MICHAEL O’REGAN
LABOUR EDUCATION spokesman Ruairí Quinn suggested that a former Christian Brothers’ school in Dublin be converted into a museum commemorating the victims of abuse in religious institutions.
He said the former Coláiste Mhuire, on Parnell Square, was located beside the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art and across from the Garden of Remembrance which paid tribute to the 1916 heroes.
“We, the State, the Republic of Ireland, now own that vacant building which was transferred to our ownership as restitution by the Christian Brothers as a contribution towards the cost of the redress bill,’’ he said. “We should fill it with the shameful memories of our past so as to ensure that our future never sees its repetition.’’
Mr Quinn was moving the Labour Party’s Private Members’ institutional child abuse Bill 2009 wiping clean the records of those detained in reformatory schools under criminal convictions.
“For purposes of law, survivors must be treated as if they have never committed, or been charged with, or prosecuted for, or convicted of, or sentenced for, any offence,’’ said Mr Quinn.
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