On the 11th May 2019 Caranua came together with the Christine Buckley Centre and friends in the Edmund Burke Theatre in Trinity College for a conference called Facing the future together – Ireland’s lifelong responsibility to the survivors of institutional abuse.

              Conference orgainsing committee

May the 11th is an important date for the Survivors of Institutional abuse in Ireland as it was on this date in 1999 that then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern issued an apology to survivors on behalf of the state. It was also in May 2009 that the Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Child Abuse (the Ryan Report) was published.

The conference was chaired by Colm O’Gorman, Executive Director, Amnesty International Ireland and the Key note speaker was Professor Alan Carr, Head of the UCD School of Psychology who presented findings from his research into Services Supporting Recovery from Trauma. There were contributions from survivors as well as academics and professionals.  If you would like a copy of any of the presentations please email survivorsfacingthefuturetogether@gmail.com

Colm O’Gorman, Carmel McDonnell Byrne & Bertie Ahern

The conference and commemoration events were both well attended.  There was lively discussion and debate, the consensus  from the conference is that survivors will continue to need support for the remainder of their lives.  The 5 essential supports the conference identified are:

• Enhanced medical card for survivors and support with housing
• Continuation of long-term free counselling services, including family members
• Provision of advocacy supports for survivors in the long-term, including accessing public
  services, linkage with support services, homelessness and addiction supports
•  All medical, and public service staff working in a customer facing role should receive trauma
  informed practice training on how to identify a survivor and the different approaches to the
  support they may require.
• Identification of supports needed by survivors based outside of Ireland

The conference and commemoration received coverage in the National and Regional media and RTE’s Joe Little recorded a segment for the six and nine o’clock news.  You can read and view his piece by clicking here

On the 10th of May the President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins invited survivors from the Christine Buckley Centre to a reception at Áras an Uachtaráin.  The President gave a very meaningful address which can be viewed here