Revelations of a So Called Paranoid Schizophrenic.
By Michael Gillespie B Ed. B Sc. (Econ) Dip Ed D.A.S.E. M.A. (Ed)
Revelations are now fashionable. First there were the revelations about clerical abuse in Dublin. Then there were revelations about Gerry’s paedophile brother. This was followed by revelations about Iris’s toy boy. As Oscar Wilde put it --- it is better to be dead than to be out of fashion--- since that is so I will join the fashion show and reveal all.
In the late 1970ties I was the elected president of the Irish National Teacher’s Organisation in Belfast. At that time I worked as a teacher of mathematics in La Salle Secondary School Edenmore Drive Andersonstown Belfast, a hard line republican district, during the height of the troubles.
In my capacity as union president it was brought to my attention by Jim Purvis (deceased) and who was the school representative of the National Association of Schoolmasters that it was being said that Brother Andrew who was the school v ice principal was in the IRA and was recruiting sixth formers into the junior wing of the I R A – the Fianna. Jim and my self discussed this but decided we could do nothing about it as we lacked evidence.
Some time after this discussion I was in my classroom when rifle shots rang out close to my room. These shots were directed at the British Army Base that was sited close to the school grounds. From my window I saw two young men running at full tilt through the school grounds. They climbed over a gate and vanished into the estate. What puzzled me about the two was that while it was obvious they had fired the shots they didn’t carry guns so where had these gone? The guns seemed to have vanished within the school grounds. But I recognised the two young men as I had often seen them talking to Brother Andrew in the school foyer.
For me this gave substance to the N A S concerns about Br Andrew so as Jim Purvis was off sick I went to Brother Cornelius who was school principal and said to him that I was told Brother Andrew was in the I R A and because of that he should be sacked as a teacher and dismissed from the La Salle Order. Brother Cornelius laughed at this and told me I was imagining things about Br Andrew. I didn’t know how to deal with that so the matter was dropped.
Another incident in the school convinced me that Br Cornelius was sympathetic to the prevailing violence. During the school break the pupils would leave the school grounds and stone the army base with Br Andrew standing at the school gate looking on. The military would reply with rubber bullets and a riot would ensue. After lunch the pupils would return to afternoon class on a high from rioting and were unteachable. Concerned about this I proposed to Br Cornelius that the pupils be confined to the school grounds during lunch and be supervised by the staff. I assured him he would have union backing in doing that. Br Cornelius replied that the stoning of the army base was a matter for the parents and had nothing to do with him. Because of this I regarded Cornelius as being sympathetic to pupil violence.
Cornelius was also a unionphobe. In the school there was wide spread disquiet over the holding of posts of responsibility. Cornelius farmed these out. Who were given these posts was top secret and it was the belief in the school that the brothers on the staff got the lion’s share. One day after class a teacher called Gerry Mc Givern came to my room and showed me a list of post holders and claimed the majority of the list was brothers. He insisted the union do something about it. I said I would raise the matter with Cornelius. I did so and Cornelius flew into a temper. He accused me of questioning his integrity. I explained I wasn’t questioning his integrity but was re questing information that was of importance to the union members. Cornelius asked who is behind this. I replied people in the union. Cornelius replied these people are troublemakers. It’s your duty as a senior member of the union to put your foot on their necks and crush them. I told him it was my duty to represent the interests of the members and if a list of post holders were put on the staffroom notice board that would satisfy the members. Cornelius seemed to agree to this. Some time later I was told Cornelius had put a notice in the staffroom stood beside it a few minutes and then took it down. The brothers didn’t like unions; the rules of the order forbade them to join a union but when unions negotiated a pay rise the brothers didn’t turn the pay rise down. While one shouldn’t speak ill of the dead nevertheless the staff didn’t like Cornelius. He had the reputation of being crooked and twisted in his dealings with people and of being as vicious and tricky as a boxful of ferrets.
At this time I was seconded from teaching in La Salle by the Department of Education in Bangor to do research in education at the Faculty of Education Q U B. At Christmas I was invited to attend a staff party. At the party Bro Aiden accosted me in this way: -
“ Mick you think because you are a union president you can take on the brothers. You must understand the brothers have a house in every capital in the world with the exception of Moscow. The brothers can’t be beaten. You will be made to suffer for taking us on.”
I explained I was simply doing my job as union president, as the job ought job ought to be done.
At the same party Mr Trainor (I think his name was) who was a member of Sinn Fein accosted me like this: -
“ Take my advice split with Andersonstown”
Me “ Why should I do that?”
“ Mick, You’re not welcome: don’t come back. Take my advice.”
