Personal Stories/Opinions
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To Ms Horsman-Hogan
On more than one occasion I have written to you, and asked if you only represented the religious orders that have been wrongly accused.
You have not had the manners to reply to my letters so I ask in an open letter on this site and hope I shall get a reply.
Thousands of Irish children were taken to courts as defendants in the Irish Republic. Charged with crimes they were too young to commit and sentenced to years in Irish institutions that were equivalent to Mountjoy Prison. Even the most hardened criminal would have wept at the treatment that was dished out in these Institutions.
I was taken to court as a defendant when I was 23 months old. I was charged and sentenced to 14 years in one of these Institutions.
In May 2003, when I was 70 years old I received 31 letters written in the 1940's. The letters were written by my parents to their children. By the time I received them my parents were dead. These letters would have given me great comfort as a child - just to know that someone cared.
I don't hear you asking for justice for these children that were truly innocent.
May Henderson
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