The Independent News Source
NCR on Kindle - NCR classifieds - YouTube - Twitter - Facebook - Email Alerts - RSS
Printer-friendly version
PDF versionActor's play exposes Irish hell
Jan. 13, 2012
Gerard Mannix Flynn in "James X"
The middle-aged man entering the waiting room with a bulging manila folder looks anxious. In his sage-colored pants and jacket, white shirt with no tie, he appears as bland as the room, which is empty but for a straight chair and a sign with an arrow pointing to the left. It is the words on that sign, though, that indicate any trace of blandness is only superficial. White letters on a blue background foreshadow the fire beneath the surface: Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse.
“I have to go into that courtroom soon, into my past,” the man known as James X says as he waits to be a witness before an Irish government tribunal’s inquiry into institutional child abuse. “Tell them what happened back then when I was 11, but I just want to run and run and run.”
In his one-man play, “James X,” Gerard Mannix Flynn reveals one harrowing incident after another of physical and sexual abuse in Ireland’s Catholic and state institutions. A popular and critical success when it premiered in Dublin in 2009, it is playing at Manhattan’s 45 Bleecker Street at least through Dec. 18. Given the subject and its high-profile backers, I can easily see it traveling from New York to other American cities -- Boston and Philadelphia, to name two.
In the play’s foreword, Flynn, who first introduced the character of James in his 1983 novel, Nothing to Say, holds agents of the church and state accountable -- “a church that profited from the forced manual labor of 150,000 children, and a state that supplied them with these child workers,” he writes. “This is not James’ story, it is the story of all the children that went through to rooms of hell and horror in institutions run by the congregations of religious brothers and nuns, under the license of the state. It is the story of those who suffered in these cruel places and those who were witness to that suffering. We all had a childhood. Let this be our common bond when we read ‘James X’ or Nothing to Say.”
Flynn’s journey through the system began when he was 11 and was sent to St. Joseph’s Industrial School in Letterfrack in the 1960s. James X’s travails begin similarly and lead to stints in reform school, prison and a mental institution, and 20 years of alcoholism. He was beaten and molested by priests, nuns and most especially Christian Brothers.
Produced in New York by Irish-born actors Liam Neeson and Gabriel Byrne and off-Broadway’s Culture Project, and directed by Byrne, “James X” is an intermission-less 80-minute journey into hell, a hell endured by countless Irish children, one of whom was Flynn, who spent 15 years writing this play.
Preview NCR's Family Life Issue
Watch this video from NCR Editor Dennis Coday for highlights from our annual Family Life special section.
You won't find these articles on our website. Subscribe now to receive all the content from each biweekly issue.
While waiting to give testimony before Ireland’s High Court, James reads aloud the file, which he has just received, the case history that was compiled on him over the years by doctors, psychiatrists, welfare officers and others, reports filled with lies, inaccuracies and indifference, reports that sentenced him to a life of horrendous abuse. Realizing the irony of trying to expect justice from this same prejudicial system, James looks back over his life to find the truth, which Flynn tells and often acts, usually at manic pace, with dark humor and occasionally in rhyme.
Born in Dublin in 1957, Flynn looks a decade older than his 54 years. After too many years of silence, his passion to uncork the memories of cruelty and inhumanity he and others suffered explodes in a nonstop monologue that leaves him frequently mopping perspiration from his face with a handkerchief. Nothing stands between him and his character.
The novel Nothing to Say is the story of James O’Neill, later to be James X in the play, a child sent away by the courts to an industrial school. “Even at that time, these industrial schools and reform schools were places that sent a shudder of fear through Irish society,” he writes in the foreword to “James X.” “They were situated in the heart of Irish towns and villages, and many people must have known what went on there, yet nobody openly talked about it. Nobody really talked about sex, never mind child sex abuse, and to level the accusation of abuse at the state and the church and their religious congregations was an outrage.
“Twenty years on, Irish society is on the verge of moral bankruptcy. The Catholic church and its congregation is breaking up upon is own rock, by its own hands and deeds, by its own lack of honesty. It is nothing more than floating debris, and all that keeps it from sinking down into the darkness is the tissue of lies and the frightened faithful who cling to these lies. The issues brought up by Nothing to Say are still unfinished business, unhealed wounds.”
The play’s premiere in New York is timely. The Irish Times reported Dec. 8 that a state-sponsored report accused Dublin’s former archbishop, John Charles McQuaid, one of Ireland’s most powerful prelates before his death in 1973, of serial child sexual abuse.
