting I hadn't opened a paper or watched the news in over a decade. This has given me an interest in my country and it's politics again for the first in a long time. GREAT reading this blog and I've an Irish news beside me to read in depth when I get home. That's two papers I've bought in a row..WOW
I'm hoping the outpouring of all this stuff will release the grip of the SF leadership and it's Nazi like hijacking and selling of 800yrs of Irish History. I for one will be getting involved in local politics again, but living [THROUGH CHOICE..not SF exile]in Donegal, I'll veer towards FF. Possibly SF should have dumped arms in 1994/6 and allowed the SDLP to get on with the constitutional route..what was it that was said..?"give up all that is fair and walk the thorny road of history" hang your heads I say. Horses for courses ring any bells?
I for my part will be a constitutional activist but not with the 'naked kings'
Good man Mackers, your blog was a godsend.

The constructs and contexts of abuse... The victim...

2010-01-19T02:45:49.997Z

The constructs and contexts of abuse... The victim is given reinforcement via the negation of appropriate action (when informing those who should take appropriate action) it is somehow their fault. There be the pus of the Vatican and constructs of Catholicism that has razed thousands and thousands of Irish lives - endemic & pandemic. Now the hallowed halls of republicanism have their own seething morass of horror re abuse... It is like Mother Ireland has split open wide spilling out all the dumbed down pus of child abuse. I salute all who stand up and speak out! If it shatters our revering of some figureheads of resistance so be it. How can the wound heal if the pus does not manifest. How can the next generation of children be assured of safety if it don't happen this way. Pus is flowing and bubbling and this time Ireland you WILL listen.

Certainly journalists like yourself and Suzanne ha...

2010-01-18T23:37:34.956Z

Certainly journalists like yourself and Suzanne have done much against many to uncover abuses of all sorts. We appreciate as ever your efforts. The cover-up culture runs very deep.