AN ambitious study of the clerical child-abuse scandals in Ireland by Amnesty International suggests that people are as angry with society as they are the State over the institutional abuse of children.

The study, commissioned by Amnesty International Ireland, finds that while 83 per cent of those polled are angry with the State, marginally more, at 84 per cent, are ‘angry that wider society didn’t do more’. More than half found the subject of the Ryan Report on institutional child abuse too overwhelming to know what to think, while one-third said they didn’t know what the report said.

The national poll is part of an extensive research study commissioned by Amnesty to establish the reasons why clerical child abuse was allowed to continue unchecked for so long in Ireland.

The silence of so many Irish people emerges as a key factor, according to Amnesty’s executive director Colm O’Gorman, and the poll findings suggest the public acknowledges this.

The 100,000-word document, called ‘In Plain Sight’, will be launched by Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald tomorrow. It includes significant new research by social historian Dr Carole Holohan based on the four inquiries into clerical sex abuse — Ferns, Ryan, Murphy and Cloyne. It will also set out […]