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It Suits a Narrative<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n by Rita Ann Higgins<\/em><\/p>\n It suits a narrative of the ‘big, bad state<\/em> Some applicants will never be happy We ration our compassion, We ration our compassion We are the keepers It\u2019s not that we want your pain We have oodles of it, So fill out that form and then fill another Don’t listen to the guy who said, Some applicants will never be happy Note: <\/em>Survivors of institutional child abuse in Ireland have been told that the state organisation tasked with supporting their health, housing and other needs is to wind down from 1 August 2018. <\/em><\/p>\n This poem was first published in Reading the Future: New Writing from Ireland: Celebrating 250 Years of Hodges Figgis.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It Suits a Narrative by Rita Ann Higgins It suits a narrative of the ‘big, bad stateand the ‘big bad religious congregations’,– Mary Higgins, CEO of Caranua…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":495,"featured_media":12680,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1660],"tags":[2186],"class_list":["post-12681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-2","tag-caranua"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/495"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
and the ‘big bad religious congregations’,<\/em>
– Mary Higgins, CEO of Caranua
The Irish Times, March 20th 2017.<\/p>\n
and grievances suit a narrative,
of the big bad church
and the big bad state
and the big bad building
with the big bad gate.<\/p>\n
while all ye say suits a narrative
of the big bad state.<\/p>\n
but we’ll give you a couch.
We ration our compassion
but we’ll give you new windows.<\/p>\n
of the churches\u2019 money.
As keepers we divvy and we pay
but not to you directly, we won’t give you money
but we ‘ll give you new teeth
a new radiator, a brand new funeral.
What more could you ask for?<\/p>\n
to be everlasting,
but by the same token
it suits a narrative for ye
to come on national radio and complain
and say we have no compassion.<\/p>\n
but we ration our compassion.
If we give you stuff without humiliating you
it will be no fun at all.<\/p>\n
and another and another
and one for your sister
and one for your brother
and while you\u2019re at it
fill one out for your mother.<\/p>\n
criminal records are given out
like holy communion to people in institutions.
We all know he stole an apple
otherwise why would he have been there?<\/p>\n
and its suits a narrative,
of the big bad church
and the big bad state
and the big bad building
with the big bad gate.<\/p>\n