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Sam Boal

Analysis Public inquiries are a key means for validating survivor experiences

Associate professor in law James Gallen looks at how public inquiries are used as a group launch their campaign for a commission of investigation into Michael Shine.

ALLEGATIONS OF HISTORICAL abuse are often met with denial from potentially responsible organisations, which can contribute to a delay in meaningful investigation.

Where a number of allegations of abuses occur together, their volume suggests that abuse may have occurred in a widespread or systemic manner. The conventional legal system is typically best designed to address isolated criminal or civil offences and struggles, both substantively and procedurally, to respond to widespread or systemic harm.

It is in this context that a number of jurisdictions, including Ireland, have used public inquiries to address allegations of historical abuse or other widespread or systemic harms and wrongs.

A variety of inquiry models exist, from highly legalistic and formal tribunals of inquiry that operate in public, to commissions of investigation that have typically operated in private, to models of innovative justice, that draw from international human rights law or restorative justice.

Across the globe, different inquiries have gathered individual victim-survivor testimony, engaged in private and public hearings, developed systematic and thematic data about the past, identified individuals and groups responsible, and offer recommendations for further justice measures and policy changes.

Existing studies are ambivalent at best about whether inquiries can meet victim/survivor needs, and often offer risks of distress or re-traumatisation for those involved.

In Ireland, the use of public inquiries has typically adopted a more legalistic framing, guided primarily by the legal rights of accused persons, rather than the broader justice interests of victim-survivors.

As a result, victim-survivor led processes, that are informed by international best practices and guided by the risks of re-traumatisation involved in giving testimony about prior abuse, have typically not featured in Irish public life.

I have previously argued that “inquiries are best understood as raising expectations that the testimony of victim-survivors will be validated, acknowledged, and used to address historical abuses through other … justice mechanisms. If those expectations are not met, then inquiries represent a mere ritual contestation of power”.

To assess whether an inquiry can meet diverse victim-survivor needs, an inquiry design can be evaluated along a number of dimensions – the degree of survivor participation, its choice of of chair or commissioners, its legal powers to compel evidence, and whether its processes are informed by a range of disciplines including offering psychological support
and the breadth and scope of its mandate of investigation.

While at their best inquiries can offer important public acknowledgement of wrongdoing, this is often framed in social or historical terms, rather than in acknowledging duty holders and responsible actors, and the rights of victim-survivors that were breached.

Finally, inquiries are limited by design – they can offer recommendations if this forms part of their mandate, but further political will and pressure will be required for their
implementation and this will be a responsibility of government and the Minister responsible for the establishment of the inquiry.

As a result inquiries pursue ambitious goals, navigate contentious legal terrain and raise survivor expectations that their claims of wrongdoing and justice needs will be seen and vindicated.

Public inquiries are a key but risky means for validating survivor experiences and for such experiences to form the basis of other justice measures and public policy.

James Gallen is an associate professor in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University. His first monograph Transitional Justice and the Historical Abuses of Church and State was published by Cambridge University Press in 2023 and is available free as a gold open access title.

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    Mute larry smith
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    Jan 21st 2025, 9:26 PM

    “Dad what’s that flower called ?
    “Well son that’s a rhododendron”
    How do you spell that ?
    On second thought, i think that’s a rose

    60
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    Mute P. V. Aglue
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    Jan 21st 2025, 10:11 PM

    @larry smith: there’s a richie Kavanagh song to be written about that plant,if he’s still alive

    9
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    Mute Ronan Mc
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    Jan 21st 2025, 9:35 PM

    Great series. People have gone mad for Cherry Laurel too and it’s choking out woods. They create dead zones. Birds don’t land on them or use them for cover and there’s nothing to forage on underneath.
    Ever one off house in my area has it planted at their boundary in the last 10 years. Should be illegal.

    49
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    Mute Freda Peeple
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    Jan 21st 2025, 9:45 PM

    @Ronan Mc: People should plant native hedges, cherry laurels contain cyanide so the birds are probably wise

    30
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    Mute smatrix mantra
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    Jan 21st 2025, 11:33 PM

    @Ronan Mc: fwiw All our forest plantations are dead inside. With or without cherry Laurel. Forests are so densely planted not a bird inside. Anyway, cherry Laurel not banned by NPWS but probably should, yes.

    14
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    Mute Bryan
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    Jan 21st 2025, 9:25 PM

    Isnt Michael Healy Rae being made the super junior minister of rhododendrons?

    36
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    Mute Ann Kennan
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    Jan 21st 2025, 9:56 PM

    I saw a garden centre advertise Rhododendron for sale on their social media. I called them out and it was removed, but I am sure it happens elsewhere.

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    Mute Brian Hunt
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    Jan 21st 2025, 9:59 PM

    @Ann Kennan: Apparently there are 200 types of Rhododendrons, and the only pest is Rhododendron Ponticum!

    27
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    Mute Oh Mammy
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    Jan 22nd 2025, 6:39 AM

    @Ann Kennan: good woman yourself Karen. You should be in government

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    Mute Donna Fallon
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    Jan 21st 2025, 10:26 PM

    Does anyone on here ever regret opening up this site/ app as it’s getting so depressing?? But yet we somehow always seem to back for more.

    14
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    Mute Chop Chop
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    Jan 21st 2025, 10:39 PM

    @Donna Fallon: Personally, I’m just here for Larry’s dad jokes.

