States of Fear

Mary Raftery's three-part RTÉ documentary series, 1999 Raftery brought the abuse of children in Ireland's industrial and reformatory schools, run by religious orders, to a prime-time audience, through the testimony of people who had grown up in them. On May 11, 1999, before the final episode aired, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern apologized for the state's "collective failure to intervene" and announced the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse and a Redress Board. How much the series caused that apology is disputed: Ahern later said it had little to do with it, while other accounts credit the broadcasts. Either way, it remains the clearest starting point for understanding Ireland's reckoning.