DUBLIN - Victims of sexual abuse and neglect in Catholic-run schools and orphanages in Ireland swamped counseling services on Thursday after the publication of the harrowing findings of a nine-year investigation.
“We’ve had 30 times as many calls as usual and our phone lines are always quite busy,” said Bernadette Fahy of the Aislinn Center, an organization set up by an abuse victim. “We have had to close the center because we haven’t been able to cope with the amount of people coming in.
“It’s extraordinary the number of people who are contacting services for the first time.”
Read the follow-up story from our Dublin bureau here.
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Don’t feel TOO bad, Catholics. Before it’s all over, you’re going to be hearing some things about Fundamentalists. I grew up around them.
- Posted by SatanIt will be interesting to see how the Irish State will handle the ‘revelations’ of the Ryan report. I use that word lightly as it is hard to ascertain how many ‘important and influential’ people knew about the abuse and chose to stay quiet. Whilst the talk about money as reparations is welcomed to a degree, I am sure many will agree that the victims deserve at the very least an official apology and an independent inquiry in to the forgotten horrors suffered by so many and acknowledged by so few. I can’t bear to think of the amount of people who had to grow up in those sadistic environments. My thoughts are with them.
- Posted by Annette