Ryan report
The Ryan report is the result of the public inquiry in Ireland for abuse scandal of the Catholic Church in Ireland, the Irish Commission for the investigation of child abuse by Judge Seán Ryan. In Ireland it is known as the “Ryan Report” (formerly “the Laffoy Commission”) or Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA) . It is one of a series of measures introduced by the Irish government to investigate the extent and effects of child abuse from 1936 onwards.
The commission began in 1999 under the direction of Judge Mary Laffoy and published its results on May 20, 2009. Seán Ryan took over the reins in 2003 after Mary Laffoy resigned in protest of insufficient funding and what she believed to be a systematic blockade by the Department of Education .
The Commission's role was to investigate all forms of child abuse in Irish children's institutions. The majority of the accused institutions investigated were among the 60 Reformatory and Industrial Schools operated and funded by the Catholic Church under the supervision of the Irish Ministry of Education.
The Commission's report shows that the whole system treated children more as prisoners and slaves than as people with rights and human potential. Beating was a religious ritual, covered by officials and consistently shielded. A culture of secrecy prevented exposure. Government inspectors did not stop the abuses either.
The most serious allegations of abuse include: beating, public beating, forced nudity in public, beating after attempted rape, rape, beating with rape, forced oral sex. The abuse has been described by some media as the Holocaust of Ireland. The abuse is described as endemic for institutions for boys. The newspaper The Guardian described the abuse as "stuff of nightmares", referring specifically to the used in the report adjectives: "systematic, profound, chronic, excessive, arbitrary, endemic".
The conclusions of the report (Volume 4, Chapter 6) confirm the general tenor of the allegations without exception.
Statements from a period of 9 years (2000–2008) were collected in the report. The test period covered the years from 1914 until the commission started working. The hearings took place in Ireland, the UK and elsewhere. Of the approximately 25,000 people who visited one of the facilities in question, around 1,500 made allegations to the Commission. Among them were 474 allegations of physical abuse and 253 of sexual abuse made by males. By contrast, a total of 383 allegations of physical abuse and 128 allegations of sexual abuse were made by women. It involved all kinds of abuse and the allegations were directed against priests and religious as well as lay people. The majority of the allegations of sexual abuse by women were directed against employees who should have been supervised by the church institutions.
The Ryan report thus takes a look at the conditions in church institutions, towards which both the state and church institutions have not adequately fulfilled their supervisory duties. On the other hand, this report shows how problematic it can be to deal with the investigation results of state commissions in the media.
In November 2019, the Commission admitted serious errors in the statistics of the Ryan report. According to judge and chairman of the commission, Sean Ryan, the 2009 statistics contain a calculation error. The number of children in homes between 1930 and 1970 was only approximately 42,000, instead of the 170,000 mentioned in the Ryan report.
See also
- Murphy Report on Conditions in the Archdiocese of Dublin
- Religious Order of the Sisters of Mercy
- Sexual Abuse in the Roman Catholic Church
Individual evidence
- ↑ The report
- ↑ Commission Report Vol 1 Ch. 1 . The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. Archived from the original on May 24, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 22, 2009.
- ↑ Irish church knew abuse 'endemic' , BBC News . May 20, 2009.
- ↑ http://www.childabusecommission.ie
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated August 28, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Ireland contemplates its 'holocaust of abuse', and decades of denial . National Post . May 21, 2009. Archived from the original on June 7, 2009. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 23, 2009.
- ↑ Child abuse scandal was Ireland's nightmare from hell . The Belfast Telegraph . May 23, 2009. Retrieved May 23, 2009.
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/may/21/catholic-abuse-ireland-ryan
- ↑ Commission Report Vol 4 Ch. 6 . The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. Archived from the original on March 6, 2012. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 26, 2009.
- ↑ a b Commission Report Vol 3 Ch. 2 . The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. Archived from the original on May 25, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 22, 2009.
- ↑ Commission Report Vol 3 Ch. 7 . The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. Archived from the original on July 24, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 22, 2009.
- ↑ Commission Report Vol 3 Ch. 9 . The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. Archived from the original on July 22, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 22, 2009.
- ^ The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. Retrieved November 29, 2019.
