Kildare backs campaign
May 2, 2011 · By Jane Mullins
- Pictured above: Fr Shay Cullen of PREDA (left) accepting a signed Kildare team jersey from Eddie McCormack, Kildare Post columnist Glenn Ryan, and Anthony Rainbow at the gala ball. The jersey, sponsored by Tegral, was auctioned on the night, to raise funds.
Campaigning priest Fr Shay Cullen has called for zero tolerance laws to ensure children are protected against sexual crime. He is shocked that Irish child protection laws lag behind those of the Phillppines, where he works to safeguard children from sexual exploitation.
He was in Kildare in recent days to see his world- famous charity, PREDA, benefit from local generosit. The charity received over €20,000 from a gala ball held in Clane which was organised by his cousin, Bernie Walsh.
“I was shocked. I couldn’t believe soliciting a child and inducing a child to commit acts of abuse on him or her is not illegal. This is really simple, it is pimping, it is soliciting,” he added.
Cullen said laws in the Philippines, which he campaigned for, gave greater child protection than those in Ireland. Measures there mean an adult cannot be alone in a room or secluded area with a minor child who is not a relative.
“Protection in Ireland depends so much on the laws being tightened up. You need a strict code that has to be preventative in every way, not just punitive,” he continued.
The priest, who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 200l and 2002, signed copies of is latest book for guests at the ball in the Westgrove Hotel. He said the Clane event was the first time an Irish fund-raising function had been organised to boost PREDA funds.
He does benefit from individual donations, and those the charity has rescued from exploitation to start a new life also contribute. He has highlighted child sex slavery in the Philippines throughout the world.
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