Christine Buckley ‘won freedom and vindication for herself and for others’

When Christine Buckley’s older son, Darragh, came home from school one day, fresh from a teasing about his afro hair and frustrated that he didn’t look like everyone else, she told him never to be afraid of standing out from the crowd.

It was a guiding principle in her own life — a life spent fearlessly fighting for the rights of those who got lost in the crowd.

The victims of institutional child abuse were for years smothered by ignorance, apathy and antipathy. Christine, recalled her younger son, Conor, at her funeral Mass yesterday, liked to smother him with love, hugs and kisses.