Chapter 8 — Everyday life experiences (female witnesses)

Kitchen duties and work in the attached bakeries were reported by 121 witnesses. Descriptions of this work in 14 Schools included: washing dishes and pots, scrubbing floors, foraging for firewood, lighting and stoking fires, lifting large pots of boiling water and peeling large quantities of potatoes and other vegetables. Many of the witnesses reported that this work provided access to extra food and warmth, it also involved long hours and was arduous. Work in staff kitchens was seen as particularly advantageous as there was access to better quality food. Some Schools had both commercial and domestic bakeries where residents worked, and in some instances continued on a full-time basis on completion of their education.

Commercial contract work was described as a significant activity in four Schools by 84 witnesses and included piece work in the form of making Rosary beads, scapulars and other religious items. In one School it was reported that young residents made novenas for which it was believed financial donations were received by the School. The majority of witnesses stated that no payment was received for this work.

Working in the farmyard, fields, gardens and on the bogs were described as routine activities in both urban and rural Schools. While it was reported that the female religious congregations generally employed lay male ancillary staff to work on their farms, 97 witnesses reported being involved in farm work including haymaking, saving turf, churning butter, sowing and picking potatoes, milking cows and feeding animals. Weeding gravel driveways, convent graveyards and plucking the convent lawns by hand were other outdoor tasks reported by witnesses from several Schools.

Witnesses reported what they regarded as unsafe practices related to cleaning and fire lighting in five different Schools. In two Schools residents had to clean high external windows with one resident holding the ankles of another resident who was cleaning the windows. Five (5) Schools were reported as having residents light fires and furnaces in the early hours of the morning for the School heating, laundry and cooking systems. Carrying turf and coal and keeping the furnaces fired was part of the work described by witnesses.

Thirty two (32) witnesses described a distinction being made in the work allocated to residents who had families and those regarded as ‘orphans’ who described themselves as at times allocated particularly unpleasant tasks such as clearing drains and unblocking and cleaning toilets. Other witnesses said they observed ‘orphans’ frequently undertaking demeaning tasks.

Sewing, knitting and decorative needlework were regular semi-recreational activities; several witnesses reported making clerical vestments, as well as socks, jumpers, dresses and school uniforms for co-residents. Specialised needlework and knitting was also undertaken for what witnesses understood was the commercial market and a number of witnesses reported being regularly occupied knitting Aran sweaters, making rugs, embroidering tablecloths, vestments and other cloths for shops and church use. They used to have these huge tablecloths and I used to have to do embroidery on it and do the designs, I used do the crochet. I used do the vestments, the nuns used give them as gifts to the priests. I used to have to do all the sewing for the girls plus all the knitting during the school’s holidays. Remember I was 14 years old at the time.

Witnesses reported that mending clothes was a regular occupation in 16 Schools, others gave accounts of lay staff being employed in sewing rooms. In five Schools it was reported that residents darned socks and jumpers for local boys’ Industrial Schools and fee-paying boarding schools.

Other assigned tasks included residents both making and ‘teasing’ their own mattresses. Mattress teasing was reported as a regular summer activity by 18 witnesses from five Schools. This was described as hard and unpleasant work, ‘teasing and re-stuffing the mattresses was our summer holiday’.

The following account of a typical day was given in evidence by a witness who reported she was removed from the classroom at the age of 12 years to work full-time in the Industrial School: There was no electricity in the laundry and it was steam mechanised. Myself and ...named 2 co-residents... were told we had to work from Monday morning. Three of us, we used to have to go down and light the furnace that heated the whole school part. On Monday we got up at 6 o’clock in the morning, we lit the fire, then 3 of us took it in turn to keep shovelling the coal in to keep the steam up in order that the machinery in the laundry ... would keep going. On the Tuesday we had the ironing to do ... we had ...(a large number of)... nuns in the convent and we had to do their ironing and the white things had to be starched. I had to get up at 7 o’clock and there was a round boiler thing. We, 3 of us had to light that and as soon as it got red hot you put the old fashioned irons around it, between 20 and 30 irons. The older girls, there were 8 senior girls, were given the job of ironing all the white things for the nuns. On Wednesday that was the baking day.... On Thursday we would go out and weed the garden ... or ... in summer if there was turf coming in, the lorry would just leave the turf there and the nun would come in and say “you, you and you go out and throw in that turf.” On Thursday the 3 of us used to have to go down and clean that big boiler out, clean the ashes and set it again for Friday and the laundry. On Saturday then we would do odd jobs, go over to the convent and did “blocks” ... polish the floors with these big block things to get up a shine on them.

Witnesses reported changes in relation to work practices in the later years covered by this Report. The commercial contract work and the practice of residents undertaking work external to the School was no longer routine. However, three witnesses reported caring for babies and young children in the 1970s and 1980s and that the practice of doing household chores continued.

The inadequate provision of food was widely reported by witnesses. The standard diet described by witnesses for the years prior to the 1970s was porridge, bread and dripping and tea or cocoa for breakfast. The main meal was consistently reported to be of boiled potatoes with vegetables and on occasion some meat or fish. The evening meal was most often described as bread and jam and tea or cocoa. Witnesses reported that there was little or no access to extra food except what might have been obtained opportunistically by residents working in kitchens and elsewhere. The nuns’ bins would be lovely, you would eat the bread out of their buckets, you would get it as you were walking along the path in the garden going down to the work in the fields, you’d pick out the bread.

Varying accounts were given of both the quantity and quality of the food provided with noticeable improvements reported after the 1970s. Witnesses reported that in more recent years sausages, chips, vegetables, eggs, cheese, fish fingers, cornflakes and milk puddings became part of the regular diet.

Special occasions such as Christmas, Easter, First Holy Communion and saint’s feast days were reported to be at times celebrated with cake and biscuits, jelly, ice cream and lemonade. Many of the convents had orchards, glass houses and kept poultry; however witnesses stated that fruit and eggs were rarely provided, with the exception of Christmas and Easter when oranges and eggs were reported as traditional treats.

Witnesses reported that play and recreation were described as peripheral to everyday life for the Schools’ residents, particularly for those discharged before the 1960s. Toys, books and play equipment were largely non-existent in most of the Schools during that period. Witnesses reported playing in fields and ‘making our own fun’ and described making small dolls and balls from scraps of cloth. In a number of Schools voluntary organisations brought presents to the residents at Christmas; it was frequently reported these were locked away and never used. Fourteen (14) witnesses described having toys and books given as presents taken from them to be locked away in a toy cupboard and taken out when visitors came. In a small number of instances, witnesses believed that these toys and books were given away by the Sisters to their own relatives. The lack of any place to keep personal possessions made it difficult for residents to retain a doll, toy or book given as a gift or sent by their family. Witnesses reported that a small number of Schools provided film shows for the residents.

Witnesses reported that most Schools had recreation halls that were described as places to congregate in wet weather or in the wintertime, often in enforced silence. Recreation halls were also used for school concerts and plays held at Christmas and for visiting dignitaries. There were accounts from a number of Schools of residents competing in Irish dancing competitions and playing musical instruments at the Feis Cheoil. Accounts were heard also of a number of Schools having bands and/or choirs that performed at these competitions and various local events.