I didn’t pay much heed to this at the time but later I found this conversation was prophetic.
On returning to work in La Salle I found I had been moved from my classroom in the main school building to a dilapidated hut with broken windows in the school grounds. This was the standard punishment for teachers the brothers disapproved of. In the corner of the room was a pile of dog-eared out of date maths textbooks. I didn’t teach from a text like that but by using apparatus and teaching materials which I had devised myself and which conformed to the recommendations given by the Faculty of Education in the teaching of mathematics to pupils of lesser ability. When I looked for this material in my former classroom it was nowhere to be found. I went to Br Cornelius about this to be told he knew nothing about teaching materials. I went to the vice principal that was a layman and enquired from him. He knew nothing either I asked him why I had been moved from my classroom to be told the school had been reorganised in my absence and I was part of the reorganisation. This teacher who was also an I.N.T.O. member and a Brothers “Yes man” laid into me about how I was handling union affairs in the school and accused me of giving the union a bad name.
I wrote to the Northern Secretary of the I N T O asking for help. I met Gerry Quigley in his office in Belfast. He was unsympathetic and unhelpful. It was clear he was reluctant to get involved in a dispute with Catholic clerics. This is reminiscent of the reluctance of the Garda to investigate Catholic clerics involved in child abuse. In all of this I was left with no other option but to resign as a teacher and leave La Salle and Andersonstown. I left in the knowledge that lay men who had the audacity to stand up to Catholic clerics and treat them as equals would be done down and got rid of.
But my troubles didn’t end there; in fact they were only beginning. During the summer after my resignation I sat at home demoralised and dispirited thinking deeply about myself my family and my future. I knew I was now finished with teaching for good in any shape or form. When I was a student in Belfast studying English I wanted to devote my life to writing but I married got a family a house and mortgage so my writing ambitions were abandoned. During that summer I decided to return to writing and take as my writing theme ---The Irish Problem and its Solution--. I began turning this over in my mind and it became clear to me that what Ireland now needed was a new written constitution expressed in the National Government of Ireland Act. In the privacy I began working on this but other things were happening. I was now the victim of nuisance phone calls. My phone would ring every two hours beginning at 6am and ending at 10pm. When I answered the phone the caller wouldn’t speak or would give heavy breathing, or would laugh for as long as I kept the line open. This kept going for some time. One afternoon the phone rang at two o clock on a Friday, I expected the usual treatment but to my surprise a voice answered. The person said he was called Brown and was the executor of my wife’s fathers will. He asked me to speak to my wife. I said she was out but I would take message. He said he would call back later and then became very friendly talking to me about Castlederg where I came from. Then out of the blue he said ---“ There are two men upstairs who would like to talk to you.” I said “Put the men on the phone and I’ll talk to them” The man replied --- The men aren’t in at the moment. I said—“When will they be in?” The man replied ---“They’ll be in on Monday” I said—“ Give me your phone number and Ill call you back” The man gave me his phone number. I called back on Monday but when I stated my business I was answered in a cold voice ---“ I know nothing about men upstairs. I know nothing about that.” – and he hung up. I called him back a number of times but when he heard my voice he hung up. I told my wife about this and she drove to Derry to investigate. When she returned she told me the man had told her he didn’t call and to tell me not to call him about men upstairs. I said to my wife this man is lying. My wife said—“ This is a very decent man who is a friend of our family and wouldn’t lie” At this time there were reports in the press about a dirty tricks campaign between the I R A and the Army. I felt that in this I was the victim of some sort of dirty trick because after the phone call about men upstairs the nuisance calls stopped.
However my wife went to a psychiatrist call Dr Kerr. I don’t know what my wife said to Dr Kerr but whatever it was he told her that this was a clear case of paranoid schizophrenia. How Dr Kerr arrived at this diagnosis is a puzzle to me because I have never talked to or met this doctor in my life.
Heeding the doctor my wife pressurised me into going into the psychiatric clinic Windsor House. I agreed to go because in there I hoped to clear my name of mental illness. In Windsor House I talked to a very young lady doctor called Dr Holmes This lady wasn’t a psychiatrist but was a trainee G P. She was shortly to be married and no doubt she was more interested in that than in me. She asked me a lot of silly questions which she read from a sheet such as ---was I hearing voices –did I feel I was being followed –did I think people were reading my thoughts—did I feel people were against me. To this I said I didn’t think people were against me but I knew the Brothers were against me. She asked me to talk about that and I gave her a brief account of my teaching experience in La Salle. I told her I had been getting nuisance phone calls and talked about that. The doctor asked me who was making these calls and I told her I had no idea. She then suggested to me that maybe these brothers are making the calls. I said I had no evidence of that. She then suggested that maybe pupils were making the calls. I said I felt sure adults were making the calls.
