Information meeting called for Louth institutional abuse survivors

Sage Advocacy, the National Advocacy Service for Older People, which also provides support and advocacy to vulnerable adults and healthcare patients in situations where no other service is available to them, is calling survivors of institutional abuse in Louth and the north east region to come to a special drop-in information session in Dundalk on the afternoon of Friday 28 February.

The session is to gather, discuss and inform on how survivors can be supported to find and access resources available to them, including State supports and advocacy services. The information session will be convened by Sage Advocacy Project Manager Damian O’Farrell, who is himself an abuse survivor.

Damian was one of a group of eight survivors of clerical and institutional abuse invited to meet Pope Francis during the Papal visit to Ireland in 2018, and says he struck when Pope Francis appeared not to have been briefed on the Magdalene Laundries. He is a long-time advocate and campaigner for the rights of clerical child sexual abuse victims, and says he achieved Ireland’s first known criminal conviction of a Christian Brother in March 1998.

Damian has worked to highlight what he says is “the unjust litigation strategy of the Order” and appeared recently on an award-winning RTE Prime Time Programme. He also participated in the recent government scoping inquiry on day school pupils who were sexually abused.

Damian, on behalf of Sage Advocacy extends a warm welcome to survivors of institutional abuse and their family members, as well as members of the public across the north east region interested to the drop-in information session in the Gateway Hotel, Dundalk, on Friday 28 February from 12noon to 4.00pm.

“My advocacy work over the years has brought me into contact with survivors of institutional abuse, including those who were confined in industrial schools and other institutions.

“I thought that whatever happened to me as a child I could always go home to my mother, whilst Institutional abuse survivors had nowhere to turn for comfort, no warmth, no touch, no escape. The lack of basic humanity denied to so many is incomprehensible”, he said.

Damian has struggled with the word ‘historical’ believing there is nothing historical about the aftermath of institutional abuse, it is enduring and always present. “There are many challenges facing survivors, and in this regard, accessing information and necessary supports is vital”, he said.