Haunting Cries chronicles 11 stories of institutional child abuse in the survivors' own words. It brings the tragic tale of abuse up to date to include the publication and fall-out from the Ryan Commission Report and the Redress Board.

The book also adds a fresh - post-Ryan - perspective on why the religious orders engaged in such systemic abuse. Up until the Ryan Report, most of them were reluctant to admit to the scale of abuse that their orders meted out to the children in their care. Haunting Cries investigates how they dealt with the damning indictments against them.

The stories of the survivors take into account that new perspective. We hear their views on whether the Ryan Commission and the Redress Board have adequately given them the compensation, vindication and justice they feel they deserve.

Haunting Cries is an important book. It gives these survivors a voice, allowing us to hear the testimonies of those who for so long were silenced.