Historical Institutional Abuse apology: Survivor says "I am a broken wreck ... this has caused much more pain and trauma"
Last updated 11th Mar 2022
Margaret McGuckin, of victims' group Savia, thanked the media for keeping the issue in the public domain.
She said the Executive Office "made a fool out of us" with regard to long delays in acting on the recommendations of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, adding that many victims are now "dead and gone" after the long wait for an apology.
"The way we have been treated all these years has hurt and damaged us so much," she said.
"And I can say that for myself, underneath the make-up and the lipstick I am a broken wreck ... this has caused much more pain and trauma.
"The apology today was more than welcome but we had to demand, lobby and threaten with more legal action to get to this stage. It's unbelievable so I will not slap them on the back and say well done."
She was speaking in the Great Hall at Stormont after a public apology was delivered earlier by politicians and institution reps inside the Assembly chamber.
Peter Murdoch, a former resident of Nazareth Lodge Orphanage, said the apology came 30 years too late for him, and said he could not accept it.
He described being abused over five years, and said as a child he regarded the institution "like an SS camp".
He said his brother Charles was also in the institution and suffered He said his brother Charles was also in the institution and suffered throughout his life with alcohol because of the experience. He died on December 1 2021.
Mr Murdoch said he has PTSD because of his experiences over the last 30 years.
"I have been in and out twice of prison because of snapping because of what happened to me," he said.
"Why did they not apologise 30 years ago. Thirty years ago, they hopefully would have meant it. In my personal opinion I can't accept the apology but for anybody else it is completely up to them. My brother, if he was alive today, he would have cried."
Jon McCourt of Survivors North West, said he felt representatives of the institutions "failed miserably".
He urged them to demonstrate their atonement by contributing to the redress fund for survivors.
"If this was the best the church could offer by way of an apology, they failed miserably," he said.
"There was no emotion, there was no ownership, there was qualification.
"Forget about having conversations and just start contributing to the redress fund.
"One of the things that we were all raised with was this thing about atonement and a firm purpose of amendment. I don't believe that the church and the institutions atoned today and I don't believe that there was a firm purpose of trying to put this right.
"The way they can put it right is to do what the religious orders have just done in Scotland and make a significant contribution immediately to the redress fund."