Chapter 13 — St. Patrick’s Kilkenny

Allegations of physical abuse

He said that this cold bath and physical punishment continued daily, from the age of five to the age of 10: I suppose every morning when I got up it was something I knew I would have to face, this punishment for wetting the bed. There was nights where I did get up and I was terrified to go to the toilets, it was easier just to wet the bed.

During his time there, corporal punishment was administered for misbehaviour: I received severe beatings when I was, as they say, bold. One of the things the nuns sort of enmeshed into the boys, into me, when I go to [another industrial school] to the Christian Brothers, they would teach me manners. By the time it did come to the stage when we would be going to [another industrial school] we were terrified of [another industrial school] before we ever went there.

Another complainant, who was in St Patrick’s in the 1960s, was committed by the courts for stealing when he was eight years old. He was brought down handcuffed by two Gardaí. He described what happened to him: When I went out first I was frightened, I was nervous, I was crying for several nights wanting to go home and that and I started wetting the bed. The nun used to come and stick my face in it. Then she would start calling me two and three times a night to go to the toilet. That went on for quite some time there.

He explained that he had not suffered from this problem before coming to St Patrick’s, apart from once or twice. In St Patrick’s it was a regular problem. He said that he was called out regularly during the night, and that meant he did not wet every night. On one occasion, a nun tied him up with a towel because he was wetting so much: If I couldn’t stay in the bed without wetting it then she would put me in a place where I could wet all I wanted and it wouldn’t make any difference. That was the kind of attitude that was taken ... I went out to the toilet after the one gave me a belt on the back of the neck to get me out of the bed. She followed me out to the toilet, I was lying on the floor and she pulled my legs up on the rails and tied my legs to the rails, I was upside down. She went out and closed the door. I thought I was going to be left there all night. That was it. It could have been five minutes or five hours, I don’t know. She came back in then and put me back in the bed.

Shortly after that incident, he ran away from St Patrick’s: It was shortly after the hanging me up by the feet, because not only was I going to bed nervous but I also was wondering was this going to happen again or would she leave me there, call me earlier, leave me there longer. I didn’t know. I had to try and get away.

He got as far as Kilkenny station when he was found by two nuns from the convent and brought back: ‘I got a hiding’, he said, ‘I got the head boxed off me’.

This witness had very specific memories of incidents but was not able to remember the names of the nuns. He explained why: There was two nuns there, I don’t know their names. When I was there the people that was there were just nuns. Like, there was no names, there was no – it was Sister this and Sister that ... it was just Sister, Sister, Sister, there was no names that I can remember.

A witness who was in St Patrick’s during the 1960s recalled the punishment for bed-wetting: My memories are very limited. One of the most profound memories in my mind was being made to stand against a wall for hours and hours on end ... In the end I would end up banging my head off the wall.

He said that this standing against the wall occurred mainly during the night in the dormitory: Mostly at night-time. I remember it used to go on until it became dawn outside ... I think it was a standard form of punishment, if you like.

There would sometimes be other boys with him, and it would be a form of punishment for doing things like wetting the bed. It happened about twice a week and it was also accompanied by physical punishment: I remember a cane used to be brought down on the palm of the hand ... I remember the sound of the cane as it hit the apron as a warning sort of thing and then you got it.

When asked whether he had any happy memories of Kilkenny he said: None at all. I have no other memories of Kilkenny whatsoever.

A witness, who was in St Patrick’s in the 1960s for five years, recalled two lay teachers who inflicted severe punishment: Ms Adams,2 she was a very big woman. One could imagine a child of seven years of age or around that age group, this woman, we wore short trousers in the School at the time, she would open the collar of the shirt, you could have been caught talking in Mass or they would see fit at the time themselves that you would be misbehaving, she would be able to catch you by the collar of the shirt like that (indicating), with the strength of her upper hands she would be able to lift you up that way, upside down. Ms Spencer3 would give you a good beating with a leg of a chair or lump of a stick, whichever she would have at the time. That could happen maybe two or three times a week depending on what way they felt ... It wasn’t an isolated, no.

He explained: Ms Adams would have held you up and Ms Spencer would have done the beating ... She held you up by the back of the collar of the shirt and trousers being short trousers, she was able to catch the two legs of the trousers and she would hold you horizontally ... Ms Spencer would beat you on the legs and on the bottom with a stick ... A leg of a chair.

This witness attended school at a local De la Salle National School. He said that three Brothers took the view that the boys from the convent needed toughening up: They always had the tendency, there was myself and another chap there, you were from the convent, you were maybe soft as in too well looked after and plenty of good beatings with the cane wouldn’t go astray on you. It would harden you up and toughen you up for the outside world when you went away from the nuns.

Another ex-resident, who was in St Patrick’s in the 1950s, recalled a particular beating of a boy, during which four other boys were required to hold him down: It wasn’t me that was held down. It was one of the boys that was asked to accompany the boy that had supposedly done something wrong to hold him down. One had to hold each hand and the others had to hold a leg each and the nun spanked the boy on that table like that.