Categories
Uncategorized

ONE WOMAN’S COURAGEOUS BATTLE WITH ADDICTION AND NOW WITH THE ESTABLISHMENT.

ANGELA RAY

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=223326732637701&id=127142338922808

Angela Ray lives in Carlow – the town I lived in from age 4 to 8.

Sadly, like so many others, she got caught up in a heroin addiction and was trapped in it for 10 years.

But, to her great credit, and the help of others, she has been in recovery for 6 years now and has been sober and clean for all that time.

Showing great responsibility, when her son was born, she voluntarily placed him in the care of an aunt.

Her son is now 11 and she has been fighting very hard to to have him in her life.

She is experiencing a big push back from the child protection agency agency in Ireland – TUSLA.

They are opposing Angela’s efforts to build her relationship with her son.

Some people may say its her own fault for taking drugs.

But thats far too easy and an ignorant thing to say. Human beings are very vulnerable and we can all get ourselves into troubling situations.

And any human being who has wrestled with addiction and become sober is to be greatly admired for the strength they have shown.

And they need all our love and support to get their lives back on track again.

Of course the state has to have ways of looking after children whose lives are not safe and healthy.

But my experience of social services and social workers has not been good – at those times I was trying to help people get get their children back.

When you get yourself dragged into the social services system and the courts system your life can become a nightmare.

Angela and people like her are up against the establishment.

And the establishment has a way of grinding you down and walking you into the mire.

Anyone wanting to support or help Angela can get her at the email address below.

rayangela7@gmail.com

64 replies on “ONE WOMAN’S COURAGEOUS BATTLE WITH ADDICTION AND NOW WITH THE ESTABLISHMENT.”

If the abuse was criminal in nature – perhaps you were under age at the time, or it was physically/emotionally/psychologically/sexually coercive – then you should go to the police. That’s difficult to do, because we all fear that we will not be believed, or that we are troublemakers, or needy for attention, but if it happened then you should report it. As + Pat has said many times before, go to the secular authorities first and have your complaint recorded and actioned, before telling the church authorities. Name the abuser to the church authorities, and they will have no option but to suspend him if the allegations are credible. If you are certain of what happened to you, you do not need to fear. At the very least you will have told others about it and the burden will not be yours alone. Best wishes.

Like

11.24: An utterly ridiculous comment…what are you talking about? We are talking about a serious justice issue that has nothing to do with your boozed up crappy mind….a hate filled mind…

Like

You are with friends, here 11:42 pm.
You will not be ignored or tossed aside on this forum. Rest assured x

Like

11:24am

No there is nothing toxic about me since I have never taken drugs or broke the law and there has to be something not right or TUSLA would not be objecting. Of course on here there is too much partiality on the one side, Whoever doesn’t agree with them is branded toxic when of course it’s them that are TOXIC!

Like

No Priest deserves to be abused in any circumstances and I hope you take up Pat’s offer of help and if you get NO satisfaction from your Bishop report both him and the abuser priest.
Justice for ALL.
Keep a diary and most important evidence but do not part with the evidence get a copy.

Like

Most of the younger Bishops understand and approachable it is the old guard and hopefully most of them will have gone over the next five years apart from Archbishop martin but he is easy sorted.
Archbishop Eamon Martin detests calls from Archbishop Okolo as the only call he wants from him is about a red berretta.

Like

8:35
How do you know what Esmon Martin’s responses to anything are Jim S? Still in need of schooling.

Like

I hope this woman, a mother, is able to reunite with her children. Sadly, the agencies of this state often get it very wrong in their treatment of these particular situations but they have a duty of care for the safety of children and vulnerable people. The various agencies have been very negligent in some case histories and have caused untold pain, hurt and sufferings to parents, guardians and children. We need to have more information about this situation re: Angela. Did she ask you, Pat, to submit her story for debating on this blog? Does she know her email is given on a public forum? Just like to know before making a decision to help, if possible and appropriate.

Like

There is a registered social worker in the North West who is in extremely serious and grave trouble.
She is also in big trouble with the Police.

