Chapter 13 — St. Patrick’s Kilkenny

Neglect and emotional abuse

Another complainant was also in the School during that period. He was admitted in the mid-1940s after the break-up of his parents’ marriage: Well, food, we could have done with a bit more, you know. You didn’t get a lot for breakfast, there was only a bit of a slice of bread and a mug of tea. You had a bit of dinner then in the middle of the day and you had the same thing as you had for breakfast later on.

A witness who was there in the 1950s was critical of the food. He recalled: It was kind of a green mash, it was cabbage stalks and potatoes ... I remember getting that almost every day I was there: Green mash, bread and dripping, watery Cocoa. Egg flip, that was a kind of boiled milk with boiled eggs chopped up and put into it, you were given a ladle of it. There was other stuff they gave, castor oil with molasses in it in a big ceramic jug. The food wasn’t that good.

A witness who attended the School in the 1960s was quite clear that he had fared better in St Patrick’s than he would have at home: I know myself that you got food on a regular basis there; you got your breakfast, your dinner, your tea and you got cocoa going to bed. Food was not a problem there, I never felt hungry there. I might have felt frightened but I never felt hungry.

General conclusions

General conclusions. It was not possible for a handful of nuns to give an appropriate level of care to nearly 200 very young boys, irrespective of how hard–working and dedicated they were. 2. There was no accountability in the administration of punishment. 3. The authorities in St Patrick’s failed in their duty to keep proper records. The absence of documentary evidence, accordingly, does not mean that there was no abuse. 4. Record keeping is part of the duty of care and is intended to make an institution accountable. The absence of records has put both the Sisters of Charity and the witnesses at a disadvantage.