The Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry

The Guardian begins by suggesting that the Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry is off the public radar, it’s not off of mine.

We need to see a similar UK wide inquiry !

Kincora

Amid blanket coverage of high-profile child sex abuse investigations in the wake of revelations involving Jimmy Savile and other celebrities, one child abuse inquiry has remained below the public’s radar. But the Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry is slowly emerging from relative obscurity.

The inquiry is separate from a recent major police investigation in the country that has led to the arrest of more than 30 people for sexual exploitation of children and young people who have gone missing from the care system over the past 18 months.

Formally established by law in January this year, the historical inquiry is tasked with examining if there were “systemic failings” by state and church in children’s homes between 1922 and 1995 – a period spanning more than 70 years. Earlier this month, the inquiry held its third public hearing in Belfast, where its chairman, the former high court judge Sir Anthony Hart, named, for the first time, some of the institutions under investigation, including former children’s homes run by the Catholic church.

Hart also confirmed that the final deadline for victims wishing to apply to give evidence would be the end of November, and he made fresh calls for people now living outside Northern Ireland who had been abused as children in the country to come forward. Earlier this month, 363 people had already made formal applications to speak to the inquiry; some were in their 80s. Hart said that more than 100 were living in mainland Britain, the US and Australia.

The Guardian