Facing What Cannot be Changed: The Irish Experience of Confronting Institutional Child Abuse

This article examines the process of dealing with historic child abuse in the Republic of Ireland. The addressing of many decades of hidden abuse within residential child care has been a traumatic experience for both survivors and for Ireland as a whole since the late 1990s. The article analyses the process that was adopted, namely the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. It does so in order to explore the complexities of using a commission to deal with such abuse. It also seeks to locate the different objectives of the Commission within the wider context of abuse inquiries undertaken in other countries. In doing so, it provides an account of the Irish process that will hopefully be of use, not only for those concerned with the Irish case, but also for those dealing with similar elsewhere.