Just
short of two years ago, a witness who was giving evidence to the
Investigation Committee was asked by my colleague, Dr. Imelda Ryan, why
she had chosen to come to the Commission. She replied as follows:
‘‘The
reason why I came before the Commission is that I read an article to
sort of say that the Government were very, very sorry and that there was
going to be an inquiry into it and I felt that’s fine, but is this
inquiry going to be amongst the politicians or will it involve the
actual people who went through what we’ve gone through. And I was given
the opportunity of going either for the [Investigation Committee or the
Confidential Committee]. And I thought, well I need to face up. I need
to move on. I need to tell it how it was because no one believed me when
I was younger. Will they believe me now? It is my opportunity to sort
of say how it was. Also, the anger I feel because the Government who was
in charge of my care failed me miserably. I hadn’t done anything wrong.
I hadn’t committed a crime. So why? Why did they subject me to such
degradation and humiliation? What’s done is done. It must never, ever,
ever, ever be allowed to happen again’’.