Tea and sympathi in the Aras
Last Sunday’s meeting between President McAleese and a group of abuse survivors was a very nice and pleasant photo opportunity – and that’s all it was.
I can imagine the folksy Mary McAleese accompanied by her husband doling out solicitude.
What about ya ya were abused were ya? Ah Gawd that’s awful so it is – Gawd luvv ya – wud ya fancy a Chinese?”
But victims of abuse deserve more than pious platitudes. They want action.
The president’s words that perpetrators of abuse should face criminal charges remind me of Macbeth’s reminiscences of the tale full of strength of fury but signifying nothing. Many of the abusers are dead, others in conditions of advanced senility. As a former professor Law Mary McAleese should know how difficult it would be to launch criminal actions against such people, with an onus probandi based on proof beyond all reasonable doubt. But the president is no fool. She knows this, but it sounded like the right thing to say.