The lady then asked me what I was doing with myself. I told her I was working on the solution to the Irish problem. She asked me to talk about that. I explained that in my opinion Ireland now requires the National Government of Ireland Act to give the whole country a written agreed constitution. The constitution should recognise two governments for the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain. This would require the Crown as head of state and two flags. The union Jack for Great Britain and a new flag for Ireland along with two anthems God Save the Queen for Great Britain and a new anthem for Ireland. That’s as far as I’ve got but the Act will require much more than that. The doctor then asked---What is prompting you to do this? I replied---- an inner voice. A voice! The doctor exclaimed. I replied--- I’m not speaking literally; I’m speaking metaphorically. It’s a sort of voice of conscience. The doctor asked me --- What would the Dublin government think of your politics? I said ---I couldn’t care tupence what the Dublin government thought of it. Dr Holmes then finished off like this: -
“I have to tell you are mentally ill. I have to tell you, you will have to come into Windsor House where you will be cured with wonder drugs. My personal opinion is whatever it is that has being going on between you and these brothers has caused a subconscious upheaval in your mind.”
I asked her –what is a mental illness? But she didn’t reply. My impression was that Dr Holmes had been instructed to diagnose mental illness by someone else higher up and the talk was a mere formality. I went home and told my wife I had no intention of going into Windsor as that was a farce as I wasn’t mentally ill. That evening I was surprised to see a police Landrover stop by my home and when I answered the door I found four policemen standing there. They said they were there to escort me into Windsor House so I had no option but to go there.
In Windsor I sat there for days on end bored to tears. I was given an injection of Depixol and sent home. At home my physical condition deteriorated. My limbs trembled and I dribbled from the mouth until my shirtfront became sodden with saliva. My sister came to visit and became alarmed because she thought I was suffering from Parkinson’s disease. She went to Windsor house and had the injections stopped. After this I returned to normal and when I did I began again to work on the Act. My wife now saw this as a mental illness so she again signed me back into Windsor House. This time I was examined by Professor Fenton as follows: -
Prof. “What are you doing with yourself?”
Me “ I’m working on the Irish Problem.”
Prof. “Are you an historian?”
Me “ No”
Prof. “ Are you a politician?”
Me “ No”
Prof “ You’re not qualified to do what you are doing.”
Me “ I’ve a good understanding of Irish history. I’ve a good understanding of Irish politics. I grew up in the heart of the Irish countryside and have a good understanding of the Irish people. That qualifies me to do what I’m doing.”
Prof “ What does a rolling stone gathers no moss mean to you?”
Me “ It means one shouldn’t be a jack of all trades one should specialise.”
Prof “ What does people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones mean to you?”
Me “ It means if one is in a vulnerable position one shouldn’t mount an attack”
Prof “ What do you want to do with your life?”
Me “ I would like to work on the Irish problem with like minded people.”
Prof “ Politics has taken you over.”
The professor then opened the door and two nurses walked in. Each took hold of me by an arm and I was physically escorted to an ambulance outside with the engine running. One nurse got into the ambulance with me and I asked him where we were going and was told I was being sectioned in Rathlin. I knew then it was a foregone conclusion that I was mentally ill before I talked to the professor and my talk with him was a sham.
RATHLIN
In Rathlin I was offered a drug called Largactil which I refused saying I wasn’t mentally ill. In retaliation my clothes were confiscated and I had to wear pyjamas and walk on my bare feet. I protested but was told this was to impress upon me that I was very sick with political ideas and sick people needed medication. Eventually to get my clothes back I accepted Largactil. In reaction to this drug my body swelled up so that my eyes became slits and my lips became thick. I was taken off this drug and put on Meleril. This drug made me dysfunctional.
I was called into Dr Lyon’s office and had this conversation: -
Dr “ What are you working at.”
Me “ I’m writing the National Government of Ireland Act.”
Dr “ Do you not realise that anything you write is rubbish.”
Me “ I realise that what I write is rational and sensible and is written in simple Queen’s English. Why am I being detained in Rathlin?”
Dr “ You’re suffering from schizophrenia.”
Me “What’s schizophrenia?”
Dr “ It’s a change in the chemistry of the brain.”
Me “ Is the change for the better or the worse?”
Dr “ It’s a change for the worse.”
Me “ The chemistry of my brain has changed for the better. What’s a change for the better called?”
Dr (No reply)
Me “ This drug I’m on has left me dysluncional.”
