Pretty Smiles and Pigtails – The Mary Boyle Mystery
Watching Gemma O’Doherty’s documentary on the missing child Mary Boyle nearly forty years ago is chilling, with interference at a political level with policing, and a suspect free to prey since on other vunerable young children.
This highlights the fact that abuse of children is most prevailent among the family and immediate circle, not just among the clergy, unlike the impression one would get from the media.
The documentary is at the bottom of the page.
She was just a girl, pretty smile and pigtails
She was just a girl the louder of the twins
She was just a girl of six summers and more to come
She was just a girl of childish giggles and impish grins
For whom the next day was an exciting adventure…
She was just a girl for whom Santy was still real
She was just a girl for whom life was just to play
She was just a girl for whom trust was a given
She was just a girl for whom tomorrow was a new day
But she was to have no tomorrow…
She was just a girl who had been out playing
She was just a girl visiting her grandparents place
She was just a girl living lives as children do
She was just a girl who disappeared without a trace.
All went searching…
She was just a girl for whom all the people were looking
She was just a girl whose sisters life was wrecked
She was just a girl who lost her life, people knew how they thought and talked
She was just a girl who was unimportant unlike the suspect
So said the phonecall to the Guards.
Forty years and counting, forty summers waiting
No fibre, no clothing, no body, only tears
Forty years of interference, influence and indignant
No thought of other victims who keep silent from their fears.
Because most only think the church does that kind of thing.
Dead priests, dead boys, missing women and girls
Our island holds it secrets very well
The wrongdoers are free onto others to fo wrong
As bad are those who know and refuse to tell.
Remember… she was just a girl…
This is Gemma O’Doherty’s documentary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vGORoCbpXw