Like

Let’s ask MMM for his views re: social workers! He becomes very defensive. He knows the abysmal failures of his
former profession and its present history of negligence and misjudgments. Just read the papers every day to find out the very destructive decisions made by the social services care agencies – both in UK and Ireland, North and South. Some decisions made have been disastrous for families. And what abiut the number of children and young people who died while in the care of these agencies? No ribbons in their memory.

Like

MMM is a socialworkbot. They can do no wrong as far as he is concerned and they just need more money, even though, despite far worse outcomes, a children’s residential care placement costs more than sending a child to Eton.

Like

And no doubt you’ve analysed why residential care placements cost so much 11:21? While you may be well informed, may I, from practical experience offer some background for others.

Here in England, progressive slashing of council budgets by central government edict, has left councils unable to finance new homes, to adequately maintain existing homes, and additionally to attract and maintain adequately trained experienced staffing levels. Low salary levels are unattractive for such demanding work often with very damaged and consequently demanding young people. It would be inappropriate to use the analogy: pay peanuts you get monkeys. But it’s a reality, that virtually all councils in Britain suffer from severe staffing shortages in all areas of social care, particularly child care.

Private care agencies and the profit incentive have filled the void. This is much in keeping with government preferences for private sector provision. While some offer good care, others more interested in financial returns have not. Significantly however, these businesses charges are designed to cover EVERY aspect of their service provision; initial building and subsequent maintenance depreciation costs, all staffing costs, all services to/for the children and not only for food, clothing, leisure etc, but all the specialised assessments, psychological support etc. And on top of course are the inevitable profit margin slices for senior managers and investors!
And the so called “charities” such as Barnardos, NSPCC work on exactly the same cost basis of charging councils full costs. Between the hard Rock of meeting central government legislative requirements to provide care, and the hard Place of having inadequate resources it’s little wonder councils are forced to use private sector provision from care businesses.

Against this background has been the increasing number of children in need, both in council care and supported while remaining within their families. In relation to this trend, research points to longstanding central government policies adversely imposing increased pressures on families increasing breakdown. There is a knock-on effect that many care workers, already understaffed and overworked, struggle with diminished resources to even meet the needs of the most urgent cases. Often, lower priority children become crisis cases requiring intervention of already much distressed children requiring specialist care at greater cost.
But of course YOU’LL know all about these issues already @ 11:21, so I apologise for boring YOU, ………if indeed your attention span has got you this far?
For the rest of you please consider this summary as an honest reflection of everyday realities. I don’t seek to convince anyone, just to provide one man’s experience

Like

While entitled to your “feelings” @ 4.48, it would assist our understanding if you could provide ANY relevant facts , if you have any.

Like

In the 1960s religious managers of Irish industrial schools where orphans, wards of court, including truants and convicted “petty criminals” (often aged 7) were accommodated were paid £8 per child per year for education, board and lodgings. Most of those who left at age 16 left with a trade or were well on the way to qualifying. And not a fraction of the number of unaccounted for children today were unaccounted for then.

Like

Addiction is a terrible thing. Knowing you’re trapped by some substance. Wanting, desperately, to get out. Trying and trying to escape. But never succeeding. Until one, long-in-coming-day…

I love the poster that appeared on the blog a few weeks ago. About recovery.

It went like this:

Recovery didn’t open the gates of Heaven and let me in.

It opened the gates of Hell and let me out.

Truth in a nutshell.

Well done to that lady for her efforts.

Like

I don’t know the full story here, but surely we have to think of the interests of the young child here. They may be in long-term fostering or pre-adoption and Tusla have to consider the disruption to the child of a natural parent coming into a child’s life after being out of it for years. I’m sure no natural parent wants to hear that, but that is the reality.

Like

But then, don’t such children always, or nearly always, have a natural curiosity about their birth parents and want to trace them?
Would a child thank a state agency when it found out, perhaps years down the line, that the agency had deliberately thwarted a birth parent’s attempts to meet up with her child?

