Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)

I have first-hand experience of visiting him in those institutions and at one stage seeing how his leg was broken but he did not even get hospital treatment. When he was 16 years of age, my mother took him out of the institution and he lived with us for the remainder of his teenage and early life. He has been dead for four years and he never sought compensation or went through any board because of the shame associated with what happened and what was done to him. I am told the abuser lives in Dublin. I do not know the person's name or anything about him and thank God for that. However, I do know that for the rest of his life, my cousin carried a hidden scar in respect of what happened to him and what was done to him. Moreover, I am sure his experience mirrors those of thousands of other people who went through the same situation.

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