Kate Walmsley has waited 40 years for
someone to listen to her story of being abused so badly at a
Catholic-run children’s home that she has tried to kill herself
repeatedly. Now she will finally get her chance as Northern Ireland
begins the largest public inquiry into abuse at residential institutions
ever undertaken in Britain.
“I thought I would take it to my grave,”
Ms. Walmsley, 57, said Monday as she arrived at a former courthouse in
Banbridge, south of Belfast, for the start of the public hearings. “If I
can help one little boy or one little girl, it will be worth it.”