Chapter 8 — Cappoquin

Sexual abuse

There appears to have been no system for vetting families or of aftercare and, the children themselves were ill-prepared to deal with abuse or exploitation when they left the convent.

A Garda investigation into Cappoquin uncovered serious sexual abuse of younger boys by some older boys. One of the perpetrators admitted sexually abusing boys there. He said that he himself had been abused whilst in care and that, when he was moved to Cappoquin, he knew no better. In his statement, he admitted abusing a pupil whilst there, and this pupil gave evidence to the Investigation Committee, where he described how he had been subjected to sexual assault, including rape, by older boys in Cappoquin. When one of these boys beat his brother badly, he stopped the beating by threatening to tell the Resident Manager what was happening. The sexual abuse stopped after he threatened to tell. This witness also told the Investigation Committee that he observed older boys taking younger boys into their beds at night and he suspected what was going on.

Another witness described how he saw ‘the lads having sex with each other inside in the home’.

Children were left in the care of older boys in the evening, and this practice allowed physical and sexual abuse to occur. The failure to protect children from such abuse was a reckless and negligent breach of duty on the part of the Sisters of Mercy.

General conclusions

General conclusions 1. Many of the faults of the Institution were caused by inept management at local level in the group homes and in the Cappoquin Community. The structure of the Sisters of Mercy, which limited the pool of Sisters who could be appointed as Resident Manager, was a contributory factor, but there was a fundamental failure by the Institution and the Community to give priority to the interests of the children in their care. 2. Sisters who gave evidence lacked understanding of the nature and extent of the malfunction of the Institution and the impact on the children. Even at this remove, some expressed concern for their fellow Sisters but did not feel that, as a Congregation, they let the children down. Lay staff confirmed that most of the Sisters in Cappoquin were cold and unfeeling towards the children, although one or two Sisters were mentioned by complainants as being kind and caring. 3. Organisations providing care for the needy and vulnerable must have procedures for monitoring the service, but this was not the case in this Institution. The Community in Cappoquin was inward-looking and motivated by loyalty to its own members, to the detriment of the children in care. 4. The Department of Education complained about the neglect in the School in the 1940s, but it was unable to effect any change for far too long. 5. The Department was negligent in inspecting the institution from the mid 1960s onwards and failed to identify the dysfunction in the group homes in the 1980s. 6. The Department of Health did not provide regular supervision of the children whom it placed in Cappoquin and did not carry out proper inspections. The children were let down by those who purported to look after and protect them.