Uk's Largest Child Abuse Inquiry Begins in Northern Ireland

ABC News
January 13, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-14/northern-ireland-child-abuse-inquiry-begins/5198500

The biggest inquiry into allegations of child abuse ever held in Britain has begun its first public hearings in Belfast, in Northern Ireland.

The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry is looking into allegations covering 73 years in church and state-run children's homes in Northern Ireland, including complaints from dozens of people who were sent to Australia as child migrants.

Like its Australian equivalent, the inquiry comes after a lifetime of pain for so many, like Irish woman Kate Walmsley.

She was taken to Nazareth House Children's Home in Derry, Northern Ireland, when she was seven.

Ms Walmsley says one nun would keep her at the back of the line at confession to allow a priest to abuse her.

Her reaction to the abuse had her branded a delinquent.

"Today that still really hurts because I was an abused child, I wasn't delinquent. I was a child crying for help," Ms Walmsley said.

Her so-called care home was one of two run by the Sisters of Nazareth that are the first to be put under the spotlight of public hearings.

More than 430 people have so far signed up to give accounts of the horrors they faced as vulnerable children, including 61 who were taken from the homes to Australia under a government scheme.

More than 260 people have already given accounts privately to a separate forum, that will concentrate on documenting individual stories of abuse and survival.

By contrast, the inquiry will investigate whether psychological, sexual and physical abuse took place in children's care homes from 1922 to 1995, and consider whether there were systemic failings.

The inquiry's chairman, retired judge Sir Anthony Hart, says he hopes abuse survivors will have the satisfaction of knowing their experiences are finally being acknowledged and investigated.

"The enquiry provides a unique opportunity for everyone involved in any way with the care of children in institutions to reflect upon what may have happened to those children and to consider whether there are lessons that can be learned that may prevent the mistakes of the past being repeated in the future," he said.

Children taken to Australia

Thousands of children were taken to Australia from Northern Ireland under the Catholic Episcopal Migrant Welfare program.

They were then sent to institutions run by the Christian Brothers and the Nazareth Sisters across the state.

Mary Armstrong and Mary Smith were barely in their teens when they arrived in Australia in 1947, but they remember it well.

"I was a bit shocked," says 80-year-old Ms Armstrong of her first reaction to Australia. "It was a lot different from Ireland."

Child migrants delivered to Australia were deemed to be orphans, even though many of them in fact had families.

Ms Armstrong says she still misses her father.

"It was awful for me. My father was an ex-serviceman in World War I and he didn't give permission for me to come," she said.

She never saw him again.

"I was one year in Australia and I got news he'd died."

Ms Smith says she truly thought she was an orphan. She discovered from the church years later that she had a brother, Joe.

"They knew all about me, they knew who I was, they all knew I had family, but not a word, they said nobody wants you," she said.

Scores of painful stories of abuse and survival will be told over the next 18 months with the final report due in January 2016.