Dr “ Meleril is a good drug for women but a bad drug for men.”
Me “ If it’s a bad drug for men why was I put on it?”
Dr “ Largactil is the right drug for you but you’re reacting to it. I’ll put you on Orap.”
When in Rathlin I wrote to the family solicitor seeking legal help but he didn’t reply.
I was put on Orap and sent home but the drug made me sleepy and tired and I walked like a zombie. I now gave up working on the Act because if I did that my wife would sign me back into a clinic. But the Act remained clear in my mind and I kept thinking it through and turning it over in my mind.
Unknown to me my wife talked to another psychiatrist called Dr Mc Ewan. He made an entry in my medical notes to the effect that he was the first to diagnose schizophrenia on my part but I don’t think that is correct. This doctor is a man I’ve never talked to, or met in my life so how he could diagnose any thing about me remains a mystery. However my wife told me she had talked to Dr Mc Ewan and he had instructed her not to talk to me, to ignore everything I said and to avoid me. My wife did this and we became strangers living under the one roof.
During this time I wasted precious years of my life making futile attempts to find work in management of some sort. Most of my applications came to nothing or were ignored. He stock response was that my qualifications and experience suited me to education but when it came to education I didn’t want to know. I had got a scunner of education with the brothers
Frustrated I began writing, not on the Act I daren’t do that, so I wrote a novel titled –Seamus the Orangeman. This was a story about a man who was in love with two women a Catholic and a protestant. I sent the novel to a publisher but they gave it the thumbs down saying it was a 19th century novel too long and too slow. I told Dr Lyons I had written a novel. He said he wanted to read it. I gave it to him requesting he discuss it with me but he never did.
Throwing caution to the winds I began once more to work on the National Government of Ireland Act but when I did that my wife signed me back into Windsor House. Dr Cooper came to my home and offered to drive me into the clinic but I refused saying I wasn’t mentally ill. A few hours’ later police arrived at my door and I was escorted into Windsor House against my wishes.
Windsor House
In the clinic as was now the norm I was asked to go on medication and I refused stating I wasn’t ill but I put this proposition to Dr Cooper: -
“If you will give me evidence that I am mentally ill in what I have said or done in your presence that will stand up in a court of law I will go on medication.”
Dr Cooper said he would look into that. Later that day I was called to Dr Cox office and this conversation followed: -
Dr “ What would you like to talk to me about?”
Me “ I want to talk about how my diagnosis was made. Two doctors I’ve never met or talked to diagnosed me as a schizophrenic. In my understanding of medicine a doctor must first examine the patient before making a diagnosis. This wasn’t done in my case so the diagnosis is invalid. I want something done about that.
Dr “ What else do you want to talk about?”
Me “ I want to talk about professor Fenton. When the professor talked to me he asked me ---What does a rolling stone gathers no moss and people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones mean to me. Suppose I put that question to a class of 25 ten year olds I would end up with 25 different answers. Would that mean I’ve a class of 25 mentally ill ten year olds”
The doctor laughed at this and went on: -
“ What else do you wish to talk about?”
Me “ Nothing else”
Dr “ What are your politics?”
Me “ My politics are those of Federal Unionism – Early Sinn Fein”
Dr “ Explain”
I explained this to the doctor in not more than five minutes.
The following morning I was called to Dr Cooper’s office and to my surprise Dr Cox was sitting there. Dr Cooper spoke: -
“ I’m now in a position to give you evidence you are mentally ill. You talked to me in your home about Federal Unionism – Early Sinn Fein for an hour and a half”
I called Dr Cooper a liar and told him Dr Cox had told him that.
Dr Cooper replied: - “No one calls me a liar. I’ve notes to that effect.”
This time I called Dr Cooper aliar and left his office. Dr Cooper shouted after me: -
“ Better be careful what you call me. I can sue.”
After this, a nurse handed me a leaflet, which stated I could have my rights defended by: -
(1) The Mental Health Tribunal
(2) The Northern Ireland mental Health Commission.
I wrote to these about my treatment by Dr Cooper and Dr Cox. A tribunal was set upaealth Health and solicitor put my case. The Chairman explained he was empowered to release or continue my detention. He ruled it was Dr Cooper’s word against mine and since Dr Cooper was a medical professional he ruled that I remained sectioned under the care of Dr Cooper.
I also appealed to the Mental Health to be told they had no authority to contradict a psychiatrist so I remained sectioned.
