THE right-wing Catholic organisation led by Mena Bean Ui Chribin is suspected of funding a legal action to stop the State from taking six neglected children into care. Four years later, when gardai began investigating claims of incest and cruelty at the "house of horrors" in Roscommon, Bean Ui Chribin was on the phone within a week to talk to the investigating officer about the case.
However, the hard-line Catholic campaigner against all things liberal was given short shrift by the officer in charge, Gda Sgt John Hynes. "He told her that he had nothing to say, that this was a criminal investigation, do not interfere," said a source close to the investigation.
The repugnant crimes endured by the children at their family home in a Roscommon village were revealed last week when their mother was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment on charges of incest, sexual assault and neglect.
Roscommon Circuit Court heard how the children lived in a squalid, freezing home, overrun with mice and rats.
They were rarely fed or washed, and were bullied at school because they were smelly and infested with lice and fleas. One child described how lice crawled down her face. When drunk, their mother forced one of her sons to have sex with her.
The role of Bean Ui Chribin, now a post-mistress in Santry, Dublin, would have been a bit part in an appalling tragedy but for the fact that by helping their mother take court action to keep her children eight years ago, the children were condemned to another four years of cruelty, inflicted on them under the noses of health workers who politely sipped tea in their front room.
Sentencing the mother last week, Judge Miriam Reynolds had already reached her conclusions.
"The children were failed by everyone around them," she said.
The family first came to the attention of the then Western Health Board in 1996 and, by 2000, social workers were concerned enough about the children's welfare to urge that they be taken into care.
In September of that year, social workers brokered a deal with the children's mother to place the children in the care of her sister.
The following month, in a "bolt from the blue", the mother went to the High Court to get an injunction and won. At the same time, Bean Ui Chribin stepped in, urging the health authorities to back off.
The post-mistress was apparently introduced to the troubled mother by a local supporter of the conservative Catholic organisation, Ograchas Naoimh Papain. Social workers told the court last week they believed that Bean Ui Chribin's organisation funded the legal action.
After that, the health authorities proceeded with caution. Social workers later told gardai that they would make appointments, which the mother often failed to keep. When she did, social workers were admitted into the hall of the house, and directed into the living room.
That room, say Gardai, was swiftly tidied up in advance of the visit. Cups were washed, biscuits bought, pots of tea produced. Unable to venture into the other rooms without the mother's permission, the unflushed toilets, infested kitchen and stinking bedrooms remained hidden from view.
Teachers at the local school were also interviewed by gardai. They too had noticed that the children were unwashed, lice-infested and dressed in dirty clothes. They told gardai how they had raised their concerns with the mother on numerous occasions.
Home helps were assigned to visit the family twice weekly to assist the mother in bathing, cleaning and cooking for her children. Their job was to teach her how to keep her children clean and give them proper nourishment.
Gardai were told no matter how hard they tried, the mother would lapse back into her old ways. The home helps later told gardai that they found the house dirty and smelly. They would often bring clean clothes for the children.
During the sentencing, Judge Reynolds remarked that she didn't know how the mother was able to conceal from them the fact that something was wrong with the children. "I still do not know how that could be," added the judge.
One person who had serious concerns about the children's squalid living conditions was their aunt, their mother's sister.
She began caring for the children at weekends, taking two at a time. She later told the court how she would wash the children, provide them with clean clothes and bring them shopping, where they chose tinned salmon over sweets so they smuggle them home to their siblings.
On one occasion, their aunt was so worried about them that she consulted her local GP. The doctor informed the health board. His intervention resulted in a social worker calling on the family.
"The social worker found the house tidy but cold. It was not spotless but they were satisfied that the house was okay," said a source. "They made several appointments that the mother didn't meet. She came up with different excuses."
According to Gda Sgt John Hynes, who payed tribute to the children last week, the siblings were the only heroes in the appalling scandal, as it was their bravery that ended the cycle of abuse, neglect and trauma. Only when one of the children made a serious complaint in October 2004, did the health board seek an emergency care order and remove all six from the squalor.
It was only then, in the safety of foster homes, did their heart-breaking stories emerge. The children, who are now aged from 10 to 19, are living in three separate foster homes.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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