NORTHERN IRELAND
ABC News (Australia)
Victims of clerical abuse in Northern Ireland which did not take place in an institution are campaigning for their own government inquiry into their experiences. The Northern Ireland Historical Abuse Inquiry only covers people who were abused when they were under the age of 18 and in a state or church-run institution.
Transcript
ELEANOR HALL: To Northern Ireland now and the child abuse inquiry that is being run there is strikingly similar to Australia’s Royal Commission.
As in Australia, there has been controversy over which instances of abuse will be considered by the Inquiry.
In Northern Ireland, abuse which took place outside institutions but at the hands of the local parish priest are not covered, but a campaign is being launched to try to change that.
As Europe correspondent Barbara Miller reports.
BARBARA MILLER: It takes some victims of child abuse many years to speak of their experiences.
Michael Connolly who says he was abused in the 1970s by a priest he’d turned to for help is no exception.
MICHAEL CONNOLLY: I was 48 years of age before I spoke about my abuse, and it came as quite a shock to my wife when I first told her about this. In fact it’s so painful even now when I speak to you, it’s so painful thinking back on that.
I couldn’t tell her. I had to write her a seven page letter… and that was difficult.
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