Chapter 7 — Record of abuse (male witnesses)

Emotional abuse

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.

Disclosing abuse to Gardaí was reported to have occurred generally in the context of being returned to the School after absconding or when parents accompanied witnesses who were on leave to the Garda station to make a formal complaint. In a small number of instances witnesses reported their own abuse to Gardaí. In separate instances, four witnesses who absconded told the Gardaí who was returning them to the School that they expected to be badly beaten by the Brothers. The witnesses believed the Gardaí made some inquiries about this and as a result they escaped the usual beating meted out to returned absconders. Another witness reported that his mother told the Resident Manager she intended reporting the fact that he was being abused to the Gardaí; he stated his mother was pressurised into not contacting the Gardaí and subsequently the abuse stopped. I was marked ...(following beating)... after I ran away.... I wasn’t let out for 3 month after that, all the black and blue marks were gone there were just orange marks left .... When I went home I told me mother about the hidings and she took me down to ...named... police station. When I told the police he said “what School are you in?” and I said ...named School... and he said “what are you there for?” I said “not going to school” and he said “come on are you joking me or what?” I said “I’m there for not going to school” and he started laughing. My mother got a bit annoyed at him laughing at us, and they more or less kicked us out of the police station. After that I never told anyone, you wouldn’t trust anyone after that.

Witnesses reported that disclosing abuse elicited varying responses including being ignored, punished and not believed, in addition to having the reported abuse investigated and abusers being dismissed or transferred from the School. Witnesses stated that the strict regime within the Schools, together with the harsh enforcement of rules and the constant threat of physical abuse left them feeling powerless and unprotected. Two fellas went to Confession and told the priests what was happening about the beating. The next day we were all brought up and they were beaten, severely beaten and we were told “whatever happens in here stays here”. • We ran away, made it to ...named town.... The police car stopped us and asked us where we were going, and where we had come from ... and he said “why are you running away?” My brother told him about the beatings ... we didn’t want to say anything about the sexual.... He ...(garda)... brought us back to ...named School... and told the nun what we were saying. They really tortured us after that. There was a man ...named lay care staff... and there was another woman and there was Sr ...X.... They beat us with whatever come to hand. That time you couldn’t say anything against nuns or priests or anything like that.... • Afterwards I met Br ...X... going down the stairs, he beat the crap out of me. “You know to keep your mouth shut” he’d say “you know what you’ll get if you don’t keep your mouth shut”.... It was complete fear, I couldn’t tell anyone, the fear you know.

Fifty seven (57) witnesses reported that when they disclosed abuse or it was evident by their injuries that they were being abused they were ignored and the abuse continued, leading them to believe that aggression and violence was part of the culture of the School. A number of witnesses stated that it was their belief that both religious and lay staff knew that residents were being abused and were at times sympathetic but were powerless or unwilling to change anything. He ...(Br X)... tried to rape me every chance he got.... He nearly killed me in the hay barn, he got me up this ladder sitting on top of the hay, he was mucking about with me, at first I thought it was just horse play, he was trying to get my trousers down....I screamed and he put his hand over my mouth. Mr ...Y (lay ancillary worker)... heard the scream and he came in, he was only there for a few seconds, he saw that Br ...X... had his hands over my mouth. I threw myself down the bottom, I was lucky it was 12 or 14 foot down, and I ran out and said to him “don’t you ever touch me again”. He said he would kill me if I ever opened my mouth, he never touched me again after that. • He ...(Br X)... beat me up, my lip was busted, my eye was swollen and all my face was red. Nobody asked me what happened. None of the other Brothers said anything.... No Brother entered the domain of another without knocking and getting permission first. • The ...(Resident Manager)... knew what was happening. They ...(Brothers)... were sadists, they were evil and cruel. Of course they knew what was happening ... to say they didn’t is like saying you were standing by a motorway and saw no traffic.

Many witnesses reported that the risk of being deprived of family visits or being prevented from going home on leave deterred them from disclosing abuse. Others reported that when they did tell someone they were being abused they were either ignored or not believed and as a result they learned to remain silent, believing that nobody would listen to them. A witness who told a priest in Confession about being sexually abused reported that he was told to ‘keep your thoughts to yourself as you could hurt so many people’. Another witness who told his parents that he had been sexually abused reported that: My mother and my father came up to visit me and I told them what had happened ...(sexual abuse)... they confronted Br ...X.... He had a story, told them I was sick and I was hallucinating and they believed him.

Forty four (44) witnesses reported being severely beaten in the context of disclosing both physical and sexual abuse and that the prospect of further beatings was generally sufficient to maintain silence. Witnesses reported being beaten when they told others including staff members, priests in Confession, police and visitors or their parents or relatives that they had been beaten or otherwise abused. Witnesses described an atmosphere of fear that prevented talking about being abused due to the risk of further abuse, as witnesses described: Br ...X... punched a boy in front of all the staff ... to make him retract his story of sexual abuse against Br ...Y... and to make the boy tell everyone he had engaged in sexual activity with another resident. You learned that talking only led one way ... to a beating. • He ...(Br X)... asked me what had happened, and there was a rule in ...named School... that you did not tell on another Brother because he would beat you up. So I could not tell him and he kept me in the dormitory for a few days and the same thing happened again ...(the sexual abuse continued)....