The performance is accompanied by “Impact,” an exhibit of Flynn’s work related to child abuse in Ireland’s institutions that takes viewers through James X’s journey from age 6 to the present. “James X” and this exhibit are part of “Imagine Ireland,” a yearlong initiative of Irish art in the United States presented by the Irish government’s Culture Ireland agency.
My request for interviews with Flynn and Byrne was denied. Flynn, who besides being a playwright, actor and visual artist is also a former independent councilor for the South East Inner City area in Dublin, did speak with the Irish Examiner in 2010 to discuss the motivation behind his play and exhibition.
“The Irish are a triumphant people,” he said, “who have overcome dreadful events throughout our history and now we need to take ultimate and complete responsibility for what happened, move forward and let the trauma resolve itself.”
[Retta Blaney is the author of Working on the Inside: The Spiritual Life Through the Eyes of Actors.]
"The Irish Times reported
"The Irish Times reported Dec. 8 that a state-sponsored report accused Dublin’s former archbishop, John Charles McQuaid, one of Ireland’s most powerful prelates before his death in 1973, of serial child sexual abuse."
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2011/1208/1224308744391.html
As Confucius said: "A picture is worth a thousand words..."
Scroll down to #5:
http://www.politics.ie/forum/justice/177243-allegations-involving-mcquai...
Memo to the currently re-surging cappa magna crowd:
By your SKIRTS shall we know you! And watch you...very carefully.
I do not believe that people
I do not believe that people here in America could possibly understand the
undercurrents in our Irish Culture. I was eight years old and was thrilled to be acccepted in the very best known South Side Christian Brothers School.
My class had 52 pupils. Control was not an issue, you could hear a pin drop.
One day I unfortunately found myself in class without a pencil. Capital crime that. The brother a big Corkman over six feet caught me trying to communicate with a friend behind me....for the pencil of course. I was ordered
up to the front of the room. I was told to bend over. I was unceremoniously
booted clean across the room to the great enjoyment of one and all. I was in great pain. My coccyx was damaged. I made a very big mistake I was to be very sorry for. I went home and told my mother that the brother kicked me. I immediately received a very sound beating and was told I was a liar. But, I learned the important lesson. Some things were not to be spoken of. This is why I believe the responsibility for the horrors that went on must also be shared with my parents generation. I do not blame them as they were conditioned by their times as to how to act. I later on at age 13 found a way out of the Christian Brothers clutches... I went into a baby seminary for
my secondary education with a community that did not believe in physical
punishment. It turned out they excelled in psychological control but at least
we could deal better with that. Ironically, the man who recruited me for that
school turned out to be a pedophile. No, he did not get to me, but he did get
my best friend at the time. We both discussed what to do. We were 13 and it was 1954 and we both knew it would be a disaster to contact the local ordinary. He was leaving and I knew his dad was politically well connected in Dublin where Charles McQuaid reigned supreme. Nonetheless it was he who
made the system respond. One morning at prayers we were introduced to our new rector. Not a single word was ever heard about the former rector who simply vanished. I never was able to find out where the community put him.
If this gives you a small feeling for what it was like to live in that era
I am glad. Sadly, most of the problem in Irish schools was physical violence.
Years after I had come to America and was teaching in a public school I had
reason to reflect on my past. My Principal who became a good friend had visited Ireland and she spoke very highly of Irish Education. Then she told me
that she had visited a classroom with 50 plus students in it and there was total quiet and everyone was busy at work. She had no explanation for it and
wanted my opinion on the matter. Shirley, says I, its very simple, Ram Unadulterated Fear!
Amen, So be it, three men four feet walking down O'Connell Street......
God Bless,
TomC
My dear Aunt Nancy who passed
My dear Aunt Nancy who passed away in 1994 in her 80's was one of 6 children whose father died of influenza during the epidemic in early 1900 leaving my grandmother to take care of these children with no help at all. Four of these children had to be sent to Catholic orphanages (the two older boys went to Dublin) my aunt and her older sister were sent to an orphanage run by nuns in Cavan. Aunt Marian never recovered from the abuse and after emigrating with her mother and family to USA married an older bachelor type man who fathered her 3 children but was emotionally abusive to this lovely, quiet woman who eventually broke down and ended her life in a mental institution.
My aunt Nancy was a wonderful, strong woman who married a nice guy whom she loved. Never having children they were often visitors to our family and great relatives.
Near the end of her life, my Aunt Nancy told me of the mean spirited and spiteful abuse by these nuns. If their poor mother was one minute late for a once a month visit, dressed in her work clothes from scrubbing other people's dirty clothes and carrying a little paper bag of candies for her 2 girls, she was abruptly turned away and made to return home via bus. Her 2 babies (my dad, age 3 and Jimmy age 1) who thankfully were too young for an orphanage were minded by kind neighbors when she hurried for that once a month precious visit.
