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  In a related story to the above ...I dont know if any of you saw the George Gently detective story two sundays ago. It is of course fiction but its set in the sixties and it had a very miserable tale about abuse in a childrens home. Not very appetising viewing for a sunday night I have to admit.
  
  But one of the aspects of the programmers research, which I thought was totally accurate, was the jaw dropping dawning on the police that such a crime could actually happen. In those days people actually did not believe such a crime could possibly exist, so bad was it to contemplate such goings on. It really was off the scale.
  
  In Ireland much the same thing happened... priests doing such a thing...impossible!! said everyone. Its a crime so bad it couldnt really be happening. We all know different now.
  
  This is why these things were easy to get away with for so long. The clergy in Ireland had massive power. The entire population, you couldnt NOT go to mass, listened to sermons on sunday morning and woebetide any politician that got in their way.
  
  In hindsight its easy. We now know the flaws, the problems of deprivation of sex and so on, but perhaps even then the motivation for many of the clergy was to hide their homosexuality, which was also illegal, yes it was a totally safe haven to hide your leanings in the catholic church. Illegal homosexuality was also featured in the programme mentioned. So it was a totally different world then...
  homosexuality was hidden and didnt exist within the clergy!!
  child abuse was hidden and didnt exist within the clergy or anywhere!!
  this is what they would all have you beleive at the time.
  this is what society wanted or to put it another way...if it did exist they didnt want to know.

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