Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What are the controversies surrounding Geoffrey Donaldson?
I don't understand it. It doesn't make sense to our evolution that men would be capable of this and continue to do it. So Geoffrey Donaldson was found guilty. Mick Clifford, who's a brilliant journalist, writes a brilliant piece in The Examiner. The heading is Geoffrey Donaldson's claim to be a man of God proved as hollow as his politics.
And he lays out the facts and you would have been following this. But central to the case, says MacClifford, against Geoffrey Donaldson was the evidence of David and Linda Hoy. And they're a couple who ran a Christian community in Aramoy in County Antrim. And they facilitated a meeting between Donaldson and Victim B in 1997. Now that's nearly 30 years ago.
Chapter 2: How did the Hoyes' testimony impact the trial?
He started the meeting by saying, Geoffrey Donaldson said, I know what this is about, I'm sorry, will you please forgive me? Um, And it wasn't specifically said at the meeting that the issue was one of child sexual abuse, but it was assumed by the Hoyes to be the case.
Donaldson told the court he was referring to something else, an unspecified issue for which he felt compelled to apologise to Bea. The verdict suggests the jury didn't believe him. And this is where Mick Clifford just asks the really straightforward questions that cut to the core of who Geoffrey Donaldson is. Why did Donaldson put his victims through a trial?
If he knew precisely what he had done to victim B, which he must have, if he was genuinely repentant about what he had done, why did he plead not guilty to the charges? Why did he put his victims through a trial? Why did he not make peace with his God and take the consequences with the prospect of at least some personal redemption down the line?
Chapter 3: What questions did Mick Clifford raise about Donaldson's actions?
Why did he, a man who always claimed to be deeply religious, give evidence under oath denying all of it? All the wise. The horrendous hypocrisy of it all. Deeply religious man in the eyes of his God. My arse. It's so disturbing. And the fact that he put those two women through a trial knowing that he was guilty. Why would he do that?
Why would he inflict more suffering on those poor women who'd suffered for so long? What happens?
Chapter 4: What was the case of Leo Hickey and its significance?
What happens? And maybe you get a hint of the measure of the man that is Geoffrey Donaldson by the fact that he gave evidence at the trial. So rarely in a criminal trial will a defendant give evidence, says Mick Clifford. The onus is on the prosecution to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Most experienced lawyers will heavily advise a defendant that the possible downside of exposure to questioning far outweighs any credit to be gained in appealing to a jury's collective wisdom. That didn't defer Donaldson. He felt he was above the law, did he? That these were just two little girls that he'd abused all those years ago.
He could get up there and everyone would believe him because he's a politician recognised by the Crown. They'd believe him that he was telling the truth.
Chapter 5: How did Louise O'Keefe challenge the Irish state?
Fuck off, Geoffrey Donaldson. And another monster of a man is Leo Hickey. Leo Hickey was the principal in Dunderrow School in the 60s and 70s down in rural Cork. He was found guilty In 1998, he was charged with 386 counts involving 21 girls. He pleaded guilty to 21 representative charges. Back then, he was sent to three years imprisonment.
And then one of the victims, Louise O'Keefe, decided that because the government were paying his wages and at a distance running the school, although there was a board of management, that the state was responsible and they should compensate her for the actions of Leo Hickey. So she brought the state to the European Court of Human Rights and in a landmark result,
Chapter 6: What are the implications of historical abuse cases in Ireland?
the European Court of Human Rights, found against the Irish state 12 years ago. And she got compensation reported to be around €300,000. And now her fellow pupils want to be compensated as well. But the state, as it often does, is taking its time. It's been intransigent. And it's forcing these victims to go through all of this again. Now, just do the maths on this. So,
Some of this abuse happened in the 60s. 60s.
Chapter 7: How does Dane Buckley's background influence his comedy?
So that's 60 years ago. To little boys and girls who were 8, 9, 10, they're in their 70s now, they've carried that with them throughout their lives. They've witnessed the man who perpetrated those heinous crimes been found guilty, sentenced to three years. That seems like a very small sentence to me. So that was in 1998, which is 30 years ago.
They followed Louise O'Keefe as she went to Europe to find the state partly responsible. And now they're back in the news again, having to tell their stories. Go through it all again for RTÉ News to hope that they will get in some way compensation. And it's not about the money. It's about being heard.
Chapter 8: What themes are explored in Dane's upcoming show?
It's about doing the right thing. About the state doing the right thing. And the people who suffered at the hands of this monster of a man. Feeling that the state is on their side. The state has their back. Yeah. What happens to men that they become monsters like this? I don't know. Anyway, I wish those people well. And I remember we spoke to Louise O'Keefe on Today FM back in the day.
She was a very strong woman. Because you're carrying all of that that comes with being abused. And then to have the courage to take on the state in Europe. Like, that's real courage. Yeah. Now, not important at all in the slightest, but a word that irks me is brace, as in a brace of goals. When I'm listening to a report of a football game and the reporter says,
You know, Troy Parrott scored a brace of goals for Ireland. I go, why can't you say just two? He scored two goals. I like hat-trick because hat-trick is an achievement. You know, it's three goals hat-trick. And hat-trick, I don't know, it just has a nice ring to it. Three goals hat-trick. They get the ball, all that. A brace of goals. Just say two goals. Just say two goals. They scored two goals.
What's with this brace thing? So it has irked me so much. And there's a lot of bracing going on today. They'll be saying that Mbappé scored a brace of goals for France against Iraq. Haaland scored a brace of goals for Norway against Senegal. And the little magician Messi scored a brace of goals for Argentina against, is it Austria? Yeah. Although he missed the penalty. He missed the penalty.
He has now broken the record for the most goals scored ever in World Cups as Messi. And it's early days, lads. It's early days. Those three boys are going to be fighting it out for the golden boot. It's mine. No, it's mine. It's mine. Mind you, I would back Holland in a scrap for the golden boot. What is he, six foot four or something like that? Unless he's five foot six.
I don't know what height Mbappe is. Anyway, back to brace. I decided I'd look up the etymology of the word brace. Where does it come from? Why are these lads on the radio? And there are many lads talking about braces of golds. So, it's a hunting term.
So, in English, brace was historically used by hunters and gamekeepers to denote a pair of hunted animals, such as a brace of pheasants, or a brace of hares, or a brace of rabbits. So then there was a shift in the 19th century by British match reporters and they would have been writing this because strikers are hunting for goals.
If they got two goals, you know, they got their prey, a brace of goals. That's where it came from. And I don't know why it irks me. I think it's because it's like they're in a special club that we're not involved in. So we can say a brace for goals because we know things. It's two goals, lads. Two goals. Two goals. Please, two goals.
It was two hours nearly last night that the French game was delayed because of weather. So if you stayed up for that, to see the team that might become the world champions, you would have been up very, very late. And there are a lot of people going around groggy today. Did you see Mbappé's brace of gold? Don't say brace to me. It was two goals. He scored two goals.
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