Mary Raftery is an Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 filmmaker and writer.

Her film States of fear

States of Fear

States of Fear was a documentary series produced by Mary Raftery and broadcast on the Irish television channel Radio Telefís Éireann between April and May 1999....

was broadcast on the Irish television channel Raidió Teilifís Éireann

Raidió Teilifís Éireann

Raidió Teilifís Éireann is a semi-state company and the public service broadcaster of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts them on television, radio and the Internet. The radio service began on January 1, 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on December 31, 1961, making...

 (RTÉ) in 1999.

A book she wrote later that year called Suffer the Little Children added more detail to her claim that the Irish childcare system between the 1930s and 1970s was guilty of widespread persecution and abuse.

In 2000, the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse

Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse

The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse is one of a range of measures introduced by the Irish Government to investigate the extent and effects of abuse on children from 1936 onwards. It is commonly known in Ireland as the Ryan Commission , after its chair, Justice Seán Ryan...

was established by the Irish Government to examine the evidence: its Report was published in May 2009.