PRESIDENT MARY McAleese has expressed “heartfelt sorrow” on behalf of the people of Ireland to former residents of State institutions for the abuse and neglect they suffered as children.
Speaking at a reception in Áras an Uachtaráin attended by more than 300 people, the President said: “The people of Ireland are desperately sorry for the many ways in which you were not cherished, in the abuse itself, in the silence, in the failure to act, in the failure to listen, hear and believe in time.”
She told abuse victims, their families and friends that she wanted to recognise “the suffering and bravery’’ of former residents.
“Today thanks to the courage of the children who were abused and grew into an adulthood from which they took a stand against abuse, the veils of silence, authority, deference, pretence, power, powerlessness, and impunity are pulled aside and we see what so many tried to ensure we would never see,” she said.
“In their name I offer every one here and all those whose little lives were robbed of the joys of childhood our heartfelt sorrow,’’ she said.
The response from victims afterwards was very positive, with John Kelly of Irish Survivors of Child Abused describing the reception as “a very moving day for all concerned, a momentous, historic day”. Christine Buckley of the Aislinn Centre, who was a resident of the Goldenbridge orphanage said that “the overall picture was one of great happiness’’.
Extending a warm welcome, on behalf of her husband Martin and herself, President McAleese said “There are moments in a life when words simply fail as a means of expression. No amount of them, no matter how heartfelt, can seem adequate to the moment. The publication of the Ryan report was one such moment in the life of this nation.”
The invitation to Áras an Uachtaráin was “an expression of the massive public wish to let you know how deeply your stories have struck a chord,” she said.
“For so long your suffering seemed to make strangers of you in your own land. Today, we simply seek to be family to each other, to assert our common care for one another and to acknowledge that what was done to those of you who are survivors of abuse in institutional care, not only damaged your precious lives but diminished our society,” she said.
She acknowledged that one day in the Phoenix Park “cannot hope to restore to your lives all the things that were taken from you”. But she hoped it would send out a message “that your lives and the lives of all those damaged by such abuse are our care and that most important of all we stand together in our determination to ensure that our country will honour the ambition set out in the Proclamation in 1916 to be a republic which cherishes its children equally”.
What happened had been “at such a dreadful cost to the abused, their childhoods lost, their families scattered, their adult lives and relationships so often deeply affected by their early suffering.
“From that suffering, however, you have created a force that will in time bring much good to Ireland’s children, for you challenge our society to hold to account all those who engrave on their innocent and dependant little lives.
“What’s learnt in childhood is engraved in stone. You met bad engravers, the children of today and tomorrow rely on us to engrave well,” she said.
Among those at the reception were representative of nine survivor groups, Aislinn, Alliance Victim Support Group, Irish Soca, Irish Women Survivors Support Group, Justice and Healing for Institutional Abuse, Right of Peace Group, Right of Place and Soca UK.