Still haunted – the victims of Irish missionaries in South Africa

IT was with great relief last Wednesday that many victims of institutional abuse at the hands of Catholic care-givers learned that, finally, their voices had been heard and believed.

Unfortunately, the investigation only covered Ireland and not the full reach of the missions of the so-called “Irish see”, which included South Africa where great abuses took place at a number of children’s homes run by nuns and other institutions managed by brothers and priests. A blanket of silence hangs over this side of the abuse story, both in Ireland and in South Africa, which has hosted thousands of Irish Catholic “missionaries” over the past 130 years. Will the Irish government extend its inquiry to include the Irish see? Where does responsibility for the conduct of Irish missionaries lie? Or will we just continue with the silence?

In a roundabout way, the report is good news for those of us who suffered dreadful abuses right here in Cape Town because in finding the institutions and religious carers guilty, we know it was the same people and institutions in Ireland that extended their reach to South Africa.