Christine Buckley

By Eamon Delaney
Irish Independent
March 16, 2014

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/christine-buckley-30096774.html

Christine Buckley

The physical and sexual abuse of children supposedly in care in religious and state institutions had been known for decades, but the abuse was either ignored or denied by the authorities. Christine was determined to put this right and to tell the world about her own torment and that of countless others.

In 1992, she did an RTE radio interview with Gay Byrne in which she first publicly described how she was physically abused as a child in Dublin's Goldenbridge orph- anage, which was run by the Sisters of Mercy.

The early Nineties were a time of momentous change and confrontation in Irish society in these areas and in matters of Catholic and state conservatism. 1992 was also the year of the X Case, in a divided State in which family planning, divorce and homosexuality were all illegal. The fact that the religious ethos that informed such conservatism was also harbouring a pattern of secretive, systematic abuse was especially strange and galling.

In 1996, Christine's story featured in Louis Lentin's ground-breaking drama documentary Dear Daughter which shocked the nation with its detailed account of the abuses at Goldenbridge. In one incident a kettle of boiling water was poured over the legs of a 10-year-old Christine. On another occasion, she had to get almost 100 stitches in her leg, after being beaten so badly by an unidentified nun.

However, Christine's story was only one of many and it was a strong feature of her generous personality that she wanted to also publicise the stories of others. In 1999, a three-part series States of Fear, made by the late Mary Raferty, was broadcast on RTE, and dealt with stories of the abuse of children in orphanages, reformatories and industrial schools. The stories, although informally well known, continued to shock, but a rearguard campaign was also fought by elements in both the State and the Catholic Church arguing that the accounts were exaggerated.

Many argued that the harsh regimes which had been operating in the homes and detention centres, funded by the State and run by the Catholic Church, were a reflection of their time and offered a fate better than the children being left on the streets, which for many survivors it probably was.

However, it was the added sadistic abuse by individual overseers, as well as the shocking sexual abuse (mainly by male clerics) which was so disturbing. However, Christine was unceasing in leading the charge for truth and justice, and with her testimony and unrelenting public activism, she managed to get the scandal placed centre stage and forced the State into confronting its dark past.

Christine was the daughter of a Nigerian medical student and a married Irish woman, and was effectively abandoned. Her skin colour was also held against her: at one stage, she was sent to Enniskerry for possible adoption but a local clergyman said he didn't want "a black child around the town". Eventually, she was put into care in Goldenbridge. Unusually, for an industrial school child, she went through primary and secondary school at Goldenbridge and eventually qualified as a nurse. In 1985, she managed to contact her birth mother, and in 1988, her father.

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern eventually apologised on behalf of the Irish State to all those who had suffered as children in the institutions and set up a Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, known as the Ryan Commission. It also created a Residential Institutions Redress Board, which has now paid compensation to about 15,000 people who had been in such institutions.

The 2,600-page Ryan Report vindicated the abuse allegations made by Christine and many others. But she always felt that it didn't go far enough and that it was too lenient on the religious orders, which were also let off the hook for much of the financial compensation.

In 1999, with her close friend Carmel McDonnell Byrne, she set up the Aislinn Centre in Dublin, which helps survivors of institutional abuse and their families through therapy and education. The centre, which has helped turn so many people's lives around, was one of Christine's proudest achievements, as was receiving a Doctorate of Law from Trinity College in 2012.

Christine died after a long battle with cancer and was buried in Shanganagh cemetery after a powerful ceremony last Thursday in the Church of St Therese in Mount Merrion, attended by President Michael D Higgins, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and many others. She was described by the Taoiseach Enda Kenny as "a person of immense courage, who was responsible as a pioneer in bringing to public awareness the question of institutional abuse," while Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore said that her "courage and dignity in speaking out has made Ireland a better place".

Christine is survived by her husband, Donal Buckley, and her adult children, Cliona, Darragh and Conor. At the funeral, Conor said that his mother inspired anyone she met while her husband, Donal, described her as "a warrior against injustice and for people's rights and dignity". There is no doubt that her determination to tell her story has also done a great service to the modern Irish State, in forcing it to confront itself as a place which, far from being a protective Republic, had abandoned its most vulnerable citizens to the most cruel and inexplicable treatment.