Morning Ireland

Memorable moments: Sr. Marianne O'Connor, CORI Director General

by Cathal Mac Coille

Radio interviews sometimes have consequences neither the interviewer nor the interviewee ever intended.  

CORI director general Sr Marianne O’Connor spoke to us on 26 May this year about the religious orders’ reaction to the Ryan report on the abuse of children in their care. You can listen to the interview here.

It was a difficult interview to prepare for, and not just because the subject matter was both sensitive and vast. The report has five volumes and 2,600 pages, based on evidence from 500 witnesses. The fact that it was a telephone interview created an additional handicap.

Sr Marianne deserved the same opportunity to speak and the same courtesy as every other interviewee, but the views she expressed were to say the least contentious. Her unwillingness to re-open the compensation deal which the religious orders struck with the government in 2002, which put a €127m cap on the orders’ contribution, raised issues on which most listeners, I think, would expect her to be challenged. Particularly at a time when the state itself is so short of cash.

When interviewees speak to us by phone, there’s a marked imbalance between their voices and that of the presenter. When the subject is extremely controversial and hard questions have to be asked, it’s very easy to appear rude. The interviewer has to be both challenging and polite, without being either a boor or a push-over. It’s not for me to judge whether I succeeded, although in this case I have a firm view.

The interview was one of the most memorable I’ve conducted both because the subject was so sensitive and because its significance afterwards was so different to what we expected beforehand. Within hours of Sr Marianne refusing to consider offering more money to help abuse survivors than provided for in the 2002 agreement, the Christian Brothers broke ranks. The Brothers promised to make what resources they didn’t need available to help former residents of the  institutions they ran. Other orders announced a similar change of heart soon afterwards.

We haven’t yet seen how the orders’ willingness to re-consider will translate into cash, but the turn-about was remarkable. It certainly wasn’t what either I or Sr Marianne I expected during an interview that was revealing on many levels.