This week I want to diverge slightly from the direct topic of Child Loss and discuss something which has had a powerful effect on me this week. In the last week or so, the Ryan Commission Report – into child abuse within religious institutions in Ireland – was published and has been the main focus of news in Ireland. The report comes 10 years after a commission was setup by the Irish government and it clearly acknowledges that sexual, physical and mental abuse was ‘endemic’ in the various boys’ institutions run by religious orders – predominantly catholic – in Ireland.

It has been met with anger by those who had suffered at the hands of those abusers and whose voices were not listened to when they cried for help. Those children who were ritualistically and routinely raped, buggered and beaten by those purporting to be ‘men of God’ had nobody to turn to. Their tears were ignored and their voices fell upon deaf ears. The Irish State turned their back on these innocent defenceless children and left them to be repeatedly abused and tortured by those sick perpetrators of evil. Children disappeared in those institutions, never to be seen again, their bodies likely buried in unmarked graves – all evidence gone.The Christian brothers featured most prominently in the allegations made by those victims – more than all the other male religious orders combined in fact.

The anger comes from the lack of accountability in the report. Pseudonyms were used in the report and there was widespread dismay at how the orders failed to accept collective responsibility. The Department of Education was heavily criticised too for its largely dismissive attitude to those who made complaints. Victims of the abuse were simply ignored.

As I said above, there has been a lot of coverage on this report over the last 10 days or so but it has taken the sole voice of one man – a 70yr old victim who suffered the repeated rape and buggery from these collared men – speaking as an audience member on the Irish current affairs show Questions & Answers to touch the heart of the nation and provoke real response. When this man spoke, you could hear a pin drop. The political panellists and audience members alike were chilled into a sober silence as this man poured his heart out on live television and revealed the true horror he endured and the anger that he has long felt for being made to feel like HE, and other victims like him, were the criminals in all this. His words were fuelled with the passion of someone who was so hideously wronged and so long ignored. The harrowing truth that spilled from his lips - the unspeakable, terrorising honesty of it – gripped a nation like nothing else could.

After the show aired, that clip was replayed on every radio station the following day and it was the talk of the entire nation. I was personally moved by it. The man was hurt. He said so himself. He accused the government and its opposition of ‘playing political football’ with this topic and told them to ‘stop’. In reference to himself and the other victims he said, ‘You’re hurting us, when you do that’. ‘Stop hurting us,’ he begged. The next day the leader of the opposition party addressed the Taoiseach in relation to this matter and, clearly as a response to this man’s words the night before, calmly stated that he was prepared to work WITH the government in bringing peace to these victims.

It was the power of one voice and its unchallengeable resonating truth that pierced through the maelstrom of political and religious debate and effected action. The hurt that this single man had buried within him, suppressed for so long, had resonated with an entire country and effected political reaction.

I suppose I’m writing about this because I know that the hurt we all feel, big or small, can often be suppressed and ignored and yet it needs to be let out. We should all take note of the bravery of this man in revealing the horrors in his past and how he, with dignity and passion, and through incredible hurt could still make a difference.

To see the clip of this man speaking out you can check out the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jHqndf9Kx4