The house of horrors - Could it happen in your area?

WE have had to accept that terrible abuse was inflicted on thousands of children by evil and predatory paedophiles so we should not be easily shocked when another horror story kicks its way into our consciousness.

However, the abuse inflicted on six children by their alcoholic mother, as revealed in Roscommon, will cause anyone who ever felt the slightest tenderness towards a child to wince in shame, horror and shock.

After the last two decades we cannot say, as Bishop John Magee of Cloyne has, that “we are in learning mode”.