Chapter 7 — Record of abuse (male witnesses)

Emotional abuse

Witnesses who gave evidence to the Committee were of the opinion that bullying by older residents was used to maintain control in some Schools with the knowledge and support of those in charge. In other Schools witnesses described poor supervision and staffing, with consequent bullying by older residents who were assigned the task of maintaining order. Bullying, you would see other boys crying, you’d know what had happened. But to go to the Brother, the bullying would only get worse and nothing was going to get done about it. I was fearful every place, the whole environment will haunt me for evermore.

In five Schools older residents were described as monitors in positions of delegated authority. Reports were heard from three Schools of monitors patrolling the recreation yards, sometimes with sticks, and the apparent authority to beat co-residents at will, as described: Supervision by Fr ...X... and his successor was non existent. ... Monitors and bullies had a free rein with younger boys and were abusive. The ...(priests and Brothers)... knew what was happening and turned a blind eye.

Witnessing the abuse of co-residents was reported as disturbing at the time and as contributing to life-long distress. Fifty eight (58) witnesses from nine Schools reported they saw co-residents beaten and flogged; some of these witnesses were forced to hold down co-residents. Those who witnessed public beatings described the experience as distressing and traumatic and many were distressed as they gave their evidence of such beatings. They reported that seeing others being beaten and hearing their screams was often worse than being beaten themselves. This experience was particularly disturbing when they had to watch their own sibling being beaten. Witnesses reported that screaming did not lessen the beating and believed that the screams were intended to be heard as a warning to others. You’d hear the echo. ... You could hear the cries. ... It would sort of echo through the building. You’d hear the boys crying when they’d be getting a beating, and then they would come back into their bed and they would be crying. You couldn’t go near their bed to comfort them, you’d be wanting to, but you couldn’t because you would get it yourself. • You could not hear or talk of the pain ...(to other residents)... when they were beating you. If you did you might feel it too and you couldn’t carry that extra burden, each one had to carry his own pain alone.

A number of witnesses described being made to watch as co-residents were beaten or flogged to the point of severe injury or unconsciousness. We were marched up to a room ... we were put sitting around the gymnastic table, we called it ... the horse, we were put sitting around, from the youngest to the oldest boy. We watched 4 Brothers walk in with 3 boys ...named co-residents.... I know one of them, within a year of leaving he had hung himself ... they were stripped naked while the Brothers held their hands and their legs and this Br ...X... removing his soutane and his collar dramatically began to flog these guys within an inch of their life. Observing excrement coming out of the boys’ behind and blood flowing down their legs, I literally trembled and I know kids all around us trembled in silence, some were crying for the poor boys. Their screams for mercy were seared into your very brain.

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.