Scottish Catholic Observer

The Archbishop of Dublin has led tributes to a journalist who uncovered clerical and institutional abuse in Ireland.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said that work undertaken by Mary Raftery, who lost her battle to cancer at the age of 54 yesterday, contributed to the Church being a better place for children.

“Bringing the truth out is always a positive thing even though it may be a painful truth,” Archbishop Martin said. “I believe that through her exposition of sins of the past and of the moment that the Church is a better place for children and a place which has learned many lessons.”

Ms Raftery, above, was best known for the RTE documentary series, States of Fear, which unveiled the extent of physical and sexual abuse suffered by children in the Irish childcare system during the 20th century, particularly in industrial special schools run by religious orders on behalf of the Irish state, with serial abusers moved on from school to school.

Ms Raftery also produced and directed Prime Time Investigates: Cardinal Secrets in 2001, which led to the Murphy Report into child sexual abuse in Dublin and, later, in Cloyne.

A funeral ceremony for Ms Raftery is due to take place in the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, Dublin, tomorrow. She is survived by her husband, David, and their son, Ben.

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