Aunt Nancy blamed her sister Marian's mental condition on these religious tyrants.
I am sure Aunt Nancy knew firsthand of these miserable women and other more cruel treatment but was too kind to burden others with her sorrows.
When I visited The Republic
When I visited The Republic of Ireland for the first time in the mid '90s, I caught the drift of what was going on among the Irish Christian Brothers. It was a 'nod of the head,' blinking of the eye' kind of message, something everyone knew was happening but declined to speak about.
When the pedophilia scandal broke open in America, I noted that many of the accused priests had Irish surnames. This led me to wonder if that vice was also part of our Irish heritage, something entwined within our Irish gene pool. It also led me to wonder if alcoholism among Irish people, native and expatriate, is also connected to the terror of Irish education at the hands of the ICBs and other similarly cursed orders.
I'm sure only God knows the answers. Presumably there'll be one hell of a reckoning on judgement day--for the accused and for the Bishops who played cover up. While waiting for that august event, I continue to ponder the essential question," Who can one believe?"
Martin, I have long pondered
Martin,
I have long pondered the same questions/concerns. Everyone has noticed the very high percentage of abusive/rapist priests with Irish surnames. Personally, I am convinced it is correlated to alcoholism issues common to the Irish heritage. The next "shoe to drop"...is what occurs behind closed doors in the Irish households.
Artists throughout history--
Artists throughout history-- writers, painters,playwrights, actors-- have all been viewed as threats to an empire, at least one that tyrannizes and terrorizes its own people. I have not seen the play or read the novel, yet there is a subtle, anxious spirit that hovers around a story as such, not only because of its content but because the very artist who wrote the book and the play is laying bare his soul. He is the work of art.
This "play", and note the irony, has the potential to not only undo the empire, but also challenge our entire culture's understanding of criminal justice.
In February just last year, I
In February just last year, I had the great good fortune to meet and speak with Mr. G. M. Flynn at the famed "Sugarclub" in Dublin, where there was an evening's tribute for him that included some Ireland's finest performing artists and poets. Flynn charmed and delighted, educated and enraged the audience with his poetry and stories. He is a man of the people, but with immense compassion and an almost supernatural ability to develop empathy in others.
What a pity we learn of his coming to the USA almost a month after his play has closed in New York. If you hear of his appearing somewhere near you, run and get tickets, but first let everybody else know where he is in time for them to go as well.
Seems like the motto of NCR
Seems like the motto of NCR is becoming, "All Child Abuse, All the Time."
When you are down to writing about one-man Irish plays to yet one more story online and in print, well you're really reaching.
Sexual abuse is a horror.
Sexual abuse is a horror. Doesn't "physical abuse" become inevitable when institutions for delinquent boys are overcrowded. When a brother is personally responsible for the care of 50 to 75 boys, many of whom are physically larger than he, what choice does he have but to discipline those who hurt others or try to run away? Irish society created these institutional conditions and now the same people wish to punish the dedicated men who lived it out under religious obedience. The environment was more threatening and complex than the shocked public understands.
If this is an attempt to
If this is an attempt to forgive sins and forget crimes, it doesn't wash. Physical abuse was part of the psyche of religious orders in Europe and the U.S. at least. I went to parochial school for eight years in which unhappy nuns used physical abuse to maintain order. I later learned from a cousin who entered the same community that they were directed in their formation to never smile before Christmas, perhaps Easter, in order to maintain that "fear of the Lord" over their young charges. I'm not sure how it can be considered that rascality in boys was an excuse for Christian Brothers in Ireland or elsewhere to become involved with their charges sexually. Sorry, but this is the same attitude maintained by the sexual abusers, their silent confreres, and the hierarchy, all the way to the papal apartments, in the criminal cover-up that allowed these practices to persist for so many generations, nay, for as long as celibacy was required for ordination or chastity was presumed evangelical and an attraction to join religious orders who earned their livings beating up young kids. This attitude in lay people has smothered the outrage that should have been shown throughout this exposure, throughout the church, to rescue sincere followers of Jesus from the devilish clericalism and the absolute monarchy of the Vatican. This is the same twisted thinking that permitted priests and religious to abuse young people they were presumed to be nurturing spiritually. Have you noticed that numerous Catholic schools have had to close down because they no longer had available the slave labor of unhappy nuns and Brothers who hated the "labor" in which their communities were involved just to earn a living?
