Idealism, Nationalism and the Betrayal of Irish Children

My job is to research historical child sexual abuse in Ireland. It’s a job that can be heartbreaking, frustrating, and (still, after eight years) shocking. I think these feelings are shared by the Irish public, who are still reeling from decades of official reports and scandals about the widespread scale of child sexual abuse over years. People feel angry and confused. How did the abuse happen? Why didn’t victims come forward sooner? Why – how- were so many men allowed to continue raping children for so long? These are questions I seek to explore in my research, but the answers are slow to emerge from the mists of time and pain