Brief Reflections on ‘The Beginner’- John Lewis Christmas Advert 2022

It’s that time of year again where our senses are bombarded minute to minute by a cacophony of lights, sounds and smells all designed to remind us of the looming big day. In recent years, the warm and fuzzy sentimentality has met the naked consumerism aspect of Christmas in one medium, The John Lewis Christmas...

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil: Doing what we’ve always done?

I’ve recently had reason to revisit the excellent podcast documentary “Where is George Gibney”, produced by Mark Horgan and Ciaran Cassidy in association with Second Captains. The reason I’ve been re-listening is because in April, the podcast is hosting a live event in the National Concert Hall in Dublin and the producers are donating all...

Aiding Retrospective Disclosures: A Snapshot of recent research.

In recent years, scientific endeavor has enabled us to produce a 'picture' of a black hole. An astronomical phenomenon that heretofore was thought to be purely theoretical in nature. We couldn't see them, and debates raged as to whether or not they existed. What helped scientist to 'discover' them, and to eventually locate one and...

Tulsa July 2020 Stats: Worrying Trends?

Tusla have just released their stats for July 2020, alongside their Quarterly Report for Q2 2020. I have written here recently about the concerning trends in relation to Emotional Abuse referrals in particular. The stats for July 2020 again reveal a stark rise in emotional abuse referrals via mandated reports. Emotional abuse referrals for July...

Covid 19, Domestic Violence and Rising Referrals

I'll start this with some kudos... kudos to Tusla. Over the last number of months Tusla have been producing a more granular set of statistics in relation to referrals to their services. These stats now go beyond the number of referrals to Tusla and now present the number, type of concern, geographic location, source of...

Tusla’s Management of Retrospective Disclosures – Update June 2019

...given the dynamics created by abuse, delay, non-assessment or provision of limited information or clarity can have detrimental effects on those who come forward to disclose experiences of childhood abuse; responding to this issue should be paramount and such a response should be informed by those impacted...

Clarity required in recent Scouting Ireland/Tusla debacle.

I was never a scout! But I know a lot of very good, decent and hardworking people who give and have given their time to building the organisation and who acted as an integral part of the community in the small town where I grew up... and continue to do so. The current debacle has...

Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse: Seminar on Mandatory Reporting, September 27th, 2018.

On Thursday 26th of September the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in England and Wales (IICSA) conducted a seminar to examine Mandatory Reporting.  The Inquiry Team consists of a Chair, Professor Alexis Jay OBE, supported by a panel, a legal team including a lead Counsel and a Solicitor to the Inquiry as well as Inquiry support...

‘Protecting the Nation’s Children’

Speech by Shane Griffin Presented in Leinster House, AV Room* on the  22nd February 2017 Introduction I am an adult child of the Irish state, a Care Leaver, the state was also my parent. My birth parent, my late mother, was deemed un-fit to parent my siblings and I. My mother, also happened to be a vulnerable...