Fergus Finlay: We’ve passed a law to protect abusers and punish the abused

At the end of a programme on RTÉ the other night, this message appeared. “In its correspondence with RTÉ and survivors, the Residential Institutions Redress Board has always referred to the implications of breaking section 28(6) of the Redress Act.” The programme was Redress — Breaking the Silence. It set out to prove — and did so persuasively — that there is no closure without justice. In its moving and harrowing interviews with survivors, a simple truth emerged. Ireland decided that if it gave people who had suffered beyond endurance a few bob, it was safe to turn our backs on them.