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	Abuse Motion Goes Some Way to Righting Wrongs Belfast Telegraph November 2, 2009 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/abuse-motion-goes-some-way-to-righting-wrongs-14547228.html The Assembly today debates a motion calling for an assessment of the extent of child-abuse in church institutions here. Frances Reilly was abused in a Belfast convent A journalist phoned me for a reaction when the Ryan Report into the abuse of children and young people by the Catholic Church in Ireland came out earlier this year and I said that I was pleased that someone had finally got the facts out. It has after all been such a long time for victims like me not to be believed. My story involves suffering harsh to sadistic treatment at the hands of the nuns, the Poor Sisters of Nazareth in the convent off the Ormeau Road in Belfast. The details, which formed the basis of my book, Suffer the Little Children, included being locked in cupboards for hours and bathed in cold baths full of Jeyes fluid. That stung the skin and to this day I can't smell it without suffering nausea and flashbacks. Once, I wet myself in the cupboard and when the nun returned, she used me as a mop to wipe up the evidence. At the time I wrote about the abuse, a lot of people didn't want to believe it was true. I am sure that people knew what was going on in the Church for years, but it was never talked about in the 1960s and 1970s. These women were referred to as the 'good sisters' in those days, so you couldn't criticise them. The Church was felt to be above the law. It wasn't until my youngest son Christopher left home in 1997 that I faced up to the effect this cruelty had had on me. You have to keep strong for your children, but once I was by myself, the past surfaced and I spent days crying. Then came panic attacks and agoraphobia; I found myself hearing the nuns' voices telling me, "You're nothing. You belong in the gutter" as I tried to get out of the front door. Eventually, I decided to take the order to court and found myself a solicitor near where I now live in Colchester in Essex. I still wasn't able to talk about my experiences easily, so I began to write them down for the police and my solicitor and that was how the book began. Fortunately, the Church allowed me to publish it although I was told not to discuss the court case. The Church settled out of court, which seems an admission of responsibility if not of guilt. The private members' motion being debated in Stormont today, which asks for this institutional abuse "to be subject to criminal law" and mentions an assessment of the extent of it as well as the need for counselling, goes some way to righting the wrongs. If it leads to the equivalent of the Ryan Report in Northern Ireland, that will be good. Yet the government in Dublin denies responsibility, although they must have been aware of the ill-treatment as some government bodies would have sent children to be looked after in Church institutions. I am 55 now and nothing can bring my childhood back. But I feel there has not been any proper form of justice or real apology yet. In a documentary on BBC Northern Ireland's Spotlight, the order which ran Nazareth House produced a Sister Victoire to answer criticism. She knew nothing about what had gone on, was not involved and, of course, she apologised, but it was a superficial response. The Church still protects paedophile priests, like the Christian Brothers who were granted anonymity in the South, yet they should be named and booted out. If the Poor Sisters of Nazareth would only produce Sister Thomas and Sister Kevin and Sister Frances so they could admit to what they did and say sorry and explain, I would feel better. Instead, these women who degraded children have been moved and renamed, which made it more difficult to prove my case. They are living out their lives being looked after and respected by the Catholic Church. How can that be right? Healing and closure take time. My book gave me a voice, but not everybody has that outlet. All I want is for somebody to acknowledge what went wrong and apologise.
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