IRELAND
The Journal
THE NEWS OF director Louis Lentin’s passing today was met with sadness in the arts world.
An important figure in television, film and theatre, the former Head of RTÉ Drama, is also remembered for the role he played in unveiling the cloak of secrecy around Ireland’s dark past.
His work opened a conversation on the residential institution abuse and broke the silence in which its victims suffered and had suffocated in for decades.
With his February 1996 documentary about the life of Christine Buckley, he revealed the extent of the atrocities that occurred at just one industrial school – Goldenbridge – but it moved the earth, creating an avalanche of information, testimonials and confessions.
Dear Daughter was the first television exposure of the horrific abuse of hundreds of children in Ireland’s industrial schools and it was Buckley’s courage to tell, retell and tell again her story that eventually pushed the truth onto the front pages and into television bulletins.
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