IF ever you wanted proof that the legal maxim “Justice delayed is justice denied” is true you need look no further than the Dr Michael Shine abuse case.
That old saying highlights that when legal redress is not provided in a timely manner, it is equivalent to having no redress at all.
Nearly five decades after Michael Shine abused hundreds of boys and young men at our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Drogheda justice has still not been done.
This week Health Minister Jennifer Caroll MacNeill confirmed that the scoping exercise into the disgraced sex offender has finally begun.
Minister Caroll MacNeill told the Dáíl that victims have carried trauma and have sought recognition and accountability for decades.
She said that senior council Lorcan Staines has been appointed as the independent facilitator for the scoping exercise and this work will take around 16 weeks.
This is a mere blink of an eye compared to justice being denied for over half a century but it is hoped it will lead to a full public inquiry because that’s what is needed to uncover how this demon doctor went unpunished for so long and how his crimes were covered up.
At least 390 men have made allegations against the former surgeon, who worked at the Lourdes and at his private practice between 1964 until 1995.
He was convicted in 2017 and 2019 of sexual offences and in 2020 he was convicted of assaulting seven boys between 1971 and 1992. He served three years in prison.
Local Labour TD Ged Nash is not wrong when he says that thousands of men in this area may have been affected but have chosen not to come forward. I’m one of them.
When I was a boy I was abused by Shine on several occasions in the Lourdes.
It was common knowledge that Shine was abusing children to the extent that teachers would jokingly threaten to send boys “up to Dr Shine” if they feigned injury on the football field.
It was taken for granted you would be abused if you needed attention from this highly-respected resident paedophile, that’s the way it was. It was something of a rite of passage.
Back then there were few certainties in life but boys and teens could count on being sexually abused if sent to see Dr Shine in the Drogheda of the 1960s and 70s.
It was a brutal fact of life in these parts that if boys and teenagers wanted treatment for their injuries they had no other option other than face abuse by a pervert surgeon at one of the country’s leading hospitals.
Shine was an Irish Jimmy Savile and like that notorious British paedophile operated in plain sight while those who could have stopped the abuse looked the other way.
Shine acted with impunity, because like Savile, he knew he could as there was no one going to have the courage to tell him to stop, never mind report him to the gardai.
It’s not that Shine’s abuse wasn’t widely known, it was common knowledge to the extent it was almost accepted.
In 2024 when Simon Harris was taoiseach he described Shine as a “vile paedophile” and said the Government would consider holding a public inquiry.
Half-a-century on we now know Michael Shine was one of the country’s worst-ever child sex abusers but we still don’t know how he got away with it for so long.
That’s why a full public inquiry is needed or justice will not have been done.
Consultants assessing safety at Constitution Hill junction
I SEE consultants are looking at the “complex” junction in the centre of Constitution Hill to see what can be done to make it safer.
It’s not before time as you are literally taking your life in your hands if you drive out onto the hill from the Bachelors Lane direction as there’s no way of seeing what’s coming up from the quays.
It’s not surprising there have been numerous accidents there over the years and I’ve been in a few near misses myself.
Local councillors were told this week that the crossroads…it’s actually more like a St Brigid’s Cross, is being assessed by consultants to determine how it can be made safer.
It’s much safer at night as drivers coming out from Bachelors Lane can see headlights from vehicles coming up the hill.
A specialised mirror on the wall of the adjacent building to allow drivers to see what’s coming up the hill could provide an interim solution until a proper plan is put in place.
Free parking to end at Southgate Shopping Centre
YOU’D imagine that in the midst of a cost of living crisis retailers would be pulling out all the stops to encourage shoppers to visit their stores.
That doesn’t seem to be the case with the management of the Southgate Shopping Centre in Drogheda where free parking is to end at the start of next month.
Apparently the €1 charge is being introduced because it is claimed that the car park is being used by commuters who then get the bus to Dublin and this is causing difficulties for genuine shoppers.
As a regular shopper there I’ve never once experienced difficulties finding parking, indeed most of the time the huge underground car park is nearly always half empty. Besides, a €1 charge is unlikely to deter commuters as it would amount to a fiver a week.
Ironically, the charges start on April Fool’s Day…but will the fools pay?
Smart meters or “silly meters”?
CAN we now refer to the ESB smart meters as “silly meters” after it was revealed that some rogue devices have been charging ordinary households as much as €5,000 a day for electricity use.
The semi-state company has now apologised for the “confusion and concern” caused and said they are reviewing their processes to ensure this does not happen again.
The apology came after one customer described how on March 5 his meter read 4.18 kW use for the day at a cost of €1.83, while the next day the cost rose to €738.
ESB Networks is blaming the software and not the meters, which is also silly, as the software is actually what makes them smart and distinguishes them from ordinary dumb meters.
