Dear friend, – I’d like to extend my deep appreciation towards the scoping inquiry team as a survivor myself. Their report is an impeccable piece of work. The fact that the team asked for and received more time from the Minister for Education to deeply analyse the amassed data and details was indeed a wise move. Delving into the report is indeed a starkly enlightening, yet disheartening revelation of the magnitude and brutality of sexual, physical and mental abuses committed upon us in our childhood. The residual effects of these crimes that survivors like us have been forced to shoulder throughout our lives are not due to any shortcomings of our own.
Blame lies squarely on the attackers, together with religious congregations, the state and its machinery, who fell gravely short of safeguarding our basic human rights, dignity and safety. I harbour no doubt that Irish people would desire to rectify these sad realities. It dawned on me as I read the report, had such scrutiny been initiated in 2000, considering the risk of potential legal cases in the Irish schooling system and the existing cases at the time, amongst other reasons, the result would have been vastly different for survivors over the last 24 years. Several of them, unfortunately, haven’t survived and will never witness justice or accountability for the pain they endured. Their loss is indeed a national tragedy.
The scale of their loss far outweighs ours. Life is sacred, a treasure that must not be wasted due to failure in catering to the needs of individuals and their offspring. It’s worth noting that several components of the current inquiry were non-existent then and my musing discloses possiblities rather than truths, with an understanding that we can’t turn back time. The endeavours and endeavourings of survivors over the previous three decades seeking justice have made the current circumstance conceivable.
The European Court of Human Rights judged that the State acted negligently by not shielding a citizen from primary school maltreatment, a verdict the State should have enforced at speed in 2014. We advance carefully, one step at a time, in the face of contemporary challenges.
I, with the utmost regard, implore the Taoiseach, the Education Minister, the Justice Minister, and the Oireachtas to grasp this opportunity and act according to the ruling. By accepting the State’s obligation on behalf of the Irish populace and children, I urge them to expedite the process. Their immediate action will lay the groundwork for the upcoming commission of investigation, providing much-needed assistance to survivors that should not be tied to the commission’s eventual verdict. This is the help they rightfully deserve. – Yours sincerely, Cornelius Crowley, London.