Chapter 19 — Concluding comments

Contemporary complaints were made to the Gardaí, the Department of Education and others by witnesses, their parents and relatives, generally in the aftermath of an injury, when visible marks of a beating were observed or when a child who had run away was being returned to a children’s home, reformatory or industrial school. Gardaí were at times reported to request leniency on the child’s behalf when they were returned, in the knowledge that absconders were harshly treated.

Children with intellectual, physical and sensory impairments and children who had no known family contact were especially vulnerable in institutional settings. They described being powerless against adults who abused them, especially when those adults were in positions of authority and trust. Impaired mobility and communication deficits made it impossible to inform others of their abuse or to resist it. Children who were unable to hear, see, speak, move or adequately express themselves were at a complete disadvantage in environments that did not recognise or facilitate their right to be heard.

The enduring impact of childhood abuse was described by many witnesses who, while reporting that as adults they enjoyed good relationships and successful careers, had learned to live with their traumatic memories. Many other witnesses reported that their adult lives were blighted by childhood memories of fear and abuse. They gave accounts of troubled relationships and loss of contact with their siblings, extended families and with their own children. They also described lives marked by poverty, social isolation, alcoholism, mental illness, sleep disturbance, aggressive behaviour and self harm.

Seventy percent (70%) of witnesses reported receiving no second-level education and, while many witnesses reported having successful careers in business and professional fields, the majority of witnesses heard by the Committee reported being in manual and unskilled work for their entire working lives.

Testimony provided by over 1,000 men and women who attended the Confidential Committee to report their accounts of childhood abuse gave rise to the following proposals for consideration in the Commission’s overall recommendations for the future:

Member	Date of appointment	Date of resignation (if applicable)
Ms Mary Durack Witness Support Officer	16th August 1999	12th August 2005
Ms Helen Lynch Administrator	25th August 1999	2nd March 2006
Ms Jacqueline Curran Witness Support Officer	8th April 2002	27th October 2003
Ms Melanie Hall Witness Support Officer	13th September 2004	11th March 2005
Ms Norella Broderick Administrator	21st February 2006	29th September 2006
Ms Sandra Hoswell Administrator	9th October 2006	30th April 2007
Ms Danielle Griffin Administrator and Research Assistant	30th April 2007	29th August 2008
Ms Catherine Mulligan Administrator	10th September 2008	15th January 2009