The Government has been accused of ignoring victims
of institutional abuse because plans for a memorial have failed to
materialise.
Erecting a memorial was the first recommendation of the 2009 Ryan Report and €500,000 was ringfenced for the purpose.
The report found there had been widespread physical,
sexual, emotional abuse, and neglect of tens of thousands of children in
institutions run by 18 religious congregations on behalf of the State
up to the 1970s.
It recommended a memorial should be erected to pay
tribute to the victims as “a permanent public acknowledgement of their
experiences”.
Objections
The report further added that it was “important for the alleviation of the effects of childhood abuse that the State’s formal recognition of the abuse that occurred and the suffering of the victims should be preserved in a permanent place”.
A plan to build a memorial in the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Square in Dublin 1 was refused permission by An Bord Pleanála
in November 2013, on the grounds it would have an adverse impact on the
setting, character and function of the existing memorial to those who
died fighting for Irish freedom. It was deemed that the association
between the two memorials was inappropriate.
Dublin City Council approved the memorial in May 2013, despite several objections – including some from an abuse survivors’ support group.
Abuse survivor Bernadette Fahy
said on Wednesday the fact there has been no movement on the planned
memorial since 2013 “speaks volumes”. It suggested, she said, that “the
Government and Ireland still wants to keep us hidden away”.
Statue at Leinster House
Ms Fahy had been on the judging panel which chose the memorial rejected by An Bord Pleanála.
With the late Christine Buckley,
she had also been in Dublin’s Goldenbridge orphanage as a child and
took part with her in the first television documentary to expose such
abuses, the 1996 Dear Daughter programme.
Carmel McDonnell Byrne, who co-founded the Aislinn
centre in Dublin with Ms Buckley, said “the one thing Christine pushed
for, along with Aislinn, was a monument for all survivors”.
She said
such a memorial “should go ahead, so we never forget”.
John Kelly,
of the Survivors of Child Abuse (Soca) group, said he felt wider
consultation with survivors could have avoided problems with the
rejected proposal. He said he believes a statue of a child at Leinster
House or near Government Buildings would be a good idea “so that every
member would see it as they passed by”.
Independent TD Maureen O’Sullivan, who opposed the
memorial proposed for the Garden of Remembrance, suggested the old
Magdalene laundry on Seán McDermott Street as a potential alternative
location. Regardless, she believed a memorial should go ahead.
The rejected memorial was selected following an international competition.
One entry
It attracted just one entry that the judging panel felt was up to standard. Titled the Journey of Light, it was designed by Studio Negri and Hennessy & Associates to integrate with the Garden of Remembrance.
A spokesman for the Department of Education told The Irish Times
“the difficulties are that the winning design uses the physical
features of the Garden of Remembrance site and the design cannot be
created on a different site”.