Like

The children are at the centre of all decisions so the child is asked.
I am not a Social Services employee but I know in case management children are consulted.

Like

@8:42: Just as it should be when the child is mature enough to freely express an opinion. But obtaining such opinion must be carefully considered, taking fully into account the child’s preferences after he/she has been given enough support, information, potential alternatives and likely outcomes, and importantly, time to consider the issues.
However, after weighing up all these considerations it is the long term best interests of the child which should be the deciding factor. This may not coincide with the wishes of a parent or indeed a foster carer however well intentioned. Such decisions test the professional skills of experienced child care workers, and inevitably may not meet everybody’s wishes

Like

Thank you Eamonn for summarising just some of the often conflicting dilemmas posed in child care. Against the background strategic realities you earlier outlined, (to which I’d add hostile press/media and public simplification of complex competing priorities) it’s not surprising to see how childcare workers can easily become public scapegoats.
And then of course we have the loudmouth criticisms from those with neither the wit nor wisdom to appreciate the facts. It were ever so.

Like

Addiction is a crazy thing. I was in love with alcohol. I used to kiss and hug bottles of drink before drinking them. The following morning I hated them. Until the evening came… the demon drink is a true phrase.

Like

Angela looks and sounds like a woman with great strength and a heart big enough to love the whole world. It is so upsetting to hear Angela and her family were, and it clearly is the case, treated very unfairly and subjected to immoral behaviours.
When children are harshly kept apart from their parents it is soul destroying.
Angela not only had her children taken away her– the most important thing in the world– they also took away her human rights.
Keep going, Angela, and never stop loving and striving for good.
You are not the only family, or indeed individual, to suffer similarly. However, it must be noted that the world we liive in is changing rapidly… and for the better.
My advice to anybody who is suffering under any kind of unjust oppression is to REACH OUT. Do not let anybody bully you into doing anything you don’t want to do.
///////////
Remember… The Criminal Law Act 1967 clearly states: —
(1) A person may use such force as is reasonable in the circumstances in the prevention of crime, or in effecting or assisting in the lawful arrest of offenders or suspected offenders or of persons unlawfully at large. I use the word “At Large” very freely, here….
— Thus, reasonable force can be used in the prevention of ANY crime or in assistanting making an arrest to: —
(A) ALLOW THE DEFENDANT TO DEFEND HIMSELF/HERSELF FROM ANY FORM OF ATTACK SO LONG AS THE ATTACK IS CRIMINAL.
(b) Prevent an attack on another person, e.g. in R v Rose,[22] a young son shot dead his father to protect his mother from a serious assault, believing that this was the only practical way of defending her given his Small physical size…
(c) Defend his property against criminal attack in the widest sense, i.e. it can be physical possessions like a watch or credit cards demanded by a mugger (where there would also be physical danger to the owner) or, at the other extreme, possession of land…
////////
A slight change in direction: please allow me to elaborate on my own personal experiences and musings: —
In my own personal experience, the law does not fully ‘apply’ in the closed civil courts’ system.
The civil courts work on an entirely different level and the Civil Procedure Rules “CPR” is, supposedly, the “Bible of the Civil Courts’”
Are the CPR rules alwayd adhered to? In my own experiences if there are social workers involved, then then the answer is quite simply NO!
Again, in my own experience — and I’m sure my experiences are far from isolated — Registered Social Workers do not have to provide any evidence in a closed civil court; they can write down anything and, seemingly, they have control of the reigns.
However, get them in a proper criminal court, and it is a completely different ball game…
Getting them into this arena is not easy; they will kick, scream and pull out ALL the the stops! They will do ANYTHING to sabatarge the natural process of the law.
Occasionally, these feeble attempts can be as futile as attempting to platt snot!
—-
My advice is: ALWAYS adhere to the law.
The law says you have the right to defend yourself from unlawful attack. You must use reasonable force — some may say ‘Reasable firce’ this is an open ended statement; and many would agree.
*** You are legally entitled to use whatever force it takes to protect yourself, or others, from attack ***
Who are you, or indeed myself, to argue with the written and defined laws which have been scrutinised and passed by our government?

