IRELAND
Irish Examiner
Dr. Niamh Hourigan
MAYA ANGELOU, the American writer who died recently wrote ‘History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived but if faced with courage need not be lived again’.
Yesterday, Judge Yvonne Murphy, who has previously chaired inquiries on clerical sexual abuse was given with the task of facing one of the darkest episodes of Irish history, infant mortality rates in Irish mother and baby homes.
Criticisms from the UN Committee on Torture about the outcomes of previous investigations, specifically those into the Magdalene Laundries and victims of symphysiotomy suggest that these investigations have not faced these controversies with courage. They criticise the lack of statutory powers to compel witnesses and retrieve information by investigating committees.
They highlight the absence of adequate reparation and most importantly, the lack of accountability from either Church and State in assuming responsibility for what happened. In terms of the McAleese report on the Magdalene Laundries, they are critical of the weight given to the views of religious order representatives compared to the marginal treatment of the experiences of survivors.
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