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| Public Inquiry into Abuse Allegations at Northern Ireland Orphanages Begins Monday
By Paul Waldie
The the Globe and Mail CANADA
January 13, 2014
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/public-inquiry-into-abuse-allegations-at-northern-ireland-orphanages-begins-monday/article16294841/
[with video]
A sweeping public inquiry into allegations of abuse at orphanages and children’s homes across Northern Ireland starts Monday, in what officials say is the largest probe of its kind ever undertaken in Britain.
The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry is looking into allegations of abuse over a 73-year period at 13 institutions run by the state and various churches. More than 400 people have contacted the inquiry, including a couple from Canada, and roughly 300 are expected to testify at public hearings over the next year, providing graphic accounts of horrific brutality.
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Some victims have already spoken about beatings, sexual assaults, bullying, canings and forced confinement. Kathy Devlin, who was sent to a home in Londonderry in the late 1950s and now lives in Montreal, said she and her brother were treated like animals, routinely left hungry and cold. Her brother nearly died of pneumonia and she developed chronic bronchitis.
“It was sort of a time in my life when you are supposed to be learning,” she told the Globe and Mail last summer. “For me it was basically a wasteland because we were ignored intellectually and physically. It’s something that you remember but you try to put at the back of your mind because it’s not happy memories.”
Victims began demanding a probe after a similar review in Ireland uncovered decades of child abuse at more than 250 church-run institutions. Northern Ireland had roughly 170 of these homes over the years but most disappeared long ago leaving few records behind. The inquiry is focussing on allegations between 1922, when the province was created, and 1995 when the orphanages were reformed.
The inquiry will begin Monday at a court house in Banbridge, outside Belfast. It is being chaired by a retired judge, Sir Anthony Hart, who is expected to file a report to the Northern Ireland government in 2016. That report could call for an official apology, a tribute and some form of financial compensation.
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