After this Dr Cooper told me his team would rehabilitate me back into society and I would be transferred to Purdysburn to be seen to by Dr Dargan. I met Dr Dargan and told her as I told all doctors I wasn’t mentally ill and in Purdysburn I would be put in with deeply disturbed people. Dr Dargan assured me the patients in Purdysburn were the same as the patients in Windsor so I was taken to the Bush clinic in Purdysburn against my wishes.
Bush
In Bush I was shocked to find myself in the presence of deeply disturbed people as I feared. There were two women who had attempted self-immolation, a woman who talked into my face in a jumbled word salad, and a man who had a lobotomy, which had gone wrong and was a walking vegetable, and a man who wrote into a jotter in a spidery indecipherable script. The nursing staff was very tough. The sleeping quarters were an open dorm with cubicles. One patient repeatedly woke up the entire dorm at 3 o’ clock in the morning preaching about the Lord Jesus and damnation. I complained about this to sister Anderson so she kindly gave me a private room where I could have uninterrupted nights sleep. In the privacy of this room I got down to writing The National Government of Ireland Act which I had now thought through and of which I had a clear picture. I worked from 9 to 5 and completed the work in less than a fortnight, the Act running to over 20,000 words.
When I had this completed I was called to Dr Dargan’s office for an assessment. This consisted of a series of chitchats of the kind one might find at a women’s coffee morning. When this charade was complete Dr Dargan told me she assessed me as a very pragmatic person. I asked her was there anything else and she told me that was all.
Encouraged by this I gave her a copy of the Act I had written and asked her to assess that and discuss it but that was the last I heard from her. Later when I was reading my medical notes, I found a write up of me made by Dr Dargan, which began--- Mr Gillespie is a 54-year-old paranoid schizophrenic. In this description Dr Dargan was “toeing the party line” and wasn’t prepared to deviate. If she had stuck to her guns she should have written – Mr Gillespie is a very pragmatic person. She also misread the Act because she wrote – he intends to form a political party and has written a constitution for it. If she had discussed the Act I would have told her that was not my intention at all.
But as well as Dr Dargan there were other people to be coped with in Bush. There was a nurse called Nicola (I think). She kept pressurising me to go on medication. She may have been instructed to do that. Fed up with this I said to her ----Your wasting your time. No medication. I’m not ill. Nicola told me--- You are mentally ill; it says so in your notes. I asked---What does it say in my notes? Nicola replied --- It says you imagined the I R A were in your school. That’s mental illness. I retorted --- Andrew the vice principal was in the IRA. That is fact. There was an Official I R A member of staff who was beaten up by the provisionals in the school. Fact. A young teacher came on to the staff whose father was the head of the I R A in Andersonstown. He was probably in the I R A but there was no proof. In the teachers union in Belfast of which I was president there was a number of Official I R A as members. All of that is hard fact and has nothing to do with my imagination. You should use your notes as toilet paper. Nicola walked away and never spoke to me again.
On saying to Nicola that Andrew was in the IR A that was something of which I was now certain. After leaving Rathlin I was in the university common room having a pint when I met three principal teachers from West Belfast. I told them I had been a teacher in La Salle. One of them asked---- Was I there in Andrew’s time and did I know Andrew was active in the I R A. I said--- I had an idea of that. The principal said – When it got to the ears of the Bishop he had Andrew moved to Cork because of the scandal it would cause to the church. I left the common room satisfied that Andrew’s I R A membership was fact but the principal’s story was borne out by another incident in the school when I was there. Andrew suddenly left the school over night. The spin put on his sudden departure by the Brothers was that he had gone to Cork on a career move. A Sinn Fein delegation left the school to visit Andrew in Cork. They came back with the story that they had found Andrew in acute distress and in tears. So this would indicate there was more to Andrew’s midnight flit than a simple career move.
But the way in which I was misrepresented in psychiatry can be illustrated further. When in Bush I was under the care of Dr Browne. My sister wrote to him asking him to explain in what way I was mentally ill. H replied with the pronouncement that I was suffering from aural hallucinations with no evidence given to support the pronouncement. I know I have never from hallucinations of any sort in the same way, as I know the sky is blue. So how Dr Browne arrived at this conclusion simply baffles me.
But Dr Browne misrepresented me in yet another way. After I had written the Act I had it typed by a typist. I hadn’t paid her and to do so I went to sister’s office to get my chequebook to post the typist a cheque. Sister told me I wasn’t allowed to write cheques as Dr Browne had declared me incapable of managing my own affairs. This came as a bolt from the blue. I remonstrated with sister but to no avail. After this a pest of a nurse kept offering to teach me to count money now that I was incapable. A nurse took me into the kitchen and showed me how to cook spaghetti bolognaise but I was probably a better cook than the nurse.
