OUTSPOKEN abuse campaigner Christine Buckley was honoured by President Mary McAleese last night after being named Ireland's Volunteer of the Year.The survivor of industrial school abuse and co-founder of the Aislinn Eduation and Support Centre for survivors of institutional abuse was chosen for her tireless efforts fighting for the rights of those abused as children while in care.
Mrs McAleese said Ms Buckley represented "a constituency of men, women and children whose lives were cruelly and appallingly skewed out of shape because of their experience of institutional abuse".
"Those stories were brought to the surface of Irish society and we now face into their consequences and their legacy, chastened, humbled and determined that such things must never be allowed to occur again here," Mrs McAleese said.
"We should also be determined that the story of Ireland's abused, who won their own vindication, who insisted and still insist on full accountability, will be an encouragement to those abused elsewhere in the world."
Ms Buckley received the award at a ceremony at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, in Dublin as part of the Ireland Involved Awards.
Ms Buckley will now go on to represent Ireland at the celebration of volunteers in the European Parliament in December.
The judging panel said they had been impressed by Ms Buckley's "sustained commitment to helping survivors".
Ms Buckley first went public about her own abuse in 1992 and was instrumental in making the documentaries 'Dear Daughter' and 'States of Fear', which exposed the industrial school abuse scandal.
Her efforts also led to victims getting an official apology from former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern along with a promise to provide further compensation.
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