NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times
Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry – Report Chapters
Amanda Ferguson
A Belfast woman representing survivors of child abuse in care homes in the North says they feel vindicated following the publication of the the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry report which found evidence of systematic failure by institutions and the state.
“We have waited a lifetime. Today we are vindicated. Our day has come,” said Margaret McGuckin.
The 2,300 page, 12-volume report published on Friday comes after an inquiry was set up to investigate physical, emotional and sexual abuse, and childhood neglect which occurred in residential institutions over a 73-year period up to 1995.
Ms McGuckin of Survivors and Victims of Institutional Abuse (SAVIA) – who suffered abuse from the age of three in Nazareth House in Belfast – hopes to meet Stormont politicians early next week to iron out details of the compensation scheme recommended by the inquiry team.
Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland programme director, said the report “laid bare the catastrophic failure by the state, and by religious bodies and others who ran children’s homes over a period of more than 70 years”.
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