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Here's a few things I learned in Administrative Law, to help people understand what's happening right now. Commissions of Investigation were established after many decades of Public Tribunals being criticised for failing to advance the cause of justice in Ireland.
The logic was--tribunals go on for years and years at huge expense. Fair Procedures require that anyone giving testimony before a tribunal be cross examined by counsel representing a person who has been named in that testimony. For adult witnesses describing abuse that may have
occurred decades ago, when they were children, Fair Procedures require that the abuser's lawyer then subjects that witness to hours of questioning about that trauma. Commissions of Investigation were set up to counter these problems. Because they are not public, the rules
around fair procedures do not apply. People could tell their story without being subject to the legal and media scrutiny of, say, the Kerry Babies tribunal. The testimony can be collected quickly and reports publicised, which is valuable in situations uncovering historical abuse
where the witnesses are elderly and it's urgent to capture the story of what happened. To bypass Fair Procedures--which is a fundamental part of a modern democratic legal system--names have to be kept secret. So what's Roderic to do about Tuam? What happens if we make the
findings of Commissions of Investigations completely public? I don't know. Besides all the stuff about people sueing the state for failing to vindicate their good name, or breaking a promise to keep their identity anonymous, it could be the end of Commissions of Investigations
And despite all of its weaknesses, the Commission of Investigation into Child Abuse that produced the Ryan Report captured and catalogued so many stories we needed to hear. About a year ago I read the chapter on Goldenbridge because I live close by and I'm haunted by it
As you can see the names may be anonymised, but nothing about the horror of that particular experience is hidden away. Similarly it's factually wrong to say that the Minister for Children is participating in some state sponsored cover up now of Mother and Baby homes.
In this really lonely moment, when we have little to divert us, it's tempting to go full outrage, but I think we would do better to have a discussion, and acknowledge how hard, and painful, and awful this history is--how do we live with these stories? This legacy is our Auschwitz
If I've made any serious errors in this thread, please let me know. Tom O'Malley was my lecturer in this topic at @NUIGLaw, a barrister with decades of experience in historic child abuse cases and worth consulting. Also recommend reading the reports at http://www.childabusecommission.ie/rpt/
And work done by UCD scholars to visualise the data produced by the CICA: https://industrialmemories.ucd.ie/ #motherandbabyhomes
