- Volume 1
- Volume 2
-
Volume 3
- Introduction
- Methodology
- Social and demographic profile of witnesses
- Circumstances of admission
- Family contact
- Everyday life experiences (male witnesses)
- Record of abuse (male witnesses)
- Everyday life experiences (female witnesses)
- Record of abuse (female witnesses)
- Positive memories and experiences
- Current circumstances
- Introduction to Part 2
- Special needs schools and residential services
- Children’s Homes
- Foster care
- Hospitals
- Primary and second-level schools
- Residential Laundries, Novitiates, Hostels and other settings
- Concluding comments
- Volume 4
Chapter 14 — Children’s Homes
BackCurrent circumstances
Sixteen (16) witnesses described feelings of terror, anger and disconnectedness associated with childhood trauma. Others described the fear and enduring shame that sexual abuse generated in them as children and eight witnesses described ongoing psychological and sexual difficulties associated with their sexual abuse. I didn’t go home.... I just started wandering here and there. I went to ...named place of refuge.... I was 13 or 14. I stayed in hostels. Once I came out of there ...(Children’s Home)... I went to hell on the drink, life was really difficult. My life was destroyed, as I get older it gets worse. I ended up in psychiatric hospitals, I used to cut myself up.... I would just get depressed and start thinking of the things that were done to me, it ...(experiences of sexual abuse)...would play on your mind. Then you would think of suicide, I tried it several times, I was sent to the hospital then. I was off drink for several years.... We were sent there ...(Children’s Home)... to be corrected not to be abused like that. I still wake up at night, some nights I am afraid to go asleep at night, thinking ...(over 20)... years down the road that someone has just come into the room, thinking I am back at that place again, that this ...(sexual and physical abuse)... is happening all over again. Counselling has helped a good bit, but it can’t really bring out what’s happened to you, it can’t take away what’s happened to you.
Many witnesses commented on their limited potential in employment situations due to the neglect of their education. Others reported having difficulty with authority, never looking for promotion, being constantly vigilant and as one witness remarked in relation to the workplace ‘I kept my head down’. A male witness who described continuing difficulties in many areas of his life stated: Nearly every job I had I lost it over the drink because I couldn’t handle it ... (memories of sexual abuse) ... I’d feel more relaxed with the drink otherwise I’d be as nervous as hell... I kind of block it out now, they are bad thoughts ... I just try and get on ... I came ... (to hearing) ... for someone to talk to, you see there is very few people you can talk to. I never tell anybody. I didn’t tell her ... (spouse) ... most of it. I just told them ... (children) ... I was in an orphanage.
As previously reported male and female witnesses stated that their experience of abuse influenced their relationships, particularly as a result of their inability to trust, the sense of shame and the lack of confidence they have endured throughout their lives. I couldn’t really meet people ... I was so used to the orphanage, it was a confined place. It’s hard to explain, you get very paranoid and all of a sudden you think someone is going to force you or something like that... • I didn’t know how to behave with people outside ... I didn’t feel good about myself. I had such an inferiority complex and I didn’t know how to behave ... when I went to a party I’d sit in a corner ...
The separation from their parents and siblings and the difficulties encountered when re-establishing contact with their families following discharge was reported as a continued source of distress and anger for a number of witnesses. A female witness commenting on her attempts to re-establish a relationship with her mother stated: I still wanted to get to know her. I still wanted to understand. I still wanted to be with her ... we just didn’t get on ... all the anger came out ... there was never any closeness there, ever ever. It was so sad ...
Many witnesses reported a life-long history of difficulties coping with everyday life and socialisation. The reported difficulties included isolation, withdrawal, feeling different from their peers, and being unable to show affection to their partners and children. Approximately half of the witnesses reported having been assisted through counselling.
This section of the Report has summarised the experiences of the 61 witnesses who reported abuse in Children’s Homes over a period of 73 years, the majority of whom were discharged after 1960.
Footnotes
- Officers – Children’s officers were employed by local health authorities prior to 1970 and were increasingly replaced by social workers thereafter.
- Children Act, 1908 section 64.
- Foster care – previously known in Ireland as ‘boarding out’, also referred to as ‘at nurse’, is a form of out-of-home care that allows for a child to be placed in a family environment rather than an institution.
- Special needs services – includes day and residential schools and facilities designated to meet the educational needs of children with intellectual, physical or sensory impairments. Such services were generally managed by religious congregations and were both publicly and privately funded.
- The categorisation is based on Census 2002, Volume 6 Occupations, Appendix 2, Definitions – Labour Force. In two-parent households the father’s occupation was recorded and in other instances the occupational status of the sole parent was recorded, in so far as it was known.
- Formal child care training was first established in Ireland in the 1970s.
- Primary Certificate – examination certificate awarded at the end of primary school education, it was abolished in 1967.
- Note – a number of witnesses were admitted to more than one Children’s Home, and made reports of abuse in more than one Children’s Home, therefore, the number of reports are greater than the number of witnesses.
- Section 1(1)(a)
- Section 1(1)(b)
- Section (1)(1)(c) as amended by section 3 of the 2005 Act
- Section 1(1)(d) as amended by section 3 of the 2005 Act