The social construction of child abuse in Ireland: public discourse, policy challenges and practice failures

This chapter seeks to explore the diverse meanings of child abuse in Ireland, while unpacking the construction, nature and consequences of errors and mistakes in child protection in the state. The contemporary Irish imagination perceives child abuse as a problem of historical memory. The primary reference is the institutionalised child subjected to cruelty and sexual exploitation at the hands of the clergy, with a disengaged state colluding in their misery. Yet there is an accumulating body of evidence that demonstrates beyond doubt that the problem of child abuse is part of present-day social reality in Ireland. There is a shared