Chapter 11 — Current circumstances

Effects on adult life

Two hundred and thirty four (234) witnesses (30%) described themselves as withdrawn and also stated that they had difficulty relating socially and felt different to others. Many described feeling isolated, frequently moving home, and feeling generally disconnected. You had to survive on your own, always on your own.There was nobody to back you up. It’s been like that and I will die like that because I can’t change what happened. I can’t change my personality and the way I am. It’s been like somebody put you in a prison and you are expected to change when you come out. Unless there are services there to help you, and there’s nothing, you are not going to change. You are still going to have the mentality of being a loner and keeping people at a distance and being very anti-establishment. • I never had the equipment to survive any type of close relationship. I never had the ability to survive any close relationship, I couldn’t give enough of myself.

Two hundred and forty two (242) witnesses (31%) reported experiencing nightmares and associated sleep disturbance. It stays with you, it sticks in my mind. You still have the nightmares, they still go on, they haven’t left me yet, I still wake up in the middle of the night.... You went to bed at night you couldn’t move or couldn’t breathe ...(not knowing when)... you would be hit with the hand brush.

Sixty seven (67) witnesses, 42 male and 25 female, reported problems with substance abuse. Thirty nine (39) witnesses, 10 male and 29 female, reported having eating disorders.

There were a range of other adverse effects reported in smaller numbers, by both male and female witnesses. For example, between 75 and 150 male and female witnesses reported significant difficulties with parenting, sexual relationships, and feelings of being powerless and disadvantaged. When I went home I couldn’t communicate with anyone. I couldn’t sit at the table with the family. I used to eat with the chickens out the back, I did not know how to get on with people, I didn’t know what to do.... I only knew beatings. I went off to England, they told me they didn’t want me either, never to come back. I ended up inside ...(in prison)... many times, and tried to hang myself.

A small number of witnesses, both male and female, reported having difficulties as adults establishing their personal and family identity. The evidence reported to the Committee included accounts of having no official record of their birth place or birth certificate, names on birth certificates were found to have been changed by School staff, and requests for clarification of personal and family identity were withheld by religious and State authorities. The witnesses presented correspondence at their hearing that they reported having obtained under the Freedom of Information legislation in relation to these matters. Witnesses reported that they experienced difficulties when applying for passports or pensions in later life and when seeking to trace their parents or family of origin. I had been searching for her ...(mother)... and searching for her, it was my one wish in life to find her. I have done so much trying to search for my family. I had been trying to trace her, that was the sad part ... there was a brick wall every time. I have no certificate, this is what really got me.

A small number of witnesses described being contacted by representatives of the Schools or religious organisations by telephone, personal visits, and through arranged meetings in recent years. Some witnesses reported feeling threatened and intimidated by such contact that they described as being for the purpose of character references for forthcoming court proceedings, offers of compensation and apologies for past abuse. One male witness described a chance encounter in the following account: I met Br ...X.... I saw this man and he said “I know you”, he said “I remember you, you were a Mass server, you were quite good in school”, and he said “I gave you a terrible time in school. I am so sorry, I gave you an awful time and I’m sorry for all the times I hit you, I beat you around the place”. ...distressed and crying... I could have killed him, I felt like killing him, he said “I am so sorry. If it’s any consolation to you, I am sorry for what the School done”. I said nothing to him.

Thirty eight (38) witnesses, 28 male and 10 female, described being thankful for the good lives they have now. Nineteen (19) witnesses, 15 male and four female, reported they experienced no long-term negative effects as a result of their childhood experiences in Schools. Many of these witnesses described their good fortune to have met people who helped them when they left the Schools. Others described the abuse they experienced as an isolated component of their time in institutional care, aspects of which had been positive.

Religion now practised

Two hundred and ninety three (293) witnesses (37%), 156 male and 137 female, stated that they are practising Catholics and 11 others are practising members of different religious denominations.

Many witnesses described themselves as ‘lapsed Catholics’ who had disengaged from the Church, but whose belief in God was unchanged. Witnesses described the continuing anxiety associated with encountering members of religious congregations. ‘I cannot serve a nun now where I work they ...(colleagues)... call it “nun alert”.’ Others reported they avoided entering buildings associated with religious congregations, such as churches and schools, for fear of reactivating memories of their abusive experiences.

One hundred and twenty (120) witnesses (15%), 62 male and 58 female, described themselves as having completely rejected the idea of religion. Sixty three (63) witnesses did not comment on their religious practise.

The following chapters present the evidence of 259 witnesses who reported abuse in ‘Other Institutions’ including 36 witnesses who also reported abuse in Industrial and Reformatory Schools.