Why were Scouting Ireland files locked away for so long?
This organisation came into being 14 years ago. Being generous, the two groups combining to work together would have needed time to sort themselves into a new body. But 14 years seems excessive
Hearing people in Wicklow this week expressing concern and fear about what 100 immigrants might do if they come to live, as refugees, in the town’s Grand Hotel next month was shocking. Shocking in its own right as it reveals the easy racism in our midst, a racism without justification or evidence.
It was especially shocking because, because on the same day, the Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs heard for the first time about the 108 cases of alleged sexual abuse against young boys inthe Irish boy scout movement. The abuse may have occurred in the last century, but be sure of one thing; the alleged perpetrators were almost certainly all Irish men, some of whom were parents. That is enough to put an end to such lazy, kneejerk racism.
