The Social Construction of Child Abuse in Ireland: Public Discourse, Policy Challenges and Practice Failures

Abstract

Irish child abuse inquiries of the last few decades have been hugely significant in revealing the tragic circumstances under which some children lived and died. The main focus here is on what these inquiries reveal about errors and mistakes in child protection and the changing relations between a number of key institutions, particularly the Catholic Church, the state and the media, not on what they reveal about abuse. Through the ‘lens’ of the child abuse inquiry the chapter considers a number of issues, including: the exposure of historic child abuse of children in Irish society, the emergence of campaigning groups, the growing power of the media in exposing a culture of secrecy, and the development of childcare policy. The chapter then explores the wider context (political, cultural, and historical) in which discourses of child protection are framed and conducted. The chapter addresses discrete meta-themes that enable the reader to contextualise the debate about child abuse and theorise it from a critical social perspective. This offers a uniquely original analysis of discourses of child protection, incorporating policy development and messages for the future.