According to Let Our Voices Emerge L.O.V.E. the Alliance Victim Support Group which supports people who claim to have been abused whilst in State care and are now those claiming compensation for abuse through the Irish Redress Board, has today made the surprising move of issuing a statement in support of the L.O.V.E charity. Let Our Voices Emerge, the charity made up primarily of ex-residential institution pupils came under fire from Victim Support groups when it claimed there were carers in the homes being fraudulently accused of child abuse. They are now seeking legal advice to restore the good name of these people. According to the charity's founder Florence Horsman Hogan, the cost of the Redress Board compensation system will be far in excess of what true justice requires - the real victims being the taxpayer, the genuinely abused, and the falsely accused.
The Alliance Victim Support Group statement says:
It has been difficult for many to accept that there have been so many false claims made about Religious from all Institutions. Human nature been what it is these claims have mainly been made to gain monetary awards and without a thought for the good names and reputations of the individual Religious or the Institutions.
As secretary to the Alliance Support Group I have been saddened to know that these false claims continue to be made and in particularly I have been saddened to hear of false claims made against many Christian Brothers and Nuns who I myself knew and whom I respected throughout my many years with them and now. They have every right to seek redress and we would encourage then doing so.
We would wish however that their own Religious Orders would persue a policy of vigorously defending their member’s good names and that of their Institutions. They should allow those Religious who were part of these Institutions to speak for themselves as we are doing.
They should go further. They should take legal action against those who have clearly made false claims and who have benefited from doing so. Above all they should publish the truth of these institutions if only to balance what the public up to now have not seen.