CONGRESS CANNOT BE SILENT ABOUT THE KINCORA-RICHARD KERR CASE

Posted By: September 15, 2021

 

 

CONGRESS CANNOT BE SILENT ABOUT THE KINCORA-RICHARD KERR CASE

 Experience and evidence of Colin Wallace is pivotal

  By Fr. Sean Mc Manus, President, Irish National Caucus 

The past —but, for the victims, always fresh— sexual abuse of children at the notorious Kincora Boys’ Home for Protestants, run by Protestants, and other State-run Homes for Protestants in Northern Ireland, is deeply disturbing. But what makes it even worse for the victims is the growing body of evidence that British government agencies deliberately manipulated past official inquiries to prevent the disclosure of activities by the Intelligence agencies.  Moreover, police investigations into the abuse have been described by one inquiry as “inept, inadequate and far from thorough” and that the police were guilty of a “catalogue of failures.”  (Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry-HIAI. 2017).

The spurious invocation of “national security” should never be used to cover up the truth about the sexual abuse of a child, or excuse failures to protect that child from harm.  The fact that the Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland has, for the past two years, apparently failed to investigate the very detailed and compelling complaint submitted on March 29, 2019, by Colin Wallace— a Protestant and former key figure in the British Security Forces in Northern Ireland during the 1970s— is a matter of great concern and needs to be remedied without further delay. (“Complaint by John Colin Wallace to Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland: The RUC’s Handling of Allegations About the Kincora Boys Home”). Click, or insert into your Browser, to read—
http://www.irishnationalcaucus.org/colin-wallace/

The experience and evidence of Colin Wallace—one of the first to raise concern about the Kincora scandal—has direct and immediate relevance for the Richard Kerr case, which the Irish National Caucus has raised with many Members of Congress and with key Congressional Committees —http://www.irishnationalcaucus.org/irish-national-caucus-to-raise-kincora-case-in-congress/

 

And for more information and Bio of Colin, see— http://www.irishnationalcaucus.org/colin-wallace/


Congress cannot be silent on the case of Richard Kerr, now an American citizen living in Texas, in Congressman Allred (D-TX), 32nd District. And the Irish in Texas and throughout the United States must demonstrate solidarity with Richard, a Belfast Protestant—thus showing that the problem in Northern Ireland is not about religion but fundamentally, historically, and currently about injustice.

Ecuminism and reconciliation are at their truest when Catholics and Protestants not only pray together

for peace but also work together for justice… for, as Blessed Martin Luther King, Jr. and Saint Pope John Paul II have taught us, peace is the fruit of justice and solidarity.

END.