My father grew up in Gaeltacht park, Whitehall and was an altar boy in the local church and occasionally they'd go over to one of the Magdalenian laundries for a mass on Sundays. When he was about 8 or 9 (mid 50s) he remembers one day a woman jumping over the rails , running up onto the altar and literally clawing the face of the priest serving the mass. When he got home and told his mother the story her response was "Ah the poor girl". Everyone knew, no one said anything. That's how they got away with it, the public endorsed the shower in their odious and illegal behaviour. A few years back when the place was sold off for developers they found 120 unmarked graves with bodies that had never been issued death certificates by the state.
The most scurrilous and unforgivable act of Bertie Ahern was capping the Church's liability in the abuse scandals.
The most scurrilous and unforgivable act of Bertie Ahern was capping the Church's liability in the abuse scandals.