'Paedophile'smear angers Irish abuse victims

A secret Irish government report smeared victims of sex abuse at Catholic Church-run orphanages by branding them dysfunctional and potential paedophiles.

The Observer has obtained a copy of a confidential document advising the then Minister of Education, Michael Martin, that men and women abused in industrial schools and Church-run homes are a danger to their own and other people's children.

Survivors of clerical abuse reacted last night with outrage over the Irish Civil Service's suggestion that they are dangerous to themselves and young children.

The report, dated April 1999, was written for the attention of Martin, the Tanaiste, Mary Harney, and an adviser to the Attorney General. It was drafted in response to demands from victims for a full public inquiry into their treatment in such institutions as Artane Industrial School in Dublin. The report advises the Government that it would be better not to open up a future inquiry to public scrutiny.

The document was drawn up just six weeks before the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, apologised on behalf of the state for the maltreatment of children at Ireland's notorious industrial schools and orphanages. Its author admits that there may be 'hundreds, possibly thousands' of victims of sex abuse, most of it committed by priests, brothers and nuns.

He said: 'They [the victims] have grown into adulthood carrying the emotional and psychological scars. Child sexual abuse creates serious psychological problems for the victims throughout their lives, involving suppression of memories, alcohol and drug abuse and the re-enacting of that abuse on their own and other children.

'There is a significant number of dysfunctional people in our society. This dysfunction relates to sexual abuse of children at the hands of those they were placed into for care and protection.'

The report warned:'There may be some of these dysfunctional people who are a risk to themselves and potentially to children.'

Patrick Walsh, who was sexually and physically abused by Christian Brothers at Artane Industrial School during the 1960s, said the report had shocked and sickened fellow survivors.

At his home in London last night, Walsh, a leading figure in the Irish Survivors of Child Abuse support group, said: 'That fills me with disgust and anger. It is naked prejudice to suggest that because we were victims we are all potential paedophiles.

'When I first heard about these suggestions in an Irish government report I relayed what it said to a grandfather in Sheffield, who was himself abused at Artane. He was revolted by the suggestion that he was a danger to his children and grandchildren. The sick joke is we were the ones abused as children in institutions funded and supposedly scrutinised by the Irish state, and yet it is we who are being branded as potentially dangerous.'

Irish Soca, which represents the majority of men incarcerated in Ireland's industrial schools, is boycotting the Irish Government's official inquiry into the Church-run institutions. It claims the Government went out of its way to protect the Catholic Church from costly legal action.

In June 2002, Martin's successor at the Department of Education, Dr Michael Woods, passed a law that indemnified the Catholic Church from lawsuits. Dr Woods ensured that any legal action taken by victims of abuse would be paid for by the Irish taxpayer rather than from Catholic Church funds.