This misrepresentation runs through my medical notes, which I read many years after I left Bush. It states baldly in my notes that I was receiving messages from the television. Just as I know the sky is blue I know I’ve never received messages from the television so how this rubbish got into my notes is beyond me. My notes also contain a letter written by my wife to Dr Lyons in which she writes that I was claiming to be the saviour of Ireland. I have never said the likes to my wife or anyone else. My wife knew I was writing an Act that had to do with Ireland and that is the misrepresentation she put on that. The doctors who put this claptrap into my notes without first checking it out with me for authenticity behaved with reckless irresponsibility.
My stay in Bush ended like this. I was called into Dr Browne’s office. He asked me to go on medication. I refused. He then said--- I will see to it you go on medication. Dr Browne opened the office door and in walked Sister Anderson carrying a syringe in an enamel tray followed by six burly male nurses. The male nurses marched me out of the office and brought me to my room. There my trousers and underpants were pulled down and sister gave me an injection in the buttock. I was then placed on suicide watch and a male nurse followed me everywhere even when I went into the toilet. In a few days Dr Browne told me to go home. I went home and explained to my three sons I was now returning. They were adamant they wouldn’t allow me back as they weren’t prepared to live with a schizophrenic. I said ---It would be worse if they had been told I had cancer. They said they could live with cancer but not with a schizophrenic. They told me if I dared to come into the home they would throw me out. I do not blame my sons for that. I blame Drs Kerr, Mc Ewan, Cooper and Brown as the originators and perpetuators of this bogus diagnosis.
I was now faced with the option of going on the streets. I returned to Bush and told Dr Browne how I had been received in my home. He said a social worker would find me living accommodation but in the meantime I would live in a home for the mentally ill called St Judes on the Ormeau Road. In there I contacted a solicitor and I divorced my wife on the legal grounds that we were living as strangers. However my real reason for divorce was that my wife in her silence had connived in my expulsion from my home. A social worker told me she had found me living accommodation in a bed-sit in the Sandy Row. I asked her would she live in a bed-sit; she said --no—so I said ----neither would I.
My sister who lives in Derry came to my rescue and took me into her home. In Derry I began looking for suitable accommodation. In my divorce I had been awarded sufficient funding to buy a small bungalow where I now live. My sister advised me to follow up the case of psychiatric illness with psychiatrists in Derry. I contacted Rossdowney clinic and talked to psychiatrists there and they assured me that mentally I was fine with no evidence of mental illness. Dr Brady said he wouldn’t treat a patient as I had been treated in Belfast. He gave me a complaints leaflet and suggested I make a formal complaint. He also gave me a written submission for the Belfast Health Trust as follows: -
Mr Gillespie was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in Belfast before he attended us. He has a number of complaints about his treatment there and disputes the basis on which the diagnosis was made. Since attending our services Mr Gillespie has been mentally well displaying no psychotic symptoms.
I made a formal complaint to the Belfast Trust requesting that my medical notes be changed. I met Dr Mc Donald in Belfast and he told me that to change medical notes is against the law. I then asked that the history of the business in clinics in Belfast be investigated. Dr Mc Donald told me that since the events had taken place a long time ago an investigation wouldn’t be possible.
I then contacted the Ombudsman’s office outlining my complaint to be told that their legislation isn’t retrospective so nothing could be done.
I contacted the N Ireland Mental Health Commission to be told the Commission doesn’t have the authority to challenge a psychiatrist’s diagnosis.
I contacted all politicians in Derry. They were sympathetic but ineffectual.
I sought legal advice but was told that since a period of more than three years had elapsed since the offence nothing could be done legally.
I still continued to press my complaint to the Belfast Trust to Mairead Mitchell and Dr Mc Donald. They have suggested that an addendum be added to my notes recording that that my medical notes have been challenged but the nature of this addendum is still not agreed. I want a statement that the original diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia was made by Drs Kerr and McEwan whom I’ve never met so the diagnosis is unsafe. The Trust’s representatives won’t accept this. They want the statement to read that while I’m disputing the diagnosis medical professionals made it. This isn’t acceptable to me as it is clear to me the doctors in question didn’t act professionally in my case.
In all of this I’m supported by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights who question the validity of psychiatry as an unscientific bogus branch of medicine. In my experience psychiatry is a concoction of opinion that has been abused in the Soviet Union where dissidents were locked away in lunatic asylums, declared schizophrenic and coshed with drugs. This practice is still used in China, I understand. In this country drugs are abused in old peoples homes and in my case in clinics. Psychiatry is something to be wary of.
