Chapter 7 — Record of abuse (male witnesses)

Emotional abuse

A large number of witnesses reported the continuing traumatic impact for them of being gathered together to watch co-residents being beaten: A Brother beat this kid for a half hour. We were all crying. His brother was crying, he was in bits. Mr ...X (lay ancillary worker)... stood there and watched that and never lifted a finger. Them things stay on your mind ...(the memory of it).... You don’t have to think about it, it’s there, you’d be lying in bed and it would come to you. • (Named co-resident)... was a lovely lad. He used to sing and we would sit around listening, he always knew all the words. He and another boy decided to run away, we were all punished, there were no films and we all went to bed early, we cursed them. They were gone for a week and eventually brought back. We were all lined up and they were battered, then 4 Brothers took them into a room, with hurling sticks and leathers, we could hear them screaming, when they came out they were unrecognisable, purple ears, totally closed up eyes, backside totally out of shape, I’ll never forget it. You heal, but it takes months and you’re never the same again after it. I never heard him singing after that.

Thirty two (32) witnesses reported being ostracised by their peers or were otherwise isolated while resident in the Schools. This was a practice for punishing returned absconders in a number of Schools. Witnesses also reported being physically isolated in the infirmaries following a severe beating while their bruises and injuries healed. They reported being confined to bed for days or weeks without contact with their peers or co-residents. A small number of witnesses reported being locked in animal sheds and outhouses as punishment for perceived misdemeanours.

Isolation from the ‘outside world’ was frequently described by witnesses, especially those who had lived at home and been part of a community, attending school, playing and having the freedom to associate with others. Many commented on the fact that the Schools themselves were so isolated that they rarely ever saw anyone apart from their co-residents and staff members. A large number of witnesses emphasised the painful experience of loneliness as a result of both the physical isolation and the regime in the Schools, which kept residents silent for long periods, frowned on the normal rough and tumble of play and forbade or discouraged friendships and contact between siblings.

The Committee heard evidence that residents were regularly reminded of the possibility of further isolation by being sent away to a more restrictive institution as punishment. They understood that there were harsher and less physically accessible Schools where boys were sent when they got into trouble. The disappearance of co-residents who had been severely beaten contributed to the sense of fear reported by witnesses in this regard. One afternoon we were all sitting at our desks and about 6 Brothers came in, they pulled out this boy and they beat him, kicked him, punched him and they used to have big straps at him.... They carried him off somewhere.... This little boy was as hard as nails, he couldn’t cry we knew that, he had no tears, you wouldn’t go against him, he would flatten you. I never did know what happened to that boy, he just vanished poor devil. I never saw him again. You see in School you don’t say nothing, you mind your own business, you don’t even look, like that, you use your eyes, nothing else.

Eight (8) witnesses reported that they themselves were transferred to other institutions when they were returned after running away or following altercations with staff. Six (6) of these transfers occurred without prior notice and, in three instances reported to the Committee, witnesses believed they occurred without the appropriate legal arrangements being made or parents notified. One witness reported being severely beaten by a nun on a daily basis, and was threatened that if he told anyone about being abused he would be beaten more severely and separated from his peers, a threat that was ultimately carried out: ‘I used get so angry with the beatings I got from her, I broke a ... bottle and she ...(Sr X)... sent me to ...(the)... psychiatric hospital’. As punishment for running away Br ...X... used to have me kneeling on my knees on concrete until we went to bed at night. ... I had a hard time there, the physical abuse was brutal. Every chance I got I ran away I would be brought back and I would get a hiding from Br ...X.... We ...ran away.... We were brought back and I got a hiding off Br ...X.... We were brought into Court in ...named town... the next day. We were remanded and we were brought back to ...named School.... The following week then we went into Court and I was sent to ...another named School....

Witnesses reported that the experience of living in the regimented School system contributed to a sense of having no individual identity. The use of an allocated number instead of a name was reported by 25 witnesses and many others stated that they were either not spoken to individually or were only ever referred to by their surname. Ordinary daily activities were ordered by bells and whistles, and for witnesses discharged prior to the 1970s most of those activities were conducted in large groups. Witnesses who had spent most of their childhood in institutions and/or had no family contact described an accompanying sense of being ‘nobody’. Additional components of the deprivation of identity were a lack of recognition of witnesses’ birthdays and the denial of sibling relationship, even when brothers or sisters were in the same School. Witnesses reported being discharged without any information regarding their date and place of birth and that the subsequent search for this information was not always fruitful. Two (2) witnesses who spent their entire childhoods in institutions reported being unable to apply for passports because they have never been able to establish a birth record or obtain a birth certificate. You had your number on the clothes. You were called by number or they would say “you, you”. Some of them would call you by name. • We came to Ireland...(to get passport)...because we wanted to go to Spain, but my birth was not registered so I could not get it. • You never remember anybody there because you never knew anybody by names, you were just there as a number.... • I got some bits of paper off the Department of Education that gave me some idea, because before that I hadn’t got a clue. I just thought I was born and got put away.

