Former minister investigated over child sex abuse claims

drunkmonkey

Pretty disturbing someone with so much power could keep something like this under the radar.

http://m.independent.ie/irish-news/former-minister-investigated-by-garda-over-child-sex-abuse-claims-34189281.html

Seth Brundle

...assuming it is true!


However, if it is, I'd be equally as concerned about the garda investigation not taking place.

drunkmonkey

Yea that's nearly the most concerning thing.

gramar

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Pretty disturbing someone with so much power could keep something like this under the radar.

http://m.independent.ie/irish-news/former-minister-investigated-by-garda-over-child-sex-abuse-claims-34189281.html

There's your answer right there.

anto9

Who is it ?

Menas

anto9 wrote: »

Who is it ?

Ah here! As soon as a name is mentioned in here there will be writs flying!

touts

anto9 wrote: »

Who is it ?

I wouldn't be posting names but reading some of the articles there is enough information to make it a very small list.

gramar

Is it ok to guess?
Maybe set up a poll of the likely suspects and have a vote.

touts

gramar wrote: »

Is it ok to guess?
Maybe set up a poll of the likely suspects and have a vote.

You can always guess. A poll of the 4 or 5 "likely suspects" will only make more money for 4 or 5 firms of solicitors as opposed to 1.

Red_Wake

Can we know for certain what party he's from?

Lux23

There must have been 100s of government ministers over the years especially as we had so many elections in the 80s. There was three in one year.

Badly Drunk Boy

Lux23 wrote: »

There was three in one year.

Didn't that get us into The Guinness Book Of Records?

Turfcutter

The tagline on the Indo online article says "respected former Minister"".
That narrows it down to about...

touts

Lux23 wrote: »

There must have been 100s of government ministers over the years especially as we had so many elections in the 80s. There was three in one year.

We churned through a fair few backbenchers but not that many ministers. If you think of the current government (none of whom would be related to this allegation as they are current not former politicians) some served as ministers back in the 80s.

Azalea

anto9 wrote: »

Who is it ?

Seriously?!

seamus

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Pretty disturbing someone with so much power could keep something like this under the radar.

Jimmy Saville, Rolf Harris. In fact, it's having so much power that gives them the ability to keep it under the radar.

Interesting language being used here. They're saying "former minister" rather then "former TD and minister".

I wonder if this person is still a sitting TD?

Hermy

Turfcutter wrote: »

..."respected former Minister""...

Is there such a thing?

Dyr

Presumably Enda will be eager as ever to hug the alleged victims in public

I am damn glad I was't a child in the 50s-70s.

Hermy

Deleted User wrote: »

I am damn glad I was't a child in the 50s-70s.

Why?

jimgoose

Hermy wrote: »

Why?

Because the chances of being attacked and/or imprisoned by a respectable authority figure were even higher than they are now?

Hermy

So called respectable authority figures were acting with impunity in the 80's and 90's as well sadly.

I say that as the victim of two such individuals.:(

Dyr

Allegation that a complaint was made to the guards a decade ago and not acted on, the carry-on of the 70's and 80's didn't end in the 70s and 80s

anto9

Azalea wrote: »

Seriously?!

No ,i did not expect an answer ,but respected former Government Minister ,has me pondering .:rolleyes:

Zebra3

Bambi wrote: »

Allegation that a complaint was made to the guards a decade ago and not acted on, the carry-on of the 70's and 80's didn't end in the 70s and 80s

It still hasn't ended.

Our corrupt police force has not arrested a single member of the RC church for obstructing the course of justice (or whatever the legal equivalent term is) when they prevented kids from reporting child abuse.

Not a peep about this from FG, FF or Labour.

Or indeed our right wing media.

The_Valeyard

Without taking away from the story, the cynic in me would wonder about the timing so close to an election, to damage a political party. But I'm not going to entertain those thoughts. Was just on my mind.


Hopefully the gardai can build a strong case against the alleged abuser, often hear about these cases having a low prosecution rate. Bizzare the gardai didn't act on it before:

VisibleGorilla

How do the media have any information at all about a possible on going investigation?

Gardai leaks? Looking to damage a particular party?

touts

Bambi wrote: »

Presumably Enda will be eager as ever to hug the alleged victims in public

It it's a FF minister you can bet the investigation into any potential cover up won't be waiting for legislation to be passed to give them the necessary powers.

Yakult

What's wrong with these people? Sickly stuff and their seems to be a new case every fortnight! Perverted freaks!

Roger_007

Turfcutter wrote: »

The tagline on the Indo online article says "respected former Minister"".
That narrows it down to about...

