REACTION: THE DIRECTOR general of Cori, the Conference of Religious of Ireland, has expressed regret it had not been invited to contribute an essay to accompany the In Plain Sight report.
“In the interest of academic rigour and balance,” Sr Marianne O’Connor said, “I believe we should have been asked for a response, it would have been in order.
“It was possible that they may have contacted one of the [18] congregations” involved in running the residential institutions investigated by the Ryan commission “and got no response”, she said.
She was not aware that this had happened.
Had she been invited, Sr O’Connor added, she would have addressed in more detail data-protection difficulties faced by the congregations and referred to in the report’s chapter on The Catholic Church and Child Protection.
In general she thought the report was “excellent” and she welcomed the idea that it was “the beginnings of a process”.
Essays in the report are by academic and commentator Elaine Byrne, canon lawyer Fr Tom Doyle, Prof Gerard Quinn of NUI Galway, Colin Gordon of Food and Drinks Industry Ireland, consultant in strategy Dr Eddie Molloy, abuse victim Andrew Madden, Rosaleen McDonagh of Pavee Point, Kevin Rafter of DCU and Deirdre Kenny of the One in Four victim support group.
Others who contributed essays included Martina Deasy of Arklow Springboard Family Support Service, Norah Gibbons of Barnardos, Lisa Collins of the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Jackie Murphy of Wales’s Tros Gynnal Plant services, Ombudsman for Children Emily Logan, Seán Cottrell of the Irish Primary Principals’ Network, solicitor Pearse Mehigan and James Smith of the Justice for Magdalenes Campaign.
Among the large attendance at the publication of the report in Dublin were abuse victims Marie Collins, Andrew Madden, councillor Mannix Flynn, Michael O’Brien and Christine Buckley; the Ombudsman for Children Emily Logan, Senator Jillian Von Turnhout of the Children’s Rights Alliance, Maeve Lewis of the One in Four group, Ellen O’Malley Dunlop of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, and Sr O’Connor of Cori.