Chapter 14 — Children’s Homes

Everyday life in children’s homes

Witnesses commented that religion was an important aspect of everyday life and 44 witnesses reported religious practices that included attendance at daily Mass, reciting the Rosary, and attending Sunday Church. ...Named Children’s Home... was modelled on religious life, a very strict regime. The silence was constant except for very short periods, you could speak only if spoken to.

Twelve (12) witnesses, reported visits by adults from outside the institutions including benefactors, the Cigire in the classroom, and others whose identity was not always clear to witnesses. One witness recalled the visit of prospective foster parents who walked up and down a line of residents for the purpose of selecting a child for fostering. Many reported that preparations were made for these visits, which included cleaning the institutions, residents being provided with special clothing and toys, and improvements in food for the duration of the visit. Others commented that the residents were never spoken to during these visits. There was a big flap every now and again when visitors came, some of them were charity people. ... Children in the lower grades were given the toys that were on shelves or on windows and which they didn’t know how to handle and were afraid to do anything with in case of punishment later.

Witnesses commonly reported that they were not adequately prepared for discharge and that the transition to independent living was often difficult. Witnesses, who had been in institutions since early childhood, described feeling abandoned, displaced and lost on leaving the Children’s Homes. Other witnesses for whom family contact had been maintained by visits and holidays throughout their admission generally reported continued family contact following their discharge.

The Committee heard evidence of ongoing difficulties from those witnesses whose siblings had been placed in different institutions or for whom family contact had been restricted or not supported. Witnesses’ evidence of loss of contact with siblings during admission and the subsequent difficulties reconnecting with family members when they were discharged is described later in this chapter. One male witness discharged in the 1980s gave an account of his discharge experience: I was given a bus ticket and told to get the bus, my family lived in ...named town... many miles away. I did not return home as I was not wanted. There was no follow-up by the service. I spent many years drifting.

Witnesses reported being discharged from Children’s Homes to a variety of settings. Nineteen (19) witnesses reported that arrangements were made for them to work in live-in positions with families, or to be placed in hostels where some follow-up was provided. Others reported that they were encouraged to continue their education and were supported in applying for occupational training when they were discharged. Eight (8) witnesses, five male and three female, were discharged to their extended family.

Record of abuse

The Committee heard 65 reports of abuse from 61 witnesses, 38 male and 23 female, in relation to 19 Children’s Homes over the period 1919 to 1992.8 Four (4) male witnesses each reported abuse in two Children’s Homes. Reports of abuse by a witness may be either descriptions of a single incident of abuse or multiple experiences of abuse over a period of time. The Committee heard multiple abuse reports in relation to nine of the 19 homes reported: Six (6) Homes were each the subject of between four and 10 reports, totalling 63 reports (47 male and 16 female). Three (3) Homes were each the subject of either two or three reports, totalling 31 reports (18 male and 13 female). Ten (10) Homes were each the subject of single reports, five male and five female.

Witnesses reported all four types of abuse: physical and sexual abuse, neglect and emotional abuse alone and in combination, as follows: Fifty seven (57) witnesses reported physical abuse. Forty two (42) witnesses reported emotional abuse. Forty one (41) witnesses reported neglect. Twenty nine (29) witnesses reported sexual abuse.

Table 73 outlines the combinations and frequency of abuse types, as reported by witnesses:

Abuse types and combinations	Number of reports
Physical, emotional and neglect	16
Physical, sexual, emotional and neglect	15
Physical and emotional	7
Physical and neglect	6
Physical, sexual and emotional	5
Physical, sexual and neglect	5
Physical and sexual	4
Physical	3
Sexual and emotional	1
Sexual	1
Emotional	1
Neglect	1
Total	65

Fifty (50) witnesses reported that abuse was a regular occurrence either witnessed or experienced on a daily basis. As indicated above, the most frequently reported combination of abuse types by both male and female witnesses were physical and emotional abuse with neglect. The Committee heard 30 witness reports of sexual abuse in combination with other types of abuse.

Physical abuse

The wilful, reckless or negligent infliction of physical injury on, or failure to prevent such injury to, the child.9 This section describes witness reports of incidents of physical abuse, non-accidental injury, and lack of protection from harm. The reports included detailed and disturbing accounts of assaults experienced. The forms of physical abuse included beating, punching, kicking, assault with implements and being immersed in water.

Fifty seven (57) witnesses, 36 male and 21 female, who gave evidence to the Committee reported physical abuse in 19 Children’s Homes. Witnesses made 61 reports of physical abuse over a 70-year period. The number of witness reports of physical abuse in different Homes varied as follows: Two (2) Children’s Homes were collectively the subject of 24 reports. Seven (7) Children’s Homes were the subject of between two and five reports, totalling 27 reports. Ten (10) Children’s Homes were the subject of single reports.

Witnesses reported being physically abused for many reasons or for no reason that they could understand. Many gave accounts of being constantly fearful of physical punishment. Behaviours precipitating abuse included bed-wetting, disclosing abuse, underachieving in the classroom, failure to meet expected standards of personal care and care of their clothing, running away, breaking the rule of silence, taking food, and other perceived misconduct.

Witnesses from four Children’s Homes gave accounts of a harsh environment where explosive episodes of physical abuse were experienced or witnessed, with no understanding of why they were happening. Some witnesses reported being beaten in association with sexual abuse.

Nine (9) witnesses from a small number of Homes described being beaten in the presence of staff and co-residents, when they were either partially undressed or stripped naked.

Witness reports of physical abuse included being punched, kicked, hit with knuckles, hair pulled and cut, being force fed, and lifted by the ears and hair. The Committee also heard reports of witnesses being forced to kneel for long periods, being beaten on the feet, backs of the hands, fingertips and legs. They also described their heads being hit off radiators, wedged in a door or submerged under water. The witnesses reported being beaten with various implements including leathers, sticks, strips of rubber, brushes, hurleys, badminton racquets, rulers, whips and bunches of keys. A small number of witnesses reported being forced to eat quantities of mustard, having their mouths and other body parts, including genitalia, scrubbed with nailbrushes, and being held under a cold tap. On a Saturday morning we used to do work around the orphanage, clean up, sweep up floors, that sort of thing.... We had to clean up around old fashioned urinals, pick up papers out of the shore, that was my job. I was only 8, 9, or 10 at the time.... One day he .... (named religious staff)... was not happy with the result of what I had done, that resulted in another frenzied attack of kicking.... He punched me, straight in with the fist and when you’re down the boot came out then. You’re a kid, you’re in a ball trying to protect yourself the best possible way. • Sr ...X... beat me at night, before I would go to sleep, to stop me from wetting the bed. When that didn’t work she beat me before I would go to school, this continued over all the years in the orphanage, she made me an example. It went on ’til I was 13 ...(years old)... everyday. I learned not to cry, she would hit me more if I did cry. Before she beat me I would have to carry my sheets across through the house to the laundry, she would bend me over a bath or over the rocking horse and on bare skin she would beat me with whatever was handy, cane, strap or brush. The final straw was Sr ...X... came into the bathroom and said “by the time I have finished with you ...(witness’s surname)... the devil will be out of you”. She had the bath ready, she had this nailbrush, she scrubbed my private area with it so much I was so sore, then she decided to put my head underwater ...(saying)... “you will be clean after this”. I had to fight for breath I couldn’t breathe, it seemed like an endless time, as if she wasn’t going to stop, I was frozen. • He ... (named male religious staff )... would lift boys by forelocks and try to punch boys where bruising would not show.