A DONEGAL survivor of a church-run institution in the North will travel to Stormont tomorrow for the unveiling of a plaque honouring the children who endured abuse in residential care.
Patrick O’Rourke (82) was just five-years-old when he and his siblings were taken from their family home in Killybegs, split up and placed in different facilities across the border.
Mr O’Rourke was taken to the Termonbacca boy’s home in Co Derry, where he lived for almost ten years.
Run by the Sisters of Nazareth, it was there that he, like many other children, suffered physical, sexual and emotional abuse.
In January 2014, Mr O’Rourke and his two brothers, Joseph and Charles, gave evidence about the abuse they suffered to the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIAI) in Banbridge Court, Co Down.
However, it was not until 2022 that he received some sense of closure with a long-awaited public apology at Stormont.
Making the journey to Belfast tomorrow (Friday) for the unveiling of a plaque in the Great Hall at Parliament Buildings, Mr O’Rourke said he never thought he would make it this far.
“I never thought I would see the end of this long, painful journey,” he told the Donegal News.
The decision to erect a memorial plaque followed extensive engagement with victims and survivors of historical institutional abuse.
The plaque will recognise the apology offered to victims and survivors in the Assembly Chamber on March 11, 2022.
