Connacht Tribune
Report ready into inquiry over Dunmore foster home abuse
The findings of an investigation examining State agencies’ role in a North Galway foster care home in which three young girls were repeatedly raped over a prolonged period of time, will be published within weeks.
Minister for Children, Katherine Zappone, has confirmed that the anticipated completion date of the National Review Panel’s report is this October. The report, commissioned in 2016, will provide the findings of the review of three cases of child abuse in County Galway by the National Review Panel.
Minister Zappone was responding to Galway West TD, Catherine Connolly who sought an update on the case, which was highlighted by RTÉ’s Prime Time earlier this year.
The review was to determine how three young girls were left in a Dunmore foster home where a teenage boy – now a 29-year-old married man – was allowed to rape them for years on a weekly basis.
Minister Zappone said: “The panel is independent in its work, and the panel members for these cases have significant expertise in child protection, foster care and child sexual abuse. Once the report is completed, Tusla will act on identified areas for learning and any recommendations made.”
Deputy Catherine Connolly (Ind) previously raised the matter in the Dáil with An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Speaking this week, Deputy Connolly said: “The first disclosure in this case was made in 2009, the second in 2011 and the third in 2013. For four years after the risk to these young girls was uncovered they were left in a home that the HSE knew they were at severe risk of rape and abuse.
“These young girls needed the care of the State and yet the State failed them when they most needed it. We must be given an explanation as to why and how it took until April 2016 for the referral to be made to the independent review panel. And an explanation as to why the report by the national review panel is taking two and a half years to complete. These three young women who were in the care of the state deserve answers.”
The HSE has already apologised unreservedly to the three women for failings in care they received while they were in foster care with a family in Dunmore, arranged by HSE’s Galway Community Care, between 2005 and 2007.
Keith Burke of Addergoolemore, Dunmore, was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison, with a year suspended, after he was found guilty of raping the three foster children between 2003 and 2007. All three girls were under ten years of age at the time.
One of the victims, Rachel Barry, waived her right to anonymity so that her abuser could be named in the RTÉ Investigates programme, entitled Fostered and Failed, which aired in April of this year.
The two other victims were also interviewed for the programme, but their identities continue to be protected.
The Central Criminal Court was told that Keith Burke had raped the girls on a weekly basis when they were aged between six and 10; he was aged between 14 and 18 at the time of the offences.
Rachel told RTÉ that, in 2005 when she was eight years old, she was sent to the home of Kathleen and Gerry Burke in Dunmore for monthly respite care.
For the next two years, once every month, she stayed there for a weekend, where she became friendly with another long-term foster child who asked to be identified as ‘Amy’. Both Rachel and ‘Amy’ were raped by Keith Burke.
During one stay, Keith Burke took turns raping Rachel and ‘Amy’, forcing each girl to watch what was happening to the other.
In May 2007, Rachel told her biological mother she had been sexually abused by Keith Burke and a subsequent HSE investigation assessed Rachel’s disclosure as “credible”.
Rachel also reported that ‘Amy’ – who at that stage had been living with the Burkes for over a decade – had been raped by Keith Burke. However, at the time ‘Amy’ did not disclose any abuse.
Gardaí sent a file to the DPP but no prosecution followed. ‘Amy’ and another foster child, a boy, continued to live with the Burke family.
Documents seen by RTÉ Investigates also showed that two months after Rachel’s disclosure, the HSE decided ‘Amy’ and another foster child – a boy – were not to be removed from the Burke foster home.
But the HSE also stipulated Keith Burke was not to be left alone with the foster children. The foster parents agreed to supervise this arrangement. Keith Burke moved out of the family home at that point and lived a short distance away.
However, despite the reporting of sexual abuse concerns in 2007 and the HSE assessment that they were “credible”, Keith Burke still regularly visited the family home.
In fact, during the sentencing hearing two weeks ago, Gardaí told the court that Keith Burke continued to have unsupervised access after 2007. When questioned by RTÉ, the HSE said ‘these were matters for Tusla’.
Four years later, in October 2011, ‘Amy’ came forward and told a teacher she too had been raped by Keith Burke. Her disclosure prompted a new Garda investigation, which uncovered a third victim. ‘Sarah’ was also placed into foster care with Kathleen and Gerry Burke in 2000, aged five. She too was regularly raped by Keith Burke. ‘Sarah’ also witnessed ‘Amy’ being repeatedly raped.
The independent review panel was asked to investigate the matter in 2016, and its report is due to be published next month – two-and-a-half years later.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
