Who possesses moral and ethical integrity and courage, Mary Raftery or the Pope?
Journalist Mary Raftery who was instrumental in challenging the Irish state and Catholic Church on clerical child abuse has died.
She was best known for her 1999 ground-breaking "States of Fear" documentaries.
They revealed the extent of abuse suffered by children in Irish industrial schools and institutions managed by religious orders.
It led to taoiseach Bertie Ahern apologising on behalf of the state.
Her work also led to the setting up of the Ryan Commission, which reported in May 2009, and to the setting up of a confidential committee which heard the stories of victims of institutional abuse.
Speaking about her findings to the BBC in 2009, Mary Raftery said: "There was widespread sexual abuse, particularly in the boys' institutions."Extremely vicious and sadistic physical abuse, way off the scale, and horrific emotional abuse, designed to break the children.
"We had people talk to us about hearing screams... the screams of children in the night coming from these buildings and really not knowing what to do.
"They didn't know to whom they could complain because the power in the town was the religious order running the institution."
Clerical abuse The Murphy Commission investigated clerical abuse in the Dublin archdiocese
Following the documentaries, the government set up the Residential Institutions Redress Board which has compensated about 14,000 people to date.
And her 2002 documentary "Cardinal Secrets" with Mick Peelo for RTE led to the setting up of the Murphy Commission into clerical abuse in the Dublin archdiocese.
Ms Raftery worked for RTE from 1984 to 2002.
She wrote a column for the Irish Times and taught at the Centre of Centre of Media Studies at NUI Maynooth.
RTÉ Director General Noel Curran said her journalism was defined by determination and fearlessness, and that she had left an important legacy for Irish society.
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