Abuse was understood in the ’60s, says Finlay

The chief executive of children’s charity Barnardos has spoken of the sexual and physical abuse he suffered at the hands of two religious brothers while a young boy.

Fergus Finlay took the decision to speak publicly about his abuse in the early 1960s to dispel the perception that clerical sex abuse was not “understood” at that time.

On Newstalk’s The Right Hook he said: “I was sexually abused in 1961 and I was physically abused in 1963. I was 11 and 13 respectively at the time. I knew what it was, I knew it was abuse. When I told my father about it, he knew it was abuse, he knew exactly what it was and he knew exactly what action needed to be taken, and it was taken. As far as I know, the kind of action that was taken ensured that no other child was abused by the same person.”