Chapter 15 — Daingean

Physical abuse

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 ...’.

Another complainant told of a beating he received after an accident: there is one occasion where I was painting up a ladder. Now, I had to carry the paint in one hand, and the brush in my other hand and climb the ladder. I think I was about twelve foot high when I missed my footing and fell off the ladder ... I got an unmerciful beating for that ... there was no rhyme or reason to beat me for that.

He added: Now, how can you hit somebody if they fall off a ladder? The first normal reaction of anybody would be to go to their side and say “are you all right” not go and knock hell out of them.

Br Abran who appeared before the Committee talked about this policy of hitting children. He said that there were times when staff would have to administer punishment on an ad hoc basis: if there was a fight going on or some weapons being used or if somebody got head butted ... In many cases the boys preferred to be punished in those circumstances rather than be sent to the disciplinarian because they would be deprived of films which was more important in their life than ordinary things. I know that sounds weird, that was their mentality.

He explained he used a strap, which was made in the boot shop and was issued to him, until a boy stole it from him and threw it down the toilet. He didn’t bother to get another in case it happened again, and also because he was no longer on duty in the square. From then on, he said, ‘If such a situation did arise I might have given a slap or something like that for whatever serious infringement would be involved’.