BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
By Kevin Cullen, Globe Staff | October 17, 2005
They're fanning out to pubs and social clubs, anywhere the Irish gather in Boston. They're spreading the word about an effort to provide compensation for children who were abused at Catholic orphanages and reform schools back in Ireland -- children who may later have moved to America and settled in Boston.
Advocates for those abused believe the Irish government has done too little to let those living abroad know about the compensation available, so they are dropping off fliers and talking to Irish natives themselves.
Fewer than 3 percent of about 8,000 claims of abuse suffered at the institutions, which were run by Roman Catholic religious orders in Ireland, have come from people living in the United States.
''It is nothing short of a scandal that so few applications have come from places like Boston, which has such a large Irish community, and from the United States as a whole," said Tony Treacy, a founding member of the County Cork-based group Right of Place, which helps victims of institutional abuse. Treacy was first here two years ago, holding community meetings about the effort.