State must act to aid children
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The abuse inflicted upon her six children by a self-styled "worst mother in the world" in their Roscommon home is documented in horrific detail today.
While we may wonder at the mentality of such a person, we must also ask, yet again, why children were allowed to suffer such hell for such a long time? They were not invisible and, despite their mother's sly ploys, their physical and mental distress must have been evident to anyone who came in contact with them.
Warnings about the safety of children are made periodically by gardai, the Children's Ombudsman and ordinary parents. Almost invariably, the role of the HSE comes under scrutiny. In this latest, horrendous case, it seems the HSE may have to explain the actions of the then Western Health Board.
In 1996 serious concerns were raised about the welfare of the children, but it was not until 2004 that they were taken into care.
The HSE points out that, in the intervening years, the family were at one time or another given home help, "home management advice", child care and were visited by public health nurses and social workers.
The puzzling thing is, if all this attention was being paid to the unfortunate children, whose distressed physical and mental condition must have been evident, why did it take so long to remove them from the power of their clearly dysfunctional, hard-drinking mother?
A similar case, in terms of cruelty, was that of Sophia McColgan and her brothers and sister who were subjected to a reign of terror in their Co Sligo home.
A disturbing aspect of that case was the failure of the children, over 20 years of abuse, to alert the authorities to their situation. Quite simply, they were ignored.
As our laws stand, intervention in the life of a family -- even when children are being abused -- can be difficult. However, the State has ample powers to remove children from danger, provided someone takes the initiative.
As always, there has to be a prime mover.
If the Minister for Children, Barry Andrews, can find a way to ensure that an obscenity like this can never occur again, he will have demonstrated that, even in these dark times, we have our priorities right.
