Chapter 7 — Record of abuse (male witnesses)

Physical abuse

Random beatings in bed at night were also described. Night watchmen were reported to have patrolled the dormitories during the night in nine Schools. Both the night watchmen and religious staff are reported to have checked that residents lay in a particular way in their beds, reports of this experience vary over the years and between the different institutions. Witnesses from some Schools consistently reported being beaten if they were found lying with their hands under the bedclothes, others were beaten if they did not have their arms and hands crossed over their chest in a particular way. Witnesses believed the reason for this enforced practice was to avoid what religious staff referred to as the ‘sin’ of masturbation. You couldn’t sleep on your back, your ass would be so sore ...(after a beating)... you’d want to sleep on your belly, but they wouldn’t let you sleep, you had to sleep in a particular way, on your back.

Showers were reported as locations of abuse in six institutions. The most commonly reported reasons for being beaten in the showers were not washing properly, ducking out of unbearably hot or cold water or attempting to avoid sexual assault. Religious and some lay staff were reported to supervise the showers, usually alone. Some residents described being checked as they left the shower area and were pulled aside for punishment if not considered to be properly washed, at other times it was reported that they were randomly struck with either a leather strap or a stick as they were showering or as they filed past the supervising staff member. A specific complaint about these beatings was the pain of being beaten on wet skin and the humiliation of being beaten while naked. Showers were too cold or scalding.... All the time you had to steel yourself, some of my worst nightmares are of the dormitory and the showers, they were a nightmare. Someone, Br ...X... would turn it ...(water)... on, it was too hot or too cold, you jumped out and suddenly you would see this black figure, and you would see a strap coming at you and you would be leathered, you would hear this series of screams all along the cubicles as another ...(co-resident)... got it. The worst for me was you were trapped, you could not hide in the cubicle. They were the danger times, you couldn’t disappear in the shower.

Witnesses also reported being physically abused when they were sent to the infirmary for treatment of an injury or ailment. Four (4) Brothers who were in charge of the infirmaries in different Schools were identified as beating residents who were sent to the infirmary. One Brother was named by seven witnesses as abusive in this manner. It was reported that some lay nurses were also harsh, including one who was reported by seven witnesses: ‘she was cruel, vicious, would pour a bottle ...(of iodine)... all over you if she was in a bad mood, in your eyes, burn your scabs’.

Eight (8) witnesses reported being beaten in the context of religious practice, including the performance of their duties as altar boys, being late, falling asleep or being inattentive at Mass, and forgetting to say prayers in the refectory.

One hundred and sixty five (165) witnesses reported being physically abused while involved in recreational activities. Recreation areas including yards, playing fields, gyms, recreation halls and music rooms were described as places where it was necessary to be alert and to avoid staff who took advantage of opportunities to abuse residents. There were reports from a number of Schools of drill in the yard being routine, under the supervision of lay drill masters.

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.