Chapter 7 — Record of abuse (male witnesses)

Physical abuse

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.

Witnesses reported being flogged and severely beaten for many reasons, including: disclosing or reporting abuse, absconding, speaking to visiting girls, riding a visitor’s bike, refusing to clear blocked toilets, taking food, fighting, delay in lining up, not washing properly or having torn clothes. When I was there 3 blokes ...named co-residents... they ran away and when they were brought back, they were flogged, on one of these vaulting horses. We were all there. Br ...X... said “I’m going to make an example of these boys”, and one by one they came out, no trousers on them ... naked from their waist down, each one individually over the vaulting horse, he flogged them. Well you could see their backsides going red blue, red blue, the whole School watching.

Twenty three (23) witnesses described injuries to their genitalia as a result of being kicked or flogged. Eighteen (18) witnesses described being hosed with cold water or having cold water thrown on them prior to, or in the course of a severe beating. A witness gave the following account of a severe beating when he was found in the company of co-residents who had been talking to some girls visiting their brothers in the School: Br ...X... met the boys coming up from talking to the girls, he sent them down to the washroom, he told me to go too, but I wasn’t with them. He told the 3 of us to get into bathing togs. He went out and got the leather strap, like the cut-throat razor, he came in, took off his coat and his collar and I never in all my life seen anything like what he done. He started beating us, saying we were talking to the girls ... he took off his shirt ... he didn’t beat me so much as the others. One of the lads started soiling themselves, he beat them so much, grabbing himself saying, “I’ll give ye girls”, rubbing himself. One of the lads was in bits, they were in a terrible state.

Witnesses reported being filled with terror as religious staff appeared to lose control when they were administering physical beatings or floggings. It was reported that such beatings frequently resulted in injury or, in 22 reported instances, rendered the resident unconscious. Eight (8) of the 22 witnesses reported that they passed out while being beaten and woke up in bed unable to move. There were 36 accounts of witnesses being unable to sit or lie on their back for some days after being beaten, and a further 28 accounts of being unable to walk following a beating or flogging. I remember another boy who would not cry. I remember one day he got 50 slaps on one hand and then 50 on the other and then another 50. This Brother got so mad that he ...(co-resident)... would not cry. He, Br ...X... kicked the legs from under him and kicked him to the ground and kicked him until he went unconscious. He was just lying there with his eyes staring up to the sky.

Eleven (11) witnesses reported that the flogging or beating they received was so severe that they thought they were going to be killed. Five (5) witnesses from two Schools reported that named co-residents were never seen again following a severe beating. I remember this one Brother. The boys would be crying in the morning going into class. He’d start with sums, always an awkward division. I remember one boy in the class ...named co-resident.... He was asked a question this time, he made the awful mistake of saying he knew the answer but couldn’t get the answer out, and with that this Br ...X... went absolutely berserk.... The brutality of that man, he hit him everywhere, with the leather. He ...(co-resident)... was trying to avoid being hit. I never saw him ...(co-resident)... again. I often did think about him, whether he went blind or not, I don’t know. I never saw him again.

Five (5) witnesses reported being locked in a dark room in solitary confinement for a number of days after a severe beating. Witnesses from a number of Schools reported that there were rooms where residents were left for days after severe beatings. A witness reported that he and others dropped bread through the window bars to a co-resident who was locked in that room. Other witnesses reported spending days or weeks in the infirmary following a severe beating or flogging.

Witnesses from six Schools reported an extensive practice of the delayed administration of physical punishment, which was described as ‘a double punishment, waiting to be beaten and the beating itself’. Experiences of delayed punishments described by witnesses were: kneeling on the floor in the classrooms, refectories or in the yards and standing in their nightshirts at night for long periods in the dormitories, waiting to be taken to the boot rooms, washrooms or stairwells to be flogged. Witnesses who wet their beds described the misery of waiting to be beaten each morning or evening in a routine fashion, in dormitories, offices or elsewhere. Returned absconders and others who had infringed a rule reported a component of the punishment was waiting to be beaten. They described being unable to sleep at night in anticipation of being taken out of bed for physical punishment. Witnesses also described being taken out of bed unexpectedly to be beaten for unknown reasons, making the possibility of being beaten a constant threat. You did not know when it was going to happen, they ...(Brothers)... would leave you until you were nice and snug, you’d think you were safe. I don’t remember their names. One of their favourite habits was to wait until you nearly fall asleep, and then they would bring you down the marble stairs. You would be in ... like a grandfather’s nightshirt, with nothing else underneath, and they would lift that up, and have you bent over the stairs. They would whip you then with this strap.

Witnesses described the psychological distress and physical pain of being made to stand facing a wall for lengthy periods, with arms raised waiting for a beating. They stated that they were hit if they moved or dropped their arms and were terrified as they waited, not knowing what form the physical punishment would take or when it would happen: The worst abuse was being put ...(standing)... and you would be there for about 3 hours and you would be waiting. Then they would send you to the boot room and give you a hiding. Sometimes they wouldn’t give you a hiding that evening but the next day and you would have all that day to think about it and stuff, it would do your head in. ...The wall was the length of the dormitory and your toes would have to toe the wall, tight to the wall, and if you moved there were monitors, they used to watch you and they would report you to the Brother. ... You stood with your hands behind your back, your nose, your head on to the wall. ...You’d have to stay there until the lights were dimmed and then you would be taken to the boot room for the hiding. I think that was the worst thing of all.

The practice of lining residents up to await punishment was described as a punishment in itself as witnesses believed it was intended that they hear the cries of their co-residents in advance of their own punishment. Br ...X... was an awful man, he was in charge of ...(recreation)... I got a lot of hidings off him. He had a strap about 2 inches thick and he would take down your pants and sometimes he’d say “come down to my office after” and there would be about 6 or 7 fellows there queuing up. You could hear the fellow inside. There would be crying and they would be shouting and you would be terrified outside. You’d be next in then, you’d be frightened, very, very frightened, the screaming, it was awful. The hidings was for everyday carrying on, you know kids like. We were all afraid.