Chapter 7 — Record of abuse (male witnesses)

Physical abuse

Witnesses from all Schools described being physically abused by religious staff in the course of playing football and hurling. Among the methods of abuse described was a practice of excessive use of force in play by certain priests and Brothers and putting less able residents or those selected for punishment between the goal posts as target practice for hurling and football.

In six Schools witnesses described being beaten for winning a game or a point against a Brother and/or being punished if the team lost a match against an outside team. This threat of punishment was described by one witness as making them ‘ferocious opponents with a reputation for being hard’. In the sports Br ...X... was involved in hurling and football, if you weren’t up to scratch, particularly hurling, a fist would come out of nowhere and he would hit you. You’d be walloped ...(by Br X)... on the field. • Br ...X... and Br ...Y... were like 2 bruisers going around, you wouldn’t mind the regular punches and belts as they were passing any day, but Br ...X... beat the shit out of me like I was a punch bag in front of all the others at a football match. ... He picked me up, head butted me, kicked me and left me in a terrible state to show me and all of us who was boss. I got the worst hiding ever ... beaten with the leather and stick. I had cracked ribs, my face was bruised and swollen, I was kicked in the head and stomach.

Playing soccer was reported as forbidden in a large number of Schools, with 10 witness accounts of being beaten when caught. Another time I was caught heading the ball, you were not allowed play soccer you know, by Br ...X.... He said “I warned you”. He caught me and brought me around to the toilets. He had this tyre like you’d have at home, off a pram you know ...(witness described being beaten with a rubber tyre)... . He left me ...crying.... God, the fucking swelling that came up ...crying... you’d try and pull away and he’d hit you on top of the head and hit you with his fists.

Music practice rooms and gymnasiums were also reported as locations for physical abuse in many of the Schools reported to the Committee. These discrete locations were reported to also allow opportunities for boys to be isolated. Twenty five (25) witnesses from a small number of Schools reported severe physical abuse in the context of band activities. These reports were most often connected to the specific staff member in charge of the activity. In general, reports of physical abuse in these locations were routine and frequently associated with sexual abuse. It was 7 nights a week practice ...(band)... until you were 16, 7 to 10 at night. The other lads would be playing soccer or watching TV. He Br ...X... he would know straight away who was playing a false note. The first one who played a false note he would clatter with his hand he would just lift you up, catch you by the hair like that and lift you off the chair and clatter you as you were going down.

A small number of Schools were reported to have had boxing clubs. Nine (9) witnesses reported being abused in the context of boxing activities, including being pitted against older, stronger residents as a punishment. One witness reported that he was ordered by a Brother to join the boxing club, but he refused as he had no interest in boxing. The witness reported that for a week afterwards he was taken from his bed each night and beaten with a strap by the same Brother. He eventually agreed to join the club and was forced to spar with other residents who were more experienced, he was repeatedly beaten in the ring. The witness believed these beatings in the boxing ring stopped when a lay staff member threatened to go to the gardaí. Witnesses also reported being made to box in the ring as a punishment for fighting amongst themselves: If you were caught fighting you were made ...(by Br X)... to put on gloves and fight the other boy involved. It could be you were picked on by a bigger boy in the first place, who then got permission to beat you properly.

Other witness reports regarding boxing included being made to fight regardless of fear, being forced to participate in a boxing competition for the entertainment of visiting Brothers and being forced to fight naked.

One hundred and forty eight (148) witnesses made 197 reports of being physically abused in the context of work, including being hit, kicked, punched and beaten. Farm work, trade shops and kitchens were the most frequently reported areas of work associated with physical abuse, particularly among those discharged before 1980. Witnesses reported that particularly harsh religious and lay staff were in charge of work in these areas in a number of Schools. The conditions under which residents were at times required to work were also reported as abusive in certain Schools. Witnesses stated that the relative seclusion of work areas from the main thoroughfare of activity in the Schools further increased the risk of abuse – for example kitchens and farm sheds where residents were often reported to have worked in isolation with a single staff member.

