Four-day hearing was 'a devastating experience'...
"If my wife hadn't been there, I would have killed myself," according to Michael, one of the handful of people to have been before a full hearing of the Laffoy Commission's investigation committee.
When Michael was called to a hearing, held in camera, he was told it would last for four hours. Instead it lasted four days.
"It was a devastating experience," he recalls. "I was there to tell the truth, so that people would know what happened, that the sexual and physical abuse was not made up."
At the head table sat Ms Justice Laffoy, with two commission members, psychiatrist Ms Imelda Ryan, and psychologist Mr Fred Lowe.
There were a further 13 solicitors and barristers in the room. Michael read out his statement naming the religious brother he accused of abusing him at an industrial school.
He then came in for cross-examination from barristers for the State, the religious order, and the man whom he had accused.
The man he had accused gave evidence and "made a cod of the whole thing, denied he knew me".
On the way home, Michael was distressed. "If my wife hadn't been in the car with me, I'm afraid I would have killed myself." However, he is glad he went to the commission, as it was "the only way" of getting to the truth.