'Distressing and unacceptable' treatment of our elderly slammed by Offaly man

THE recent RTE PrimeTime special exposing the neglect of elderly in some nursing has prompted a reader of the Tullamore Tribune to pen a letter to the paper's Editor.

Clara's Ronan Scully writes that what the RTE programme exposed "confirms our worst fears: in some of Ireland’s nursing homes, our most vulnerable citizens, the elderly, are enduring neglect, understaffing, and indignity that should shame us all. These scenes are not merely distressing; they are unacceptable. We cannot, and must not, turn away."

Mr Scully – who works with Self Help Africa, the Third World aid agency – is a regular columnist with the Tribune where he pens the popular Thought for the Week column.

His letter reds as follows:

Dear Editor,

With a heavy heart and a conscience deeply stirred, I write in response to the recent RTÉ Prime Time Investigates documentary. What was exposed confirms our worst fears: in some of Ireland’s nursing homes, our most vulnerable citizens, the elderly, are enduring neglect, understaffing, and indignity that should shame us all. These scenes are not merely distressing; they are unacceptable. We cannot, and must not, turn away.

How have we allowed this to happen in a country that prides itself on family, community, and reverence for those who came before us? These men and women helped build the Ireland we know today. They carried us through hardship with strength, generosity, and hope. And yet now, too many of them face their final years in silence, behind closed doors, abandoned and unseen. This is not just a social failure, it is a moral crisis.

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There’s a parable that has never left me: in The Wooden Bowl, a frail grandfather is made to eat separately from the family using a rough crude wooden bowl. When the grandchild begins carving one for his own parents, the lesson is clear—how we treat our elders today is the legacy we leave for our children. That story is not about the past. It is about us, right now.

I’ve seen glimpses of who we truly are. When my mother fell, my young daughters instinctively rushed to help her, moved by nothing but love and compassion. No one told them what to do, it came naturally. That is the spirit we need to nurture in every corner of our society. But today, too many elderly people suffer alone, without a hand to hold or a voice to advocate for them. Their loneliness should haunt us into action.

As Mother Teresa said, “The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.” That poverty exists here, in our homes and institutions, growing quietly while we look the other way.

This is not a time for polite outrage. It is a time for action that is urgent, sustained, and rooted in justice. We must demand real reform: significantly increased funding for nursing homes and home care; adequate staffing and fair wages for carers; mandatory, unannounced inspections; and a cultural shift that sees older people not as burdens, but as full human beings deserving of all human dignity and human rights.

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Compassion is not an extra. It is the foundation of a just and humane society.

Let us reimagine care not as charity but as justice. Picture an Ireland where no one dies alone, where every elder is honoured, protected, and cherished. A country where the end of life is met with presence, not abandonment. We can build that Ireland, but only if we choose to.

Because if we lose our care for the elderly, we lose more than them. We lose a part of ourselves. We lose our humanity.

Let this be the moment we refuse to stay silent. Let us stand together, for those who once stood tall for us. Our elders deserve nothing less. It is not too late to choose dignity, to choose compassion, and to remember who we are.

Yours sincerely,

Ronan Scully,

Charlestown,

Clara,

Co. Offaly