There is no excuse for
There is no excuse for physical abuse. None. Oh, the brothers were overworked or whatever. So that gives them the right to smack around helpless children? You attempt to excuse abuse behavior by these monsters is pathetic. Speaking as someone who was knocked around by nuns in grammar school, I can attest to the physical abuse of brothers and nuns. I have gotten into many violent arguments with people who were not there and try to deny what actually happened. Well, I was there and it did happen.
Your attempt to excuse physical abuse and gloss over it is outrageous.
People who beat and/or
People who beat and/or sexually abuse children belong in prison: even if they are wearing a roman collar. There is no excuse for it, no explaining it away.
Christ himself expressed his outrage with the "millstone around the neck" passage, for this kind of behavior.
Enormous damage was done to thousands of children, and now the insitituional church is Ireland is dead. It would be difficult to imagine a worse scenario.
Those in charge, the Bishops, Religious Order Superiors dropped the ball and dropped it so very badly, that things cannot be "fixed."
Perhaps the Vatican thinks that they can go back to the "good, old days" when the Irish people were obedient and servile. Those days are gone. The Vatican must now deal with a people who are angry and looking for a little payback. It will not be pretty.
It just keeps on getting
It just keeps on getting worse and worse and worse, doesn't it? The true picture of what has been going on for so long, I mean. How many hearts have been broken just to learn about all of these things, and that doesn't even count all of the lives, as well as hearts, of those who suffered through all of these unspeakable
acts for so many years. Is there a bishop ANYWHERE who understands how all of this could even possibly have gone on in a Church said to be animated by the Spirit of God and explain it to the rest of us?
Lay Catholics in the United
Lay Catholics in the United States should support the production of Gerard Mannix Flynn's "James X" in the central city of every large diocese throughout the country. Ultimately, art and information like this could be the wake-up call that is desperately needed to inspire lay people to take control of their church away from the clericalism that has so grievously devastated the young and damaged "the model of the Holy" that Jesus is supposed to be for that church. As long as the impersonal church that is "Too Big To Fail" is allowed to continue, salvation is out of the question. Salvation comes from following the precepts of Jesus of the Gospels, not the sexual molestations and cover-up of a sinful, criminal hierarchy always managed by the Vatican. An "obese," scandal-ridden church, the last remaining absolute monarchy of the West, cannot possibly save people. Rituals, including the Sacraments, have become pro-forma routines that are part of the whole seduction process and control practices of that monarchy. Catholic lay people must belatedly join the Reformation of the 16th century, recognize Martin Luther's concept of a "priesthood of the people" as Gospel-based, and become the masters of their own salvation by finally closing down the clericalism that has historically degraded Jesus and his message, events like the crusades, the "Holy Inquisition" and its tortures, and sex abuse that is as old as the requirement of celibacy for priesthood. Let "James X" be performed in the cathedral of every diocese in the world. It could be the 21st century "Passion Play."
Anyone who can say that the
Anyone who can say that the popes in place during the dark global clergy sex abuse scandal did not know or should not have known what was going on is delusional. The blame is and has been for decades properly placed on the Vatican. The College of Cardinals is an incestuous institution which proceeds from pope to pope with the feudal process of enfeoffmnent by which cardinals swear allegience to the pope appointing them when they accept the office. The process has been a huge failure for the Church for centuries and at least since Vatican One which gave the pope the cloak of "infallibility" by a lame duck session less than unanimous vote shortly after the US Civil War. We, the laity, need to wake up and assert ourselves. I am not talking about some silly "occupy" movement. For me, I have cut off all contributions to "Peter's Pence" and the diocese.* The religion is good. The boys running it are not necessarily good and have a terrible track record over the past 5 decades. at least. I do not respect them as they have not earned my respect. You make your own decision.
*The USCCB spent more than $26 million of your donations on lobbyists to, among other things, greatly eliminate enforcement of existing immigration laws and to prevent federal funding of medical plans which provided contraception prescription support for poor people. IS THIS HOW YOU WANT YOUR DONATIONS SPENT? STOP SUPPORTING THE TURKEYS AND FOCUS ONLY ON YOUR LOCAL PARISH.
at least that is what we do.
And has the Catholic Church
And has the Catholic Church learned anything?
The front page report from last weeks The Irish Catholic:
"The national seminary at Maynooth is to clearly separate the seminary environment from the wider university community. It is believed that the changes are part of the Apostolic Visitation's attempt to 'reform' training structures for priests in Ireland.
Separation doors have already been installed to partition the seminarian's living quarters from the rest of the campus. It is understood that the changes were endorsed by the Visitation, led by Cardinal elect, Timothy Dolan of New York. Proposals are also being brought forward for a separate dining room for the seminarians...."
