Dragging and screaming, the Taoiseach to say sorry

Everybody – except, it appears, Taoiseach Micheál Martin, his sidekick Simple Simon, all the other geniuses in government and their entire army of advisors – knew that a State apology to people who suffered abuse in industrial and reformatory schools was utterly deserved and necessary. Such an apology was the right and just thing to do.

Yet, as usual, it had to be dragged out of them, together with other things such as additional supports in respect of healthcare, education, housing and funeral costs. People suffered the most appalling neglect, hardships and abuse in these terrible places, brutal gulags where unspeakable crimes were committed.

It has even been claimed that a 16 year-old boy, Joseph or John Pyke, was beaten to death at the St Joseph’s Industrial School in Tralee in the late ‘50s. Shamefully, gardaí have never really carried out a thorough investigation into this death, and any delayed inquiry was seriously hampered by the obvious passage of time.

But finally, Taoiseach Martin has belatedly announced that the victims of the industrial schools and reformatories will receive apologies and help. Unfortunately, Mr Martin couldn’t see his way to do all that a long time ago, which would have avoided the awful spectacle at the end of last year of victims going on a 51-day hunger strike outside Leinster House.

Those hunger-strikers included Miriam Moriarty Owens and Mary Donovan from Tralee, and Maurice Patton O’Connell from Cahersiveen, all extraordinary people who prove that courage and resilience combine as the great saviour.