大象传媒

As a new and damning report into institutional abuse in Ireland's Catholic state schools is published, reporter Ruth McDonald examines the scandal's impact on Irish society.

Cathy Spillane, 48, sent a letter from her Norfolk home to the Irish Times in which she documented the horrific abuse her father had suffered as a child brought up in one of Ireland's institutional schools, and her anger towards the Catholic Church, which had failed to admit culpability.

She is not alone. The earlier Ryan Report, published in May 2009, exposed a secret which many had refused to believe about how widespread the abuse was. It is estimated that a third of all survivors now live in the UK, having fled Ireland. Many among this group of exiles had never spoken of what happened to them until recently.