Victims of institutional abuse in Northern Ireland have been told that they were failed by the state, during a long-awaited public apology at Stormont.
Survivors watched on in the Assembly chamber today as a minute’s silence was held before five ministers, representing each of the main Stormont parties, offered their apology on behalf of the government.
The public apology was recommended in the final report of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIAI), which was published more than five years ago and was described as the biggest child abuse public inquiry ever held in the UK.
Apologies are also being delivered by representatives from six institutions that ran facilities where abuse took place: religious orders De La Salle, Sisters of Nazareth, Sisters of St Louis and the Good Shepherd Sisters, as well as Barnardo’s and the Irish Church Missions.
Delivering the first apology, DUP education minister Michelle McIlveen said: “Today we say that we are sorry.
“Whilst in the care of the state, you were made vulnerable, we did not ensure all our residential homes were filled with love and safety.
“We did not ensure these homes were all free from hunger and cold, from mistreatment and abuse.
“It was the state’s responsibility to do that, and it failed you.”
She added: “We neglected you, rejected you, we made you feel unwanted. It was not your fault. The state let you down.”
Alliance Party justice minister Naomi Long said the Assembly chamber was a “fitting and proper venue” for the apologies to be delivered.
She told the chamber: “This is where our laws are made, where we, ministers and those responsible for governing, are held to account.
“We are united in our acceptance of responsibility.
“No one can undo the past; nor can we undo your past.”
Mrs Long added: “Children suffered in the most vile and unimaginable ways; with life-changing and lifelong consequences for many of the victims.
“The damage experienced by many is not in the past but is a heavy burden they have continued to carry into adulthood, into day-to-day engagement with society and into relationships.
“It is a burden that continues, to this day, to have an impact on victims and on their families.”
SDLP infrastructure minister Nichola Mallon said no apology could make up for the failings of the past.
She added: “But we hope that our clear and outright acknowledgement will bring some relief.
“We know that many children suffered greatly as a result of being separated from their families.
“Some experienced neglect and emotional, physical and sexual abuse at the hand of those who were supposed to care for them.
“We know that many of you were exposed to a harsh environment.”
Ulster Unionist health minister Robin Swann said that the experiences of victims and survivors had taught ministers a lot.
He added: “We want to acknowledge all of you who had the courage to speak up and highlight the most horrendous abuse, abuse that no child should have to endure.
“This was often done at great personal cost.
“What happened to each and every one of you was wrong.
“It should not have happened and it is critical that every possible step is taken to ensure that nothing like this happens to any other child in the care of the state, ever again.”
The final minister to deliver an apology, Sinn Féin finance minister Conor Murphy, acknowledged that the apologies had taken too long to be delivered.
He said: “The apology we offer you is unconditional.
“We should have protected you and we did not. We are sorry.
“You were harmed by those who should have cared for you. We are sorry.
“You told the truth, yet you were not believed. We are sorry.
“We are responsible. And we are so very, very sorry.”
Margaret McGuckin, of victims’ group Survivors and Victims of Institutional Abuse (Savia), thanked the media for keeping the issue in the public domain.
She said the executive office “made a fool out of us” with regard to long delays in acting on the recommendations of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, adding that many victims are now “dead and gone” after the long wait for an apology.
“The way we have been treated all these years has hurt and damaged us so much,” she said.
“And I can say that for myself, underneath the make-up and the lipstick, I am a broken wreck…this has caused much more pain and trauma.
“The apology today was more than welcome but we had to demand, lobby and threaten with more legal action to get to this stage. It’s unbelievable, so I will not slap them on the back and say well done.”
Representatives from the six institutions spoke after the ministers, apologising for the abuse inflicted on the children in their care.
Each speaker described the “fear, shame and punishment” inflicted upon young people and acknowledged that apologies can only go so far.
Many pointed to major organisational failings at the time the abuse was perpetrated.
Brother Francis Manning, from De La Salle, specifically acknowledged failings at Rubane and St Patrick’s Training School.
He said his organisation accepted that there were children in their care “subjected to physical and sexual abuse, and to excessive physical punishment”.
“We accept that we had a responsibility to prevent this abuse occurring and acknowledge that we did not take sufficient action to investigate allegations of abuse and ensure prosecution where appropriate.
“These serious failures are a matter of profound regret to the De La Salle brothers.
“We recognise that fear, shame and punishment were experienced, and that there were those who have carried this trauma throughout their lives.
“For our part, we wish to say we are sorry and wish to offer our sincere apology,” he concluded.
Inquiry chairman Sir Anthony Hart, who died in 2019, had outlined a series of recommendations after he disclosed the levels of sexual, physical and emotional abuse in the period 1922 to 1995.
The recommendations included that those abused in state, church and charity-run institutions should be offered compensation, as well as a memorial and an official apology from the government and the organisations that ran the residential facilities where it happened.
