-- Compensation for violent crime victims nationwide

From the 1920's until the 1980's, tens of thousands of Irish children who were put in the care of the state were sent to various orphanages, centres for young offenders and industrial schools run by the Catholic Church.

In these schools they suffered horrible abuse including physical abuse described as "sadistic" and they were kept in states of near starvation.

Since the abuse was uncovered by some dedicated victims who would not be silenced, the Irish Prime Minister has given a public apology and the government has set up the Residential Institutions Redress Scheme that will pay out £500 million to the victims of the state schools.

It is estimated that approximately 150,000 children were in these institutions between the 1920's and 1980's. They were denied proper education so many of them can barely read or write as adults. Children could find themselves in these institutions if they were orphans, if they had committed offences such as vagrancy or begging and if the homes were declared to have a "lack of proper guardianship". A local priest on his investigation of the child's home could decide "lack of proper guardianship". The number of children put in these institutions was massive. Children in state run homes in England, Wales Northern Ireland and Scotland combined did not equal to the number of children in the homes in Ireland.

Children fleeing the abuse spread out around the world. Many now live in the UK. They too will be able to claim money from the scheme in Ireland but it appears that compensation laws in the UK may make it not worth their while. If one of these victims is on means tested benefits, when he finally receives his compensation for the abuse that he endured, it will be deducted from his normal UK state benefits. What this means is that where other victims will be compensated for their injuries, UK based victims will just have their normal benefits from the UK government rather paid for by the Irish government instead and compensation for the injuries that they received will fall by the wayside.

The victims of the Irish abuse have fled Ireland and spread out all over the world. Victims rights groups such as Aislinn are attempting to reach victims in other countries like the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand where they know some of these children now live. They want to make them aware of the compensation that is now available and let them know that they must make applications to the fund before the cut off date of December 2005.