LAST UPDATE | 11 Mar 2022
A LONG-AWAITED public apology to the victims of historical institutional abuse is being delivered in Northern Ireland Assembly this afternoon.
A minute’s silence has been held in Stormont, with five ministers representing each of the main parties tasked to deliver the apology.
Michelle McIlveen (DUP), Conor Murphy (SF), Nichola Mallon (SDLP), Robin Swann (UUP) and Naomi Long (AP) will do so.
These ministers will deliver the apology after First Minister Paul Givan resigned earlier this year, which also removed Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill from the joint office.
Introducing the minute’s silence, Commissioner for Victims and Survivors of Institutional Childhood Abuse Fiona Ryan paid tribute to all who had campaigned for an inquiry into historical institutional abuse.
“Let us be clear why we are here today and what is being apologised for. We are talking about the systemic abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and neglect of children for decades in residential institutions in Northern Ireland,” she said.
For this abuse to succeed on this scale requires not only individual abusers and institutions to perpetrate the abuse, but failed oversight and accountability on the part of the public authorities.
Education Minister Michelle McIlveen said that victims of historical institutional abuse in Northern Ireland were failed by the State.
Delivering the first in a series of ministerial apologies to victims and survivors at Stormont, McIlveen said:
“Today, we say that we are sorry.
Whilst in the care of the state you were made vulnerable – we did not ensure all our residential homes were filled with love and safety. We did not ensure these homes were all free from hunger and cold, from mistreatment and abuse.
She added: “It was the state’s responsibility to do that, and it failed you. We neglected you, rejected you, we made you feel unwanted. It was not your fault. The state let you down.”
Justice Minister Naomi Long said that “children suffered in the most vile and unimaginable ways”.
“No one can undo the past, nor can we undo your past. However, we as lawmakers and policymakers can commit to doing everything within our power to make the right laws, the right policies and the right guidance and to provide the right support services for those who need it,” she said.
She described instances of abuse such as the use of restraints and “bathing children in Jeyes fluid”.
The Hart report detailed and graphic terms account after account of widespread sexual and physical abuse. We knew that it might be difficult for some victims and survivors to hear details of the abuse. But some of you have told us that it is important that we acknowledge, identify and take responsibility for the specific abuse that you suffered while and institutions.
Representatives from six organisations, which ran the institutions, will also offer an apology.
They will speak for religious orders De La Salle, Sisters of Nazareth, Sisters of St Louis and the Good Shepherd Sisters – as well as Barnardo’s and the Irish Church Missions.
The public apology was recommended in the final report of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIAI), which was published more than five years ago.
Inquiry chair Anthony Hart outlined a series of recommendations after he revealed shocking levels of sexual, physical and emotional abuse in the period 1922 to 1995.
The recommendations included that those abused in state, church and charity run homes should be offered compensation as well as an official apology from government and the organisations which ran the residential facilities where it happened – and a memorial.
- With reporting by Rónán Duffy
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