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    Mute Larry Betts
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    Jan 21st 2025, 10:42 PM

    @Donna Fallon: Only you,my dear. Only you. But it’s nice to chat and mingle in a cesspit of filth every now and again. Nothing brings us back down to earth again as quickly as a malfunctioning Temu parachute.

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    Mute Larry Betts
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    Jan 21st 2025, 10:45 PM

    @Chop Chop: For that comment,I sentence you to ten Hail Mary’s and two Our Father’s. It used to be one Our Father. Times have changed.

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    Mute Donna Fallon
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    Jan 21st 2025, 10:49 PM

    @Larry Betts: Only youuu can make the darkness bright…

    4
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    Mute Donna Fallon
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    Jan 21st 2025, 10:50 PM

    @Chop Chop: We all need a bit of that… lol!!

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    Mute Larry Betts
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    Jan 21st 2025, 11:17 PM

    @Donna Fallon: Awww thanks Madonna.

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    Mute Paul Gorry
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    Jan 22nd 2025, 12:38 AM

    @Dave f Doe: Pri ck.

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    Mute Bren
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    Jan 22nd 2025, 3:06 PM

    @Donna Fallon: but you seem to be commenting on every article possible so I don’t think you’re sick of it to be honest possibly addicted to commenting

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    Mute Chop Chop
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    Jan 21st 2025, 9:48 PM

    Bindweed is a divil in my garden. The flowers are pretty nice though and at least it dies back in winter.

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    Mute Brian Hunt
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    Jan 21st 2025, 9:56 PM

    @Chop Chop: I saw bindweed in Italy a few years back, the flowers weren’t white but a kind of electric blue, beautiful!

    7
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    Mute Larry Betts
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    Jan 21st 2025, 9:59 PM

    @Chop Chop: If you have bindweed in your garden,Chop Chop,do you know what you should do? You should chop and chop,Chop Chop,and don’t stop chopping til the chopper chops the lot.

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    Mute Brian Hunt
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    Jan 21st 2025, 10:00 PM

    @Larry Betts: On a roll Larry!

    7
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    Mute Chop Chop
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    Jan 21st 2025, 10:20 PM

    @Larry Betts: You’ve got the makings of a Dr. Seuss book there!

    5
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    Mute Chop Chop
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    Jan 21st 2025, 10:22 PM

    @Brian Hunt: Maybe I’ll get some seeds… it would like nice and also give the journal something to write about next year :-)

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    Mute Larry Betts
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    Jan 21st 2025, 10:23 PM

    @Brian Hunt: The Greens tried to outlaw bindweed imported from Italy a few years ago. They said the electric blue flowers were bad for the environment. They preferred solar powered bindweed that gave off a yellow hue,or wind powered white bindweed.

    3
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    Mute Larry Betts
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    Jan 21st 2025, 10:30 PM

    @Chop Chop: Don’t plant them until after The Journal poll. “Have you ever planted an invasive species? Leave your answers in the comments below”

    5
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    Mute Peter Conry
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    Jan 21st 2025, 11:21 PM

    Maybe instead of poisoning the Japanese Knotweed, we could do like the Japanese and eat it – ideally as young sprouts (before it flowers). It tastes a slight bit rhubarby but when cooked is more like asparagus. It’s rich in plant bioactives like resveratrol, flavonoids and some of the beneficial antioxidant chemicals from green tea. It could and should be kept in check in this way rather than our current approach. The poisons don’t work. Eating does. Obviously not an option right now as they’re laden with weedkiller.

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    Mute Chop Chop
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    Jan 21st 2025, 11:37 PM

    @Peter Conry: Shit. I just ate some before I’d finished reading your comment.

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    Mute JoeJoe Kilbride
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    Jan 22nd 2025, 12:41 AM

    @Peter Conry: it’s held in check in Japan by native fungi and insects.

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    Mute Peter Conry
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    Jan 22nd 2025, 2:41 PM

    @JoeJoe Kilbride: yep, they’re important, along with other plants that compete for the same space.

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    Mute Oh Mammy
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    Jan 22nd 2025, 1:30 AM

    Invasive species are indeed a problem……

    9
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    Mute PhiBo
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    Jan 21st 2025, 11:13 PM

    Tipperary. Sure it can’t be that bad if someone’s going to make a few quid then. God help us.

    8
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    Mute Kilian MacRocosm
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    Jan 21st 2025, 9:36 PM

    We’re having a festival, Its called “Watch Your House Burn to the ground”, sure it’s very destructive and the tickets cost a lot but the flames are so pretty

    10
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    Mute Dean Carroll
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    Jan 22nd 2025, 10:43 AM

    The vee should be turned into a national park. (All mountain ranges IMO) Then let Parks & Wildlife & local volunteers start clearing this invasive species. In years to come the mountains could be purple with native heather.

    5
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    Mute Ned
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    Jan 21st 2025, 11:42 PM

    Might as well ban everything that grows out there then , next it will be spuds etc

    4
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    Mute Hotirish
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    Jan 21st 2025, 10:13 PM

    I’ve got three beauties in my back garden but they never recreate!

    3
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    Mute Larry Betts
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    Jan 21st 2025, 10:24 PM

    @Hotirish: Nuns,Dougal. They’re called nuns.

    13
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    Mute Nick Bowie
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    Jan 22nd 2025, 9:29 AM

    Laurel also a problem!

    3
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    Mute Polly Barrett
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    Jan 22nd 2025, 7:36 PM

    If it is such a problem why are garden centres allowed to sell it?

    1
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