NORTHERN IRELAND
RTE News
An Institutional Abuse Inquiry in Northern Ireland has started to hear evidence of the child migration scheme that selected over 100 children from institutions in the North and sent them to Australia.
It is the first time that a judicial inquiry will hear evidence of the practice operated by the UK authorities in the years immediately after World War II.
When the inquiry team went to Australia last year to begin gathering evidence about Northern Irish children who participated in this scheme, they interviewed a 75-year-old man.
He told them: “We were exported to Australia like little baby convicts. I found it hard to show affection to my children when they were young. I have a nightmare every night of my life. I relive my past and I am happy when daylight comes.”
The man has since died, but his full statement and the video evidence accounts of over 50 others will be heard in Banbridge over the next three weeks.
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