Lawyers had major influence over abuse apologies, says judge

APOLOGIES GIVEN by some religious congregations in relation to child abuse had obviously been drafted or heavily influenced by lawyers, the judge who chaired the Commission on Child Abuse has said.

Speaking at Trinity College Dublin last night, Mr Justice Seán Ryan said this in some cases “made it hard to know whether they were apologising at all”.

He said this issue reflected a debate about the function of apologies in litigation and disputes generally.

“The Law Reform Commission has recently wrestled with the question of how you can apologise without actually conceding liability. People in different parts of the world have debated this and there is even legislation in some countries.

“My own view is that you can’t, so don’t try. It only makes things worse if you are saying sorry but if you didn’t actually do anything wrong.”

Mr Justice Ryan said a proper apology, in his view, was about truth, justice, acknowledgement and responsibility. He said it was about improving quality, avoiding the same things happening again, and reconciliation.

“To try to apologise without acknowledging that events have happened is, in my suggestion, an empty formula.”

He said there had been a variety of responses from the religious congregations to the commission, ranging from the Oblates, who did not make any apology, to the Rosminians, who made it clear they accepted the broad thrust of the accounts given of abuse.

He said the congregations mostly, but not invariably, had opted to issue apologies.

Mr Justice Ryan said the report of the Commission on Child Abuse had been accessed in 179 of the 195 countries in the world in the year after its publication in 2009. Among the countries where it was not accessed on the internet were North Korea and Burma.