Yesterday, the report and the show

Miriam O'Callaghan

I came back from filming some of our local election coverage in Cork yesterday afternoon to do last night’s Prime Time on the child abuse report. It was genuinely one of the most emotional programmes I have ever been involved in and a world apart from elections and election coverage. For me, it put everything else that we do on the programme in the shade.

I had lots of time on the train yesterday to read a lot of the child abuse report in detail, and it was harrowing. I think the poor Iarnrod Eireann guard thought I’d lost the plot as he came by to stamp my ticket and there were tears rolling down my face. I had just been reading about a five year old little boy who had ended up in one of the residential institutions simply because his mother had died. He was brutally beaten everyday because he wet the bed, was left handed and had a stammer. How could some in our religious orders have been such monsters?

I opened last night’s show with the story about that little boy – I felt I owed it to him, whoever he is. Nearly got upset on air (which one should never do because I know, I know, as a current affairs journalist, you’re never meant to show your emotions) but thank God I rapidly regained my composure.

A really interesting discussion followed, I hope you gained something from it. Mary Raftery was brilliant as always.

I hope if you watched the show, that maybe it helped in some small way.