A monument for survivors of clerical abuse
A spokesman for a group of victims of clerical abuse has urged taoiseach Brian two-face Cowen to spend the money the government intended to devote to a monument to survivors on disaster relief in Haiti. I am entirely in agreement.
I am not a big fan of monuments, plaques, statues what have you. For me they are associated with authoritarian regimes that want
Someone to watch over me
to glorify themselves. One thinks of the way in which El Caudillo littered Spain with statues of himself, or of the gargantuan and hideous examples of bad taste associated with the bizarre personality cult of Saparmurad Niyazov in Turkmenistan, culminating in a larger-than-life statue of Niyazov which would turn in an orbit every twenty-four hours, topped with a strobe light to shine into different areas of Ashghabat, Turkmenistan’s capital.
I think the government’s commitment to such a plan demonstrates their bad faith towards survivors. They don’t give a damn about them, but such a project would be a nice little money=spinner for the boys and girls. There would have to be a committee, with a token representation from survivors’ groups, but made up primarily by higher civil servants, politicians and their relatives, all of whom would get nice expenses. Room might be found for the Arts consultant who was the minister’s brother who was paid by the taxpayer to go around the country telling the local arts officers what they should be doing. And then there would be an “open and fair” competition for the design which, once again, would be awarded to the artist or sculptor of the moment. But finally, what about the wording? Cowen has insinuated that the monument is an act of supplication from the people of Ireland to abuse victims. The ordinary people of Ireland need not ask the forgiveness of survivors – they weren’t the ones doing the abusing or covering it up. The people who should be on their knees are the Catholic hierarchy and leaders of religious groups, as well as those members of the laity who helped them up in it, namely the higher civil servants, health board officials, members of the judiciary and police force and members of certain Catholic lay groups which monopolised the upper echelons of Irish society. And let us not forget certain right-wing politicians, some of whom were members of Brian Cowen’s own party and were fathers of serving ministers, upon whom the Catholic hierarchy could depend to parrot their opinions and on occasions embellish them. They had a stranglehold over Irish life, having erected an impenetrable monolith which is only now beginning to crack but which still retains its vigour in certain areas. These were the antichrists, the devils disguised in soutanes and collars who should beg on their bellies for forgiveness and what’s more any resources they have (which one suspects are considerable) should be taken from them.
Let me end by quoting the Roman poet Horace.
Exegi monyumentum aere perennius
Regalique situ pyrammidum altius
Quod non imber edax, non Aquillo impotens
Posit dirvere …
That’s your actual Latin that is, and so lest Cowen or his goons read it, I should translate
I have built a monument longer lasting than bronze
And taller than the royal site of the pyramids
Which no hungry showers or impotent north wind
Can destroy…
I’d like this to be my epitaphs, though I don’t intend to have a ταφος on which it can be inscribed.
