Chapter 15 — Daingean

Physical abuse

Despite his assertion that the practice revolted him, Fr Luca did nothing to stop the ritualistic flogging of boys in Daingean. This punishment was stopped in Daingean, after vigorous intervention by a Department of Justice official, and not because of any initiative on the part of the management. The banning of all corporal punishment followed in 1970. A full account of events at that time is given later in this chapter.

The open and frank discussion between the Oblates and the Department of Education throughout the 1940s and 1950s, on the way in which flogging was administered, revealed indifference by the Department to a flagrant breach of the rules. Flogging was administered in Daingean in a cruel, sadistic and excessive manner designed to maximise the terror of all the boys. It was used in Daingean for a wide range of offences, including those which even at the time would have been considered trivial. The pain caused by the punishment was intense, and victims graphically described to the Committee the physical impact on their bodies. Bruising and scars remained long after the beating was administered. Fr Luca’s stated revulsion to the practice of flogging was contradictory. It was within his power as Manager to put a stop to it and he chose not to do so. The Oblates did not condemn the practice of flogging in their Submission to the Investigation Committee. They contended that it was used only for a breach of the school rules and was administered by the Prefect. They did, however, acknowledge that punishment for absconding was ‘over severe’ but not abusive.

One complainant gave an account of his first day in Daingean, when he got ‘clattered’ unfairly: The first day I got there we were saying the rosary ... when you are brought up to the dormitory, you put on your nightshirt, you stand at your bed, the whole dormitory stands by their beds and [Brother] would stay down in the middle. It was an L shaped dormitory ... he said the rosary and you answered the rosary to him. You kneel at your bed. I fell asleep, I dozed off. I was woke up with a clatter on the back of the head ... He made me stand for a long time after the lads went to bed for falling asleep at the rosary. That was the first day I was actually down there.

When asked why he fell asleep, he explained: I was just tired. I was anxious. I know that I was anxious because I was in Marlborough House, I was in court the first day. Then I got sentenced, then I was brought back to Marlborough House. Then I was waiting on the police to come to collect me to bring me down to Daingean. It is a fairly long journey in them days, it’s not far now. I was kind of tired and I was anxious. It was all kind of new, I remember it quite clear, the day that I went there. The two years, the sentence I got looked like a lifetime to me, that was all on top of me.

A witness described how his name was put down to play Gaelic football but, because he could not play it, he never went out: ‘About a half an hour later the Brother came into the playground and he had a hurling stick and he beat me with he hurling stick ... On my head’. He also indicated that he was hit on the lip with the hurling stick and he ‘... carried the scar for nearly 50 years’.

The same man described another occasion when he was talking in the washroom, ‘... and from nowhere he came behind me and gave me the flat of his hand right across my ear ... It was full force ... I was just thrown across ... a few feet’. This left him with a buzzing or ringing in his ear to this day.

Another complainant made light of many of the blows he had received by saying, ‘I got smacks on the hand and things like that, nothing to cry about ... It was probably something I deserved ...’. He described one beating that he felt was very unfair. He explained: I was having a friendly argument with [Brother], we would always contradict him about football and various things. We were arguing one afternoon ... about soccer. We just contradicted one another. Before I knew it ... [another Brother] ... grabbed me by the shoulders, back of the hair and turned me round and gave me one or two unmerciful thumps in the stomach. I was doubled over. I was sick for a week afterwards or more. [Brother] explained to him about what happened, we were only arguing about football and said “apologise to the man” but he said something under his breath and walked out the same way he came in. That was it.

One complainant gave an account of being kneed in the groin by a Brother: It was just before we said the Angelus. We were in our ranks ready to go to the refectory ... It was about the beginning of the prayers and I was speaking to someone else next to me and then he come up and got me talking. He got so angry and just kneed me ... He just came up with his knee ... There was a couple of fellows held me up ... I was in pain ... I couldn’t eat or couldn’t drink or anything. Shortly after that I was taken away in a car.

Records show that the complainant was admitted to Tullamore Hospital for two weeks, and was operated on for a hernia. He said: ‘I never got a visit’. He added. ‘I was just left there on my own for two weeks and my parents weren’t told about it’.

Another witness recounted an incident by the handball alley: ‘I was playing handball one day in the alley and the ball got caught in the wire’. He said he had to jump up onto a shed to ‘hit the ball down’. A Brother saw him getting down off the shed and told him that he should have sought permission. The witness said that the Brother then ‘started punching me in the face’ which resulted in him receiving a black eye and a split lip.

A further witness told of another incident which took place in the yard where he ‘... and another chap were going to box over a game of handball’. The Brother on duty in the yard that day punched him on the side of the head. He said ‘I hit the ground and then he started kicking me and he said, “In future don’t start any trouble here”. I was made facing the wall for the rest of the period of the time that we were out on recreation’.

A boy who was suspected of stealing was dealt with summarily by a Brother when he was brought to Daingean by two Gardaí: I was met as I walked on the front lawn right near the office doors, I was met by a Prefect ... He looked a very religious, sincere man and a crucifix in his cassock down here and he had his hands behind his back ... I said, “Hello Father”. He said, “They are a nice pair of boots you are wearing, they must have cost a lot of money”. I said, “About three pounds 10 shillings”. I remember getting a clout to the side of my head, a punch to the side of my head ... It knocked me. It wasn’t a slap, it was a punch. My ear was turned blue for a couple of days after, maybe a week after. The two Gardaí was there standing watching. They were within six feet of him when he done this and I was knocked to the ground, I was knocked quite a distance away with the punch he hit me in the side of the head.

The Brother thought he was telling lies and told him to take the boots off, which he did, and the Brother then handed them to the Gardaí and said: ‘He took them from Marlborough House’.

Another boy described being questioned about some stolen car keys: It was in the spud shed. The spud shed was actually at the back of the kitchen, at the back of the boot shop ... I had stolen some keys from a technical teacher in an attempt to abscond in his Volkswagen Beetle car and [the Brother] was told that I was the one who had the keys or had stolen the keys ... He was asking me where the keys were and I said I didn’t have them. He just choked me unconscious, he got me on the pile of potatoes and I thought this is it ... He got both his hands around my throat ... I was gone, I thought I was dead. I felt myself go.

He recalled that when he regained consciousness he was cold, and he remembered ‘waking up shaking, maybe it was from fear, I don’t know ...’.