I now live in Derry no longer joined at the hip in an unholy wedlock to a gullible wife who is bamboozled by doctors. I am now free to write what I want, how I want with no one to sign me into a psychiatric clinic because the person doesn’t agree with or approve of what I’m doing.
In 2007 I brought out a semi autobiographic novel titled --- THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE---, which is set in a psychiatric clinic in Belfast and gives an account of a patient who writes The National Government of Ireland Act. I have a second novel coming out in early 2010 titled --- THE RAPE OF VIRGIN MUNCHINDUN – where Munchindun is a fictional district in Tyrone and tells the story of the tragic love of two gay men. This novel underscores the sickness of sectarianism and the malignancy of bigotry. I have completed the first draft of the third novel of this trilogy titled-- SIZE MATTERS. This novel revisits The National Government of Ireland Act but gives a satirical account of the Irish Problem. Hopefully this book will be out in Autumn 2010. These books are published by Authorhouse and are obtainable from Amazon Books on the Internet or through a bookstore. I also maintain a blog on the Internet on the theme – The Irish Problem-- that is read in California. www.blogstoday.co.uk/Irishproblemsolved.blog I also contribute letters to the papers on politics and education.
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Racism in These Islands.It could be that the British National Party has touched a raw nerve in the body of British and Irish politics. It is reckoned that the B.N.P. could obtain a vote of 22% in a British election. This issue has to do with a wide spread concern in working class areas due to an influx of new wave immigrants into their midst. There are those in Belfast and Derry who have been out protesting about the racism of the B.N.P. Such protestors should look at racism on their own Ulster doorstep first. Is such fear of new wave immigration real or imaginary? The reality of the concern can be paralleled at home in Irish history. In the 16th century a people of different race, culture, religion and language came to Ireland in the plantation of Ulster. The whirlwind of this was reaped in the 20th century in a partitioned island, over 30 years of intercommunal (racist) violence and in the racist sectarian ghettoes of Belfast and Derry and elsewhere. This is the historic fruit of introducing an immigrant population into a country. But Irish history has another parallel. The Normans came to Ireland uninvited and settled here but in that case all was well in the long term because the Normans integrated with the native Irish and became “more Irish than the Irish themselves” This immigration was to the benefit of Ireland.If the new wave immigrants to G.B. and Ireland become as British as the British themselves and as Irish as the Irish themselves then the migration will be of benefit to all. It would seem that the majority of new wave immigrants see themselves in that way. If however there are some who wish to live apart and separate from the indigenous people, as the Ulster planters opted to do, for the future health of these islands such people should be excluded. Michael Gillespie. Derry
4 Rotherwood Drive Tel 028 71 285 807 Email macgil@hotmail.co.uk
Killfennan
L’Derry
N. Ireland
BT47 5SY
13/July/ 09
Dear Mr Durkan
I have taken courage and am making bold to write to you on a complex political theme; the theme is the reform of the United Kingdom Constitution as the only route out of the inherent violence of N. Ireland. The violence of this 12th prompts this.
I was formerly a teacher but I retired from that to devote my energies to work on the Irish problem and its solution. On that theme I have published a novel with Authorhouse titled THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE. I have a second novel coming out shortly on the same theme titled THE RAPE OF VIRGIN MUNCHINDUN where Munchindun is a fictional district in Tyrone. I also maintain an extensive blog on this theme on: -
www.blogstoday.co.uk/irishproblemsolved.blog
This blog is read as far afield as California. My version of the National Government of Ireland Act, which is central to this letter, can be found in the novel THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE.
My political views in this writing are personal but the views are sincerely held. In terms of the politics of this island I am not a Nationalist, Republican or Union Jack Unionist. These are now past their use by date and should be disposed of, and replaced by the new improved concept of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn. In my reading of Irish political history initially Arthur Griffiths who founded Sinn Fein in 1904, wanted a government for Ireland with a dual monarchy. When this is examined in depth Early Sinn Fein was federal unionist and if Griffith’s initial ideas had been developed with patience and hadn’t been swept away by the sectarian violence of 1916 Ireland today would be united under the Crown, a nation similar to Canada. But that, I admit is an “if only” of Irish history. 1916 changed things but the changes were for the worse.
Two things have prompted me to write to you. As noted there is the upsurge in violence during the current 12th demonstrations. Windbags on the media and in the press have roundly condemned this but that is a waste of time. Violence is endemic in Northern Ireland. Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein can ask and answer the question ---“Why is this?”
My second reason for writing has to do with a quote of Sir Reg Empey taken from the Belfast Telegraph, which goes like this: -
“My parties role in the Belfast Agreement is to free this country from the shackles that tied us all to sectarian based head counts and mutual distrust.”
