Notes on A Scandal

national | crime and justice | opinion/analysis Wednesday May 31, 2006 00:28 by Rt. Hon. Dr. O as if

As we all had better know by now, a child rapist known as "Mr A". was released from custody this afternoon as a result of a Supreme Court Judgement made last week which ruled that the Statutory Rape Act of 1935 is unconstitutional. At 38 years of age he plied a 12 year old with alcohol and received a 3 year sentance which would have been served in its entirety later this year.

Against that backdrop, the worst minister for Justice this state has ever endured, presented to the cabinet his proposals for new legislation on the age of consent and sexual offences relating to the underage, teenagers & mature persons. I really think the reader would do well to consider this news, and concern themselves with the issues which have emerged.

click picture & read article

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I have chosen as title of this article, the name of a book by Zoe Heller which was first published in the UK in 2003 & excited much interest in the readers of fiction, the majority of whom are aged between 25 and 35 and female and spend at least 1 and half hours a day as commuters.
The Book, "Notes on a Scandal" is also titled for its US consumers "What was she thinking?".
It tells the story of an art teacher in a north London school who has an affair with a male pupil, who is under UK law a minor, and when the affair becomes public knowledge, naturally "has a hard time of it". She turns to a fellow female teacher first as confidente then later companionship. The book ends with a certain hint that the relationship between teachers ends with a more than platonic nature.

now I'll tell ye all a little secret.
Michael Mc dowell and those who believe themselves to be the "liberal" or "progressive" elements of the Irish establishment and legislature take more than a passing interest in what we talk about, discuss, analyse and react to on these pages of indymedia Ireland. His proposed legislation which will be published at the Molesworth offices of the Oireachtas this week, attempts to adress not only the ("loophole" / "great gaping hole") in our unlawful sexual knowledge legislation, but also for the second time in Irish legal history move on the question of gender equality .

He is proposing to reduce the age of consent for girls from 17 to 16.
He is proposing to raise the age of consent for boys from 15 to 16.
He is proposing to equalise the age of consent for homosexual acts at age 16.
He is proposing for the first time to make it a criminal offence for a woman or girl to have sex with a boy.
He is also proposing a teenage sex clause to disallow consensual sexual acts between 2 teenagers where one is elder by no more than 2 years.

The regular readers of our pages, articles and comments of the last 2 weeks will have already noted that those ideas and suggestions were put. That means a readership mostly but exclusively based in Ireland of tens of thousands of individuals. The casual readers of our pages, meaning a catchment area of the order of thousands in their hundreds might have missed the influence of indymedia Ireland contributors on the future of Irish sexual morality...

It is a relief to this author at least that if passed the new legislation will not mean being dragged from exile to court for the heavy petting incident at 15 and three quarters with the protestant girl of nearly 17.
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/74777#comment151112 It might also prove a relief to Bob Geldof, the freeman of Dublin, honorary knight of the British realm and second only to Bono as an Irish commercial press "moral celebrity". Mr Geldof referred to his hetro-sexual encounters as a 14 year old with a neighbour of certain maturity in his biography "Is that it?".

We ought know that parallel to these events in Ireland, paedophiles in the Netherlands are discussing the formation of a party to campaign for the reduction of the age of consent to 12.
http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detai...25000 Their "liberal" & "progressive" argument is that prohibition of sexual activity by young teenagers only encourages experimentation.
I need not express disgust. But sadly I ought :- I am disgusted

We would do well to also recall the events of the last week, which occuring parallel to the supreme court decision to strike down the "statutory rape" legislation, saw Michael Mc dowell prevented from speaking by members of the hetrosexist and homophobic lobby, amidst cries of "pervert" as he spoke at an "equality" conference organised by the Equality Authority and the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network, (the latter being one of the lobbies claiming to represent the political interests of the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transexual community in Ireland)
http://indymedia.ie/article/76331
http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0526/mcdowellm.html
In no uncertain terms this demonstrated the opposing lobbies, neither of which really have a proper role to play in the building of a future Ireland, where tolerance and equality come before joint bank accounts or church.

