McAleese: Public sorry for abuse victims’ suffering

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese has told survivors of abuse in Catholic institutions that the people of Ireland are with them as they strive to recover from the horrors of their stolen childhoods.

Mrs McAleese said the public were desperately sorry for the suffering caused to the survivors as children, not just by the abuse itself but by the failure of society to listen to them, to believe them and to act to protect them.

“In their name I offer every one here, and all those whose little lives were robbed of the joys of childhood, our heartfelt sorrow,” she told a group of 280 survivors at a special reception at Áras an Uachtaráin.