Like

Not too many interested in Angela, eh Buck? You need a bit of sauce again. Rawhide, the Rabbit Room, Kildorrery, forced fingering in Gaynoof, anal tearing, what Fanny done next, Armagh secrets …. you know ….. that sort of stuff.

Like

They’re only checking in to see what’s cooking in the scandal/fantasy department though. Fact!

Like

I have been 16 months Sober and AA is a big part of my life. Once I had an openess , got to be honest and a willingness to work the 12 steps and hand everything over to the God of my understanding, it worked. Living life on life’s terms and taking it one day at a time.

Like

Jesus is on the side of the underdog, the David or Danielles against the Goliaths (Church, State) and hears their cry of anguish and for justice – Jesus has a preferential love for all those the establishment despises – victims of child abuse, recovering drug addicts, alcoholics, the broken and broken-hearted and those on the very margins he will not despise!!

Like

Jesus doesn’t like hypocrites. You know, people who say they believe in him, yet wish in Hell or to ‘die roarin’, those he sacrificed himself for.

He’s odd that way, Jesus.

Like

7.43
Our Blessed Lord wants people to try and follow the Beatitudes or even the simple prayer of Saint Francis Assisi.
Matthew 5:3–12 or Luke 6:20–23.
Try it 🙂

Like

Oh, yes, bring back the colourful and interesting characters …. Rawhide, Roreeee, Gorgeous, Stephen, Monty, Little Peter, Vinny, Puck, and endless more. This social worker stuff is boring, boring, boring…..

Like

@5.18 A very poor response to a question correspondents have taken seriously. Continue with your own frivolity elsewhere, please, leaving this forum for serious people who wish to address serious problems. I am sorry to be severe but ti seems necessary; unfortunate but necessary.

Like

Monty wasn’t in good standing when the Oz Sem punched him on his snout and poor Monty lost his balance and fell down the nearby stairs breaking his leg. He couldn’t stand for a good while after that.

Like

We love Monty. He is the gift that keeps on giving. The good standing thing endorsed by Elsie is highly questionable given the abuse cover ups by Elsie over Quigley and others at the inquiry.

Like

Our local’s landlord Bryan ended up in hospital having his leg amputated from diabetes complications. On following Saturday night a “get well ” card was circulating in pub, and with “drink taken”, I wrote, “Hope you’re back on your feet ……oops, foot again soon.”
Afterwards on sober reflection I was very worried at his possible reaction.
When he returned to pub he insisted on pulling me a pint saying it was best tonic he’d had!

Like

5.16pm

That’s just what the Levite said as he walked past the wounded and bruised man on the Jericho Road – ‘Boring, Boring, Boring’ he said as he rushed off to yet another Levitical Gossip Fest!! Sounds to me like you’d fit right in!!

Like

Fair play to Angela for getting off the gear, it’s nearly impossible to do. Watched the whole video I think Angela has a few mental health issues that she needs to deal with.

Like

Just popping in to see any updates on Glasgow….

[video src="https://videos.sharesome.com/file/videos-out/936899-1613158308-949/936899-1613158308-949.mp4" /]

Like

Amy truth that the Garda visited Silverstream this morning 12/2 to check on a large gathering that took place there yesterday 11/2

Like

Angela you are a brave woman. Social services can be a nightmare over worked bogged with paperwork and the bosses wanting to save money. It’s easy to loose track of the person and go for the quick fix. As for the allegedly abused priest He too is a person

Like

When I worked in the family court (as a civil servant) the same cases cropped up every few months. There always seemed to be a new social worker every time. How disruptive must that be for the family and young person and how greater the potential for error. Often very complex and difficult cases were in the hands of newly qualified social workers fresh from university and themselves childless (according to the parents who questioned the social worker’s competence on that basis).

Like

11.42…I am a priest and I was abused at Seminary and I did get justice from the Police and Courts, but not from the Church…not even an apology.

Like

Leave a comment