The Irish Examiner View: Treat others as...

One of the disingenuous collective defences offered when the abuse of children or women in one care setting or another emerged was that what went on in industrial schools, Magdalene laundries, mother-and-baby homes or some orphanages was largely unknown to the public.

This defence is offered as a reason for inaction, for allowing the abuse of the vulnerable continue in a heinous way. After all, how could anyone imagine that a caring Christian society like this could even countenance such horrors mush less turn a blind eye to them?