.....none?

Roger_007

There is a possibility that there is no truth in this story at all. If it disappears off the radar in a few weeks, I would suspect that the whole thing is made up.

Berkieahern

Roger_007 wrote: »

There is a possibility that there is no truth in this story at all. If it disappears off the radar in a few weeks, I would suspect that the whole thing is made up.

Why would you say that?

VisibleGorilla

Berkieahern wrote: »

Why would you say that?

Why not?

False allegations happen all the time.

Berkieahern

VisibleGorilla wrote: »

Why not?

False allegations happen all the time.

So if an investigation isn't concluded in a few weeks, there's no truth to the story?

Roger_007

Berkieahern wrote: »

Why would you say that?

I was pointing out the possibility that the allegations are not true. If we accept every allegation as being true, why would we need courts?

Berkieahern

Roger_007 wrote: »

I was pointing out the possibility that the allegations are not true. If we accept every allegation as being true, why would we need courts?

With the history of child abuse over the decades in this country, it isnt that hard to believe that some of the country's politicians were paedophiles aswell!

Roger_007

Berkieahern wrote: »

So if an investigation isn't concluded in a few weeks, there's no truth to the story?

I'm very suspicious of the fact that this story was leaked to the media. There could be political motivation behind it. It is also unfair to create a cloud of suspicion over every male minister of that era.

Berkieahern

Roger_007 wrote: »

I'm very suspicious of the fact that this story was leaked to the media. There could be political motivation behind it. It is also unfair to create a cloud of suspicion over every male minister of that era.

If the Guards failed to act on the initial allegations, then maybe the poor victims had to approach the media to get the authorities to act!

The guards turned a blind eye to decades of the abuse and rape of kids by the catholic church.

I have no doubt they done the same for the almighty politicians!

Superhorse

Roger_007 wrote: »

I'm very suspicious of the fact that this story was leaked to the media. There could be political motivation behind it. It is also unfair to create a cloud of suspicion over every male minister of that era.

The Gardaí have been used as political tools for as long as I can remember tbh. I only hope this isn't the case here.

Azalea

Zebra3 wrote: »

Or indeed our right wing media.

I hear others saying "our liberal, bleeding heart" media - really depends on what your perspective is. Although it certainly isn't right-wing.

Mesrine65

anto9 wrote: »

Who is it ?

Azalea wrote: »

Seriously?!

Éamon de Valera :eek:

(Not true )

Dyr

Roger_007 wrote: »

I was pointing out the possibility that the allegations are not true. If we accept every allegation as being true, why would we need courts?

Indeed, we can establish the veracity of any allegations through guest columns in the indo.

Hitchens

Anyone know who she is?






:pac:

laraghrider

Roger_007 wrote: »

I'm very suspicious of the fact that this story was leaked to the media. There could be political motivation behind it. It is also unfair to create a cloud of suspicion over every male minister of that era.

Indeed. It's also nicely taking the shine away from the IBRC inquiry isn't it?

Berkieahern

laraghrider wrote: »

Indeed. It's also nicely taking the shine away from the IBRC inquiry isn't it?

Can people not be worried about both cases?

Its not always about deflection!

VisibleGorilla

Berkieahern wrote: »

If the Guards failed to act on the initial allegations, then maybe the poor victims had to approach the media to get the authorities to act!

The guards turned a blind eye to decades of the abuse and rape of kids by the catholic church.

I have no doubt they done the same for the almighty politicians!

Currently there are no victims.

This is nothing but hearsay at the moment.

laraghrider

Berkieahern wrote: »

Can people not be worried about both cases?

Its not always about deflection!

Of course but a long standing tactic of any government is to quickly get a secondary story out that blankets the media coverage and people stop being concerned about the story they don't want you to focus on. Bury bad news with bad news. People can be worried about both and you're correct it's not always about deflection. The problem is the majority of the time, it is about deflection.

CIARAN_BOYLE

The name thats floating around lends credence to it being made up for political point scoring.

Berkieahern

VisibleGorilla wrote: »

Currently there are no victims.

This is nothing but hearsay at the moment.

Apart from the people that made the complaint to the Gardai?

syklops

seamus wrote: »

Jimmy Saville, Rolf Harris.

Im sorry, what Rolf Harris did was wrong but he doesn't deserve to be in the same paragraph as Jimmy Saville.

Mesrine65

syklops wrote: »

Im sorry, what Rolf Harris did was wrong but he doesn't deserve to be in the same paragraph as Jimmy Saville.

Kiddy fiddlers are just that, there are no degrees of IMHO