Those victims who felt strong enough to face it showed up at the plush Crowne Plaza hotel on the outskirts of Belfast yesterday to hear retired judge Sir Anthony Hart deliver the findings of his inquiry into historic child abuse.
The luxurious ballroom in which he summarised the Historic Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry was a world apart from the bleak, cold, loveless institutions where many of those present had spent their childhoods.
Some couldn't face it and stayed away, recent political events have taken their toll on those who fear having relived their traumatic childhoods, the report that finally vindicates them might be left to gather dust.
Others didn't make it this far, old age, illness and in some cases suicide robbing them of this day.
Sir Anthony Hart had looked at 22 institutions run by church and state and with evidence presented by witnesses and former residents.
In the case of the notorious Kincora boys home he said he had been given access to files belonging to MI5, MI6 and RUC special branch.
The Sisters of Nazareth, who ran four children's homes, came in for particularly damning criticism, more than 80 per cent of young residents were illegitimate, victims of the social prejudice of the time.
Sir Anthony heard from witnesses who had been beaten and neglected, washed in baths of industrial cleaner and shown no love, warmth or human kindness.
Sexual abuse at the hands of lay staff and priests was systemic, with a failure to protect the younger children in their care from older boys.
The De La Salle Order of brothers were found to have in some cases dished out savage beatings, with more emphases on protecting the reputation of the order, than the boys in their care some of whom were sexually abused.
Abuse was not exclusive to church run homes, Rathgael training school at first housed only boys but following closure of a female facility in Whiteabbey was mixed.
Vulnerable female residents were abused and exploited, one male member of staff groomed a resident from she was 14-years-old and went on to have a clandestine relationship with her for 14 and half years after she left care.
Lissue House was only included in the HIA inquiry after this paper's health correspondent revealed abuse at the medical facility dating back to the early 1970s.
Sir Anthony found some children were "systemically" sexually abused, others drugged and restrained.
And so it goes on, horror story after horror story. The most vulnerable section of society abused, exploited and neglected.
It will be an unforgivable miscarriage of justice if those abused victims are failed once again.
The institutions responsible must now be forced to contribute financially to compensate those they failed so badly.
And the first item on the agenda of any newly elected assembly must be to right this wrong.