The sentiment is fine and is to be applauded but he doesn’t say how to achieve this. Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein can supply the know-how in freeing us from the shackles of sectarianism and mutual mistrust.
To grasp the know-how one must understand Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein’s analysis of the problem. That concept identifies sectarianism as the sickness of Ireland (all of it) and the cause of the sickness can be traced to the U.K. constitution. This constitution is flawed in that it is undemocratic and unwritten and because it lacks the support of all of the people of N. Ireland it is imposed militarily on those who object to it. A purpose of the 12th demonstrations is to ram the constitution down the throats of those who object to it and a significant body of people find U.K. constitution objectionable, to wit the De Brun vote in the recent European election. The Orange Order can throw up a smoke screen of Protestant cultural expression (whatever protestant culture is) but the people aren’t fooled. The flaunting of Union Jacks on the streets and the making of union speeches at the field demonstrate that Orange Parades are about the imposition of the U.K. constitution on those who object to it.
Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein rejects dogma in politics and embraces secularism, which replaces political dogma with reason, logic and observation. The adoption of secularism and the rejection of political dogma in Ireland is another prerequisite in finding a solution to the Irish Problem.
Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein puts forward as basic to the solution of the Irish Problem, the reform of U.K. constitution in the written National Government of Ireland Act. In this way the existing unwritten undemocratic constitution can be changed from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain or vice versa. As it is now constituted N. Ireland is unstable and prone to communal violence. It is observable that there are two heads of state involved, two conflicting national flags being flown, two conflicting national anthems being sung and two conflicting national passports being travelled on. The state thus constituted is a state at war with itself and in such a state violence is endemic. Such a state requires a new written constitution expressed in the National Government of Ireland Act as follows: -
(a) One head of state: the reformed Crown whose constitutional duties in all Ireland are defined and clearly stated in writing in the Act.
(b) One National Flag. In the case of the National Government of Ireland Act the national flag would be The Royal Flag of Ireland. This flag should be the existing Tricolour with the Red Cross of St Patrick imposed on the white central panel of the tricolour along with the Crown and harp symbols in blue and with a shamrock symbol. This flag should be defined in the Act as The Royal Flag of Ireland which is at one and the same time, the National Flag of Ireland and the symbol of the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain or vice versa. The Union Jack should remain as the National Flag of Great Britain and be the symbol of The Federal Kingdom of Great Britain and the Sovereign Nation of Ireland. in Great Britain. Joining the two national flags together as one, is more sensible than trying to join Martin Mc Guinness and Peter Robinson together at the hip in the Assembly. These men symbolize irreconcilable constitutional positions and conflict. This is only one piece of the constitutional jigsaw. The version of the Act given in THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE runs to 20,000 words and attempts to deal with all aspects of life on this island.
©One National Anthem, which can be sung by all. There are many good songs in Ireland that would suit this.
(d)One National Passport written in Irish and English showing a picture of the Crown as head of state
(e) One central government in Dublin named Dail Eireann with legislative powers devolved to four Provincial Houses: -
The Ulster House
The Munster House
The Leinster House
The Connaugh House
All of that is part of the know-how of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein and in the National Government of Ireland Act a written constitution can be designed for Ireland that should be as acceptable to the Catholics of Kerry as to the Protestants of Derry. This is possible feasible and doable but to do it will require the restructuring of the political centre in Northern Ireland. In N. Ireland the political centre is fractured in three between the U.U.P. the S.D.L.P. and the Alliance Party. A single central party should be set up under the banner of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein. Such a party should take as its platform the reform of the U.K. constitution as outlined in this letter and have as its flag The Royal flag of Ireland. The party should make clear to all that it is united Ireland friendly, union friendly and Crown friendly. In that way the party is for all, is non-sectarian and crosses the communal divide.
I have also written to Ms Ruane minister for education not about politics: we are poles apart on politics but about education where we can communicate. The good lady gave me a written reply that was positive, well informed and at length In general she said her views on selection in education were not incompatible with mine. A copy of this article can be found at the blog address given at the beginning of this letter by scrolling down to page 3 to Selection at Eleven.
I would be most grateful if you would reply to this letter either by letter or by email in a positive informed and significant way. The views in this letter are sincerely put forward as the only way to a genuine peace in Ireland. The current so called peace is a bogus peace. You can show this letter to your colleagues in the party.
Yours Sincerely
Michael Gillespie B.Ed B.Sc(Econ) DipEd D.A.S.E. M.A.(Ed)
Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein