Focus on redress: ‘Aftershocks’ of residential abuse reverberate

Years after the terror and violence suffered by so many in residential institutions, survivors are still enduring a legacy of the abuse, writes Noel Baker

Maria Byrne, survivor of instuitutional abuse at her home in Dublin. "My brother got more than I did, I got tuppence.” Photo: Moya Nolan

In total, the Residential Institutions Redress Board has paid out €970.03m to the thousands abused in Ireland's residential institutions. And yet, many think of the compensation as "dirt money" because they never felt their testimonies to the commission were believed.

This feeling is not the only one that haunts them from their nightmare experiences in the institutions.