Thus I would like to end this news item which will be updated in the comments as the proposed legislation covering sexual offences and ages of consent is published and brought to the legislature of the Oireachtas for debate, with one caveat........

The man in the picture, is of undoubtedly great intellectual ability. I have never doubted that, nor asked that anyone underestimate his mind. But he has long passed the point of hubris . A little over 160 days ago, when he over-stepped his legal rights to divulge confidential files to the public in his now commonplace "leaks", I suggested that he had only 200 days to run as minister for Justice.
I first gave him the satirical name of "Big Swinging Mickey" when he deported a Leaving Certificate schoolboy whilst still in his uniform to Nigeria, only to bring him back amidst great protest. I publically wondered at the time, what was his problem with "black men" and why Ireland despite like every other very rich state is now home to new migrants of every ethnicity and culture didn't have a single "black Garda" but "black-guards" a plenty. My Caveat is this :-
Last week, I stated my hope that we as a society of thinkers were moving towards a solution of these constitutional and legal problems "without political bias to a solution which recognises the needs of all young people to be protected regardless of gender, and also to safeguard against unjust prosecution of cases which only include "teenagers". I [then] reiterated my belief that the elements of socio-economic class, culture, ethnicity, health & education must form a part of that solution."

I see no indication that a regime of Fianna Fail (&/or) the PD's may offer the conditions necessary to the future to guarantee the elements of socio-economic class, culture, ethnicity, health & education form part of a long term solution to the issues at stake.

for the simple reason, that Mc dowell is supposed to be our "expert" on laws in need of reform. That is why he heads the department of "law reform". That is why he has spent so many hours going through our older laws and removing them from the statute book. Yet he couldn't see the appaling vista. . Mc dowell the same man who deported a leaving cert schoolboy in his uniform to Lagos and then under popular pressure brought him back.
: who is the man who took credit for the Celtic Tiger : who chose not to give police protection to Denis Donaldson, thus allowing him to be murdered and then didn't supervise a proper inquiry.
: who allowed the most serious riot in Dublin's history since independence to take place on February 25th, & then blamed "garda management".
: who is the man "garda management" won't allow speak at their conferences : the first minister of Justice in Ireland's history to be thus snubbed : who is the man who abused his power to publically slander a member of "the press corp" naming him as one of a "1000 strong terrorist state within a state" group - sparking angry editorials from every commercial newspaper & then went on Christmas holidays : who is the man who doesn't pay tax on his second holiday home in Roscommon and at a convenient time reported it had been attacked by the "1000 strong terrorist state within a state" he still refuses to name, & the Gardaí couldn't pursue the case....
Mc Dowell is the same man who exceeded his jurisdiction by passing statements on the Northern Bank robberies : the man who allowed the president of "the workers party" to escape an extradition order from the US government and return home to be our principle "fugitive". : Mc dowell the minster and man who changed the law on which babies born in our state - are or can be Irish.
The minister who stopped you all smoking legally in the pub. The minister who supplied dodgey radios which didn't work to the Garda "so they got away with it" : The minister who also supplied dodgy laser speed traps to the Garda. "so they got away with it" . The minister who asked for your public consultation on his laws to ban the possession with intent to supply of bangers, rockets, sparklers and anything else you could get for Halowe'en and thus banged up hald of the street vendors of Henry street. The man who didn't give you a new prison, so if you didn't get away with it, you're on smack. Oh! & we can't forget his "operation anvil" with its "shoot to kill" policy and the great work it has done in helping us all sleep safe & sound in our beds or go safely to the post office.

But it appears one Mr A. who had almost served 3 years for raping a 12 year old almost did get away with it.


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you may read multiple reviews of "Notes on a Scandal" by Zoe Heller here :-
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/notes_on_a_scandal/
you may order a copy of "Is that It?" through Amazon :-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0330442929/ref...41227
you may buy copies of the proposed legislation from the Oireachtas stationary office on Molesworth street Dublin 2.
you will read nothing about the events of the last weeks on Michael Mc dowell's website, but you can still click on the online poll & send him letters.