Chapter 9 — Clifden

Neglect

A number of complainants stated that they received no information about menstruation or the facts of life. When their periods started, they depended on the older girls to explain what was happening. Girls left Clifden with little or no knowledge of adolescent development and the facts of life and were extremely vulnerable in the outside world. This fact should have been apparent to the Sisters who cared for them.

Sr Carmella gave evidence that the children kept their school clothes in the classroom, and changed before and after school. This was a practice that she had introduced, as the children used come to school late because they could not find items of clothing. They knitted their own jumpers and she helped them make their own skirts. They wore overalls over their clothes after school. The children’s hair was always clean and she never observed any children with lice.

There was undue emphasis on cleaning and polishing the premises of the Industrial School and far less emphasis on the personal cleanliness of the children. The lack of any proper preparation for menstruation was insensitive and amounted to neglect Bed-wetting

One complainant, who was resident in Clifden for 12 years from the late 1950s, stated that children who wet the bed at night did not have sheets. A rubber cover was put over the mattress. They were not permitted to wear nightclothes and slept naked. If they wet the bed, they were beaten. Their blanket would have to be washed that day and put back on the bed semi-dry.

Another former resident in Clifden from the age of 10, who was committed in the late 1950s and remained there until she was discharged at the age of 16, described how children who wet the bed were called ‘pissy beds’. One of the Sisters or a lay worker would make them wrap the wet sheets around them whilst they cleaned under their bed.

A further witness, who was committed to Clifden for just over a year in the early 1960s at the age of 12, recalled one boy who was punished for wetting the bed by being sent out to the cows in the field with his wet sheet wrapped around him.

Bed-wetting was a perennial problem in Clifden and there is no evidence of a more enlightened approach there. One witness gave convincing evidence of boys being left to sleep directly on rubber mattresses without sheets or pillows. This was a harsh treatment for children who wet the bed. Another gave evidence that sheets were put on these beds when the Department inspector was due. The Congregation acknowledged that it was possible that children who wet the bed were treated inappropriately.

Clifden is located in a rural area 50 miles west of Galway City. Public transport consisted of an infrequent bus service. Children were committed from all over the country by the District Courts. Only one of the 10 complainants who gave evidence to the Investigation Committee was from County Galway. A document discovered by the Department which gives details of children in care in the mid-1970s shows that, out of the 48 children in care, only two came from Galway. In contrast, by the early 1980s the majority of children in Clifden were from County Galway and surrounding areas.

Given the fact that the majority of the children placed in care came from deprived backgrounds, it was very difficult for families to maintain contact with their children in Clifden. It is clear that little regard was given to the recommendation, contained in paragraph 52 of the Cussen Report, that children should be sent to industrial schools near their homes whenever practicable.

In the representations made by the Resident Manager to the Department for the admission of junior boys to the School in 1959, and again in 1960, she stated that the admission of young boys with their sisters would keep siblings together and so assist in the formation of familial bonds. She also stated that, in any event, girls in the School met up with their brothers in St Joseph’s Industrial School, Salthill on a regular basis. The Western Health Board, who supported the proposal, reiterated these arguments in their own representations to the Department.

Mr Granville’s Inspection Reports in the 1970s and 1980s make reference, over and over again, to the limited contact between children and their families despite ‘every effort’ being made. He also referred to the lack of personal effects, such as photographs etc.

Sr Casey acknowledged that there was little contact between children and their families, largely because they came from far-flung parts of the country. There were no restrictions imposed by the School on children visiting home, unless it was inappropriate to do so. If family did visit, they were always welcomed and, if they sent gifts or letters, these were passed on to the children.

She stated that children were sent to families in Galway and surrounding counties for holidays from the 1960s, in an effort to give the children some idea of what family life was like.

Many of the complainants have bitter memories of the absence of any effort on the part of the Sisters to maintain links with their families and, in some cases, the derogatory manner in which the Sisters referred to their families.

Sr Carmella was of the view that the children had little knowledge of the outside world and were insular in their outlook: They hadn’t an idea what family life was like. I remember a child asking me – she saw an ad in the paper for Stork margarine, it was a family sitting around the table and she said to me, “is that what a family is like?” They hadn’t a clue. They hadn’t an idea what a dwelling house was like. They were used to big rooms and big utensils and everything big. They just didn’t have a clue, until they went out on holidays later on.