Silly Old Twit

Today on Drivetime (27 may 09 ) , speaking of the Ryan Report on the Commission of Inquiry into Child Abuse , Olivia O’Leary gave the victims of abuse yet another kick in the face. Having been called liars and worse for years O’Leary has joined forces with those who now want to add insult to injury. If you don’t belive me just follow the the link to the Drivetime (RTE) site and listen to the podcast yourself.

What O’Leary tells us is that she was fortunate  enough to have gone to a private boarding school where the nuns were “good’. They were good to her that is. She then makes the point that the same order of nuns were also looking after poor children but the poor children were treated ‘bad’. So far so good. Now she then repeats that the nuns who looked after her (in the boarding school) were ‘good’ ….and that they are still doing good in the community etc. …….

Now all this might seem harmless enough…..but consider this. Imagine the two were on the same road… Across the road from each other…now try and create a mental picture of  all this. On one side are ‘good’ nuns looking after the rich girls , on the other side there are ‘bad’ nuns looking after the poor girls…..Now ask yourself this , “How did all the ‘bad’ nuns just happen to end up on one side of the road and  all the ‘good’ nuns just happen to end up on the other side of the road”?

Now you could examine it from this point of view …..and then from that point of view. You could invert the whole thing , stand on you head and take the long view. You could look at the historical aspect of it all with particular reference to socioeconomic conditions in Ireland at the time. If your a Marxist/Leninist you could apply dialectical materialism…..You could wander down to the pub , order a drink and ask your fellow drinkers to help you with the problem. You could try to solve the riddle with the fingers of your hand – 2 schools , 2 groups of nuns from the same order ..separated by 1 road  etc etc. You could post the question on Boads.ie or better still Twitter -it could  end up like one of those online serial things that attract millions of people all over the world trying to solve the conundrum.

Let me repeat the question in a modified form. There are 2 schools , 2 lots of kids , 1 road , 1 lot of nuns. The nuns are split into 2 groups . 1/2 go to one school and 1/2 go to the other school. 50 years later a commission finds that all the nuns in  one school l are ‘bad’ and all the nuns in the other school are ‘good’. How/why does this happen ? …. I know it’s not easy. Even privately educated people get ‘confused’ when faced with this. Why not get the whole family to try to solve the problem together. Or better still if your a member of a community group you could involve your neighbours. The more the merrier , many hand make light the work and all that. Don’t try to solve it in just one sitting. Take a break from time to time. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t work it out straight away…..if a girl like Olivia can get confused then anyone can.