There were 97 reports of being physically abused while working on the farms, in the farmyards, tending farm animals and in the fields attached to the Schools. There were a further 19 reports of being abused while working on the bogs. Witnesses described physically punishing work such as picking and breaking stones, cutting turf, pulling beet by hand from the ground, turning hay by hand, pulling trees from the ground, cutting timber and manually compacting silage. In addition to being abused while they worked, witnesses also described physically punishing work: They used to get the tractor to cut the grass, to save the hay. They used to get a line of us along one end of the field and bend over and physically scrape all the grass with our hands.... Named lay ancillary worker... used to be there with a big stick and if you stood up you got a smack of it across the back of the head or the back. We used to have to pull the trees and the stumps up out of the ground with chains and move big rocks with a chain. Your hands would be blue.... • Br ...X... I learned to hate, he was the most evil .... Any dirty job I would get it, he took a dislike to me. I always got the job of staying up when the little piglets would be born, up all night. One day the sow had lain on top of the piglets and some of them were dead. That man he was evil, you’d think I had shot somebody the hiding he gave me. ... I was horse whipped with the leather, beaten to a pulp ... crying and screaming and wet myself ... when he stopped he said “now pull up your trousers and go and feed those pigs”. • I couldn’t lift the buckets ...(working on the farm).... He, Br ...X... had a big long stick, he was whipping you across the legs, across the arse like he would a cow. I couldn’t lift the buckets. • One time when I was learning how to milk, the cow put her hoof in the bucket and Br ...X... lifted me by the ears, the skin come off under his nails, and threw me on the ground,. He gave me a few digs and boxed me in the ribs, just hit you anywhere he liked. The next morning I fell off the stool and the same thing happened again, my ears were bleeding.

There were 41 reports of being physically abused while working in the kitchens, mainly those attached to the Schools where food for the residents was prepared and served. Eleven (11) reports were from one School and almost all referred to one particular Brother. There were nine reports from a second School where the kitchen was also the domain of a Brother reported to be particularly harsh. Witnesses reported being abused in many ways, including being beaten, having their heads plunged into sinks of water, locked into fridges, and deliberately scalded as punishments for dropping crockery, saucepans of food, taking food, not working quickly enough, and burning food. He Br ...X... used to run the kitchen, he had this habit of waving his big leather strap ... and any time he felt like it he would just hit you. You would get a couple of clatters for no particular reason. ... He was wired to the moon.

There were 26 witness reports of physical abuse in the weaving, tailoring, shoemaking, darning and painting workshops. They reported that these areas were under the charge of staff, most of whom were lay ancillary workers, who in some instances punched, kicked and beat and threw objects at residents. Physical abuse in this context was mainly reported to occur in relation to specific work tasks.

Many other reports of physical abuse in work contexts included: working in the laundries, infirmaries, making Rosary beads and other religious objects, chopping sticks, carrying turf and coal, emptying latrines, cleaning boots and shoes, scrubbing and polishing floors, building, cleaning toilets and pulling grass. My job at one time was to hand out clean laundry to other boys. One day I remember one boy did not get clean underwear for some reason and Br ...X... got 2 boys to hold me across the bed. He pulled down my pants and beat me across the bare backside with his leather strap. I got 10 to 15 lashes from him for this incident.

Three (3) witnesses reported being physically abused when sent out to work for local farmers and others while resident in the Schools.

In addition to the forms of abuse described above, witnesses reported that staff at times employed certain practices that intensified the experience of being abused. The most frequently reported were flogging, delayed punishment and being beaten by more than one person.

The Committee heard evidence from 78 witnesses in relation to 13 Schools that they were stripped, and severely beaten. Forty seven (47) of those witnesses from nine Schools reported being beaten in public. These beatings were most commonly reported to have been with a leather strap, sometimes a cane, and administered by more than one staff member on the naked back and buttocks. The beatings were described as ‘fiercely brutal’ and ‘unmerciful’ and were frequently referred to as floggings, and were associated with particular staff members. Eleven (11) witnesses from one School reported being beaten naked. In another School, 14 witnesses reported being flogged, 12 of whom were naked or partially clothed. Twelve (12) witnesses from two other Schools gave accounts of being beaten naked themselves or witnessing co-residents being severely beaten while naked.

These beatings and floggings were reported to have taken place most often in the recreation yards, the boot rooms, the refectories and the stairwells. Witnesses described at times being made to bend over desks, stairs, benches, vaulting horses or to bend over with their fingers under their toes to be beaten on their bare back and buttocks. Forty eight (48) witnesses reported that they were beaten or kicked to the ground and that the beating frequently continued while they were on the ground. Witnesses commenting on the public floggings said that some residents ‘couldn’t stand at the end’ and recalled, ‘the beating went on until they ... (Brothers)... were exhausted’. They had what they called the public floggings, where you would be brought out in the middle of the ...(yard).... If they wanted to make a real example of you they would have all the other lads there and you would have to kneel down. I was flogged by 4 of them ...(Brothers)... one time. ... I was lashed.... They used to flog you at night time, you would be bruised all over, you would be sore at night, you wet the bed.