After all the horrors of Ireland's clerical abuse, after all the attempted cover up, this is Timothy Dolan's response?
I once saw Cardinal Daly being interviewed on the Late, late Show. He was asked why he had the nickname "ET." He replied that he had been ill, had lost weight and now was facially similar to ET. The truth was that he was called that name because ET was an alien from outer space who knew very little about life on earth!
Seems like Dolan might be from another planet too.
It also irks that these hierarchs want to hide away from society (where they can control everything), yet they demand the right to step back into society whenever they please, to pronounce on how bad society is. The next wave of screwed up, immature, unaccountable, dangerous Irish clerics, is on its way!
Well done to you Mannix! I
Well done to you Mannix! I know some of the history of your and your family's ordeals and know it's not been an easy road to travel for any of you.
Your words on behalf of the thousands that were brutalised in these institutions are powerful and hopefully Irish society will never forget the havoc wreaked on thousands of lives.
Is it any wonder that alcohol continues to be our shield to hide from the world and our woes?
"[The institutional Church of
"[The institutional Church of Rome] is nothing more than floating debris, and all that keeps it from sinking down into the darkness is the tissue of lies and the frightened faithful who cling to these lies."
STOP GIVING MONEY TO YOUR PARISH.
STOP ENABLING PAROCHIAL, EPISCOPAL, AND PAPAL DYSFUNCTION.
BRING ABOUT TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY.
BRING BACK VATICAN II.
No, Joseph Jaglowicz. All
No, Joseph Jaglowicz. All that keeps it from from sinking down into the darkness is the gift of the Holy Spirit, which Christ promised would always be with His Church, and protect it no matter how foolish or how morally corrupt its leaders would be. He (the Holy Spirit) has been doing that for 2000 years. I hardly think He will stop now.
"Flynn, who besides being a
"Flynn, who besides being a playwright, actor and visual artist is also a former independent councilor for the South East Inner City area in Dublin, did speak with the Irish Examiner in 2010 to discuss the motivation behind his play and exhibition."
http://cultureproject.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=105
"My request for interviews with Flynn and Byrne was denied."
These weren't:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8waO-GhPAk
http://better.tv/view/C465539P234331V1570115
http://fora.tv/2011/12/11/James_X_Talkback_with_Mannix_Flynn_and_Gabriel...
I'd like to thank Mr. Flynn,
I'd like to thank Mr. Flynn, Gabriel Byrne, Liam Neeson and Off Broadway's Culture Project for undertaking this production and I wish it could be taken to every Catholic Diocese in every state. Thank you for your courage. If it weren't for people like this, and every person who has mustered up the courage to confront this issue and speak out for the victims, these incidents would still be swept under the carpet. May God bless you for telling your story and may He continue to heal you and all those affected by the actions of so-called Christian Catholic priests and nuns.
Thank You to Mr Flynn. Your
Thank You to Mr Flynn.
Your courage and decency at a time when these qualities are lacking from clerical leadership is admirable. No more than admirable, you provide all of us with an example of what it means to be a compassionate human being. To inspire us by living what religious traditions proclaim as their central message. A message that has to yet to be embraced by persons who have vowed to live what they proclaim. I also thank Mr's Byrne and Neeson for producing the play.
Peace and Gratitude,
Deacon Rich McGarry
This sad story reminds me of
This sad story reminds me of the saying in circulation in the Orthodox Church:
"The road to hell is paved with the skulls of priests, and its lightposts burning bright are the skulls of bishops."
This apparently dates from the 4th century, and is an indictment on the clergy of its day. It always gets me to musing:
"Is there really anything new under the sun?"
In a Church which is culturally Greek (with its weakness towards sexual perversity), and structurally Roman (with its top-down autokrator governance - and all that that entails), one wonders whether, if sad stories like Flynn's are really not his contribution to a classical ecclesiastical traditional Irish Wake? Where what is being buried is, in fact, the (Hellenised and Romanised) institution of the Church?
Christ's promise to Peter: "... and the gates of hell . . " referred to his faith, not the Romanised institution erected in his name.
Yes! Praise God, the Catholic faith _will_ survive! The Holy Spirit will see to that!
But it will survive just maybe without the institution that bears its name.
Should the good Lord tarry and not come soon, in perhaps the next century (the 22nd) people like Flynn may well be being considered for beatification.
Gerard, if you still have it in you (& the brothers haven't flogged it out of you): Ora pro nobis!
And bless you Retta for this story.
Post new comment