Knowledge of abuse

Due to the generally public and frequent nature of the physical and emotional abuse inflicted on residents, witnesses stated that staff and co-residents were unavoidably aware of its occurrence. Witnesses also reported disclosing abuse to their parents, relatives and people in authority, both within the institution and outside, including to gardaí and other professionals. The Committee also heard and was presented with documentary evidence of correspondence between parents and the Department of Education regarding complaints of abuse. Witnesses stated that the response to their disclosures of abuse ranged from being punished and further abused, being ignored or to being protected from harm. In a small number of instances witnesses stated that they were aware that some investigation took place following disclosures of abuse.

Witnesses reported that the abuse they experienced and the injuries they sustained in the course of being abused were observed by others within the School on a daily basis and on occasion by the general public. The following is a list of religious and lay staff identified by witnesses as having observed residents being abused: Care staff 250 reports Authority figures 133 reports Ancillary staff 93 reports Teaching staff 87 reports Resident Managers 61 reports.

Those described as care staff and ancillary workers were both lay and religious. The 133 reports that refer to authority figures relate to religious persons described as ‘in charge’ without reference to their particular role, such as Superior, Reverend Mother, or Sister, Brother or Priest in Charge. The experience of observing others being abused and the frequent failure of staff to intervene in these circumstances was reported by witnesses to be a cause of distress and is described in more detail elsewhere. ‘You’d be black and blue and the teachers would never ask you ...(what had happened)....’

The Committee heard reports that on occasion Brothers had to physically restrain other religious staff who were thought to be in danger of seriously harming a resident. There were occasional accounts heard of staff intervening to terminate an incident of abuse or to rescue a resident from assault by another staff member and move them to safety. He started beating me. I was so frightened, he had the door locked, it was inside in the refectory. He beat me for a long, long time. There was another Brother, an old man, and he tried to get in. He started shouting out in the hall. I had marks on my legs, marks on my back. • He ...(Br X)... caught me ... and he threw me into the piggery.... I was told to stay there, it was locked from the outside. Another Brother came along and he got me out.

Witnesses stated that their abuse was at times evident to members of the public and external professionals who observed them on walks and other activities in the community or who may have tended their injuries when they were brought to local hospitals and surgeries. A number of witnesses reported being treated sympathetically by members of the public on occasion and believed it was in response to awareness of their abuse.

One hundred and forty six (146) of the 413 witnesses (35%) reported that they told an adult they were being physically or sexually abused, 42 of them reported disclosing abuse to more than one person. The disclosures were to adults in positions of perceived trust and authority both within and external to the Schools. The following table lists the positions witnesses understood were held by the adults to whom they disclosed their abuse while still resident:

To whom disclosed abuse while resident	Number of reports
Parents or relatives	62
Religious
- Staff	32
- Resident Manager	26
- Non-staff	13
Lay
- Staff	20
External professionals
- Medical staff	19
- Garda Síochaána	14
- Social workers	2
Total	188

As can be seen, the largest number of disclosures was made to parents or relatives. Collectively, there were 78 reports of disclosure to religious and lay staff including care, teaching and ancillary staff. Those described as religious non-staff were priests in the Confessional and other religious Brothers, clergy and nuns who were not members of the School staff, but were associated with the Schools either by their proximity or some visiting arrangement.

Witness accounts of disclosing abuse to external professionals refer to medical staff seen while attending hospitals for the treatment of injuries, doctors who attended the Schools to treat injuries and social workers. Many witnesses expressed enduring anger about the inaction of people they perceived to have the necessary authority to intervene and protect them. I remember Dr ...X... from the town stitched me up once when I had my lip split open by Br ...Y.... But I was warned to tell the doctor I had fallen or he ...(Br Y)... would get me.

A number of witnesses reported being threatened that if they told anyone about the abuse they had experienced there would be more severe repercussions. Five witnesses stated that members of the religious staff visited them or their parents at home to reinforce their warning not to report or disclose their abuse. One time I had to go to hospital ...following severe beating.... Fr ...X... came down to my mother’s house, and he begged my mother, on his knees on the floor in my mother’s house for forgiveness for what they done. They beat me so bad they got worried. My mother forgave them, he wouldn’t go out of the house until she did. She told me this in later years. • Br ...X... followed me up to ...home town... and went up to my mother’s house, and he brought me over to a guest house and ...described sexual abuse.... At that time he threatened me that if I opened my mouth I would go back and do the time ...(remaining period of Court Order)... even in years to come, and at that time we were used to being told these things.