Chapter 9 — Record of abuse (female witnesses)

Arrangements for discharge

Six (6) witnesses gave accounts of nettles being used by nuns when punishing residents. They described being pushed into patches of nettles, hit on the legs with them, and, in one instance, their bed being full of nettles. ‘Sr ...X... put nettles in the bed of the girls who wet the bed.’ Other witnesses described being pinched with pliers, jabbed with a knitting needle, hit with shoes, a shovel, wet dishcloths, bunches of keys, serving spoons, scissors, electric cord and the treadle belt from a sewing machine.

Witnesses described being beaten and otherwise physically abused for many reasons and for no reason at all, which created an environment of pervasive fear. They described physical abuse in the context of being punished for some misdemeanour, real or perceived, or simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. ‘No reason was needed, I was hit because I could be hit.’ Witnesses who had little or no family contact, those who were described as orphans, were reported to be most vulnerable to harsh physical discipline.

The most commonly reported circumstances that precipitated beatings were: bed-wetting, rule breaking, ‘stealing’ food, perceived failure at work or educational tasks, soiled or torn clothing, disclosing abuse to others, talking, untidiness, answering back, running away, left-handedness, indiscipline, being cheeky, talking to boys, appearing to engage male attention, having fun and refusing to eat. Other behaviours for which witnesses reported being physically abused included: perceived misbehaviour of younger siblings, babies in their care crying, being sick, linking arms with another resident and not getting up in the morning when called. As one witness said: ‘I suppose I was bold, but how bold can a child of 9 be?’.

There were consistent reports from witnesses of particularly harsh and humiliating methods of physical punishment and abuse for certain behaviours, for example bed-wetting, running away, school work and not meeting the required standard for hygiene and personal care. Bed-wetting and soiling

One hundred and seven (107) witnesses (28%) reported being beaten and otherwise physically punished for bed-wetting during their time in Schools. The Committee also heard a small number of accounts of physical abuse for soiling. There were accounts heard of severe abuse for bed-wetting and soiling by witnesses discharged in all decades up to and including the 1980s. It was reported as routine for residents to have their beds inspected in the morning and those with wet sheets were punished. Witnesses reported being beaten for bed-wetting in the morning and/or in some Schools again at night, either on the hands or bare buttocks, with a cane, strap or wooden brush. Witnesses described the usual procedure for managing wet bedclothes was to take the wet sheets from the bed and either carry them to the laundry or to a drying room. Twenty three (23) witnesses reported standing with their wet sheet on their head or shoulder outside the Sister’s office, often that of the Resident Manager, waiting to be beaten. Twenty seven (27) witnesses also reported being made to wear their wet sheets during breakfast, to the classroom or while saying the Rosary. If you wet the bed, Sr ...X... made you stand out at the bed with the sheet over your head, if you fell asleep she would come out with the stick. She hit you on the back and then you would be so sore you couldn’t sleep. • You’d be hammered, I used to get killed for it ...(soiling the bed).... Sr ...X... with a cane she used to call me into a small room, she’d be pacing up and down, she would lay into me. • Every night you ...(bed-wetters)... would have to stand at the end of your bed, holding on to the bed, she ...(lay care staff)... would tell you to face straight ahead, in your nightdress, she would hit you with a steel coat hanger, other staff would hold up the nightdress. If you got into bed and cried you would have to get out and the same would happen again. • I started wetting the bed. I don’t remember wetting the bed before I was about 6 or 7. There were about 30 of us in the dormitory, only a handful of us wet the bed. We had to stay with the younger ones until we stopped wetting the bed and in my case that was about 10 or 11.... We had long brown mackintoshes ... (rubber sheets)... under our sheets, I remember pulling the sheets off so you wouldn’t wet the sheet, if you wet the mackintosh maybe nobody would notice. We had to bring our wet sheets to the girl in charge who would swipe you across the face with it and bring you in to the dressing room for a flogging. I remember trying so hard not to wet the bed.... I remember sitting on the toilet and falling asleep, going back to bed and still waking up soaking wet.

Witnesses described the distress they experienced observing their younger siblings being physically punished for bed-wetting. Many described protecting them from beatings by any means, including pretending that they had wet the beds themselves and taking the punishment instead of their siblings. They also described hiding wet sheets and trying to dry sheets in advance of an inspection. In some instances witnesses reported swapping their sibling’s wet sheet with that of another resident who was then punished instead. The girls who wet the bed got beaten. I never wet the bed but my sister did and my older sister and I used to get up early and make sure her bed was dry so that she didn’t get hit, the babies who wet the bed got beaten. We would change her bed. I know it’s a horrible thing but we would change the bed with someone else, so that she did not get hit and if we didn’t get time we’d change her with our own bed and we’d take the beating. We just didn’t want her to get hit, she was only a baby. The punishment was, beaten with a leather strap all over. The nun used to get a big girl to go around and check what one was wet, what one was dry. You couldn’t save everyone you know.

Other methods of punishment described for bed-wetting in a small number of Schools were being locked in a cupboard, put into cold baths, beaten with nettles, and put into clothes dryers and other confined spaces. Six (6) witnesses from one School reported being made to spend the night outside in the pig sty or locked under the stairs as punishment for bed-wetting.

The Committee heard evidence from 58 witnesses of being physically abused in the classroom. They reported being hit on the back of the legs, knuckles, backs or palms of hands with sticks, canes, rulers and straps. Witnesses stated that the precipitants for punishment included, not giving the right answer, academic inability, talking, ‘being cheeky’, inability to speak Irish, left-handedness, and making mistakes, for instance in needlework or playing a musical instrument. Witnesses who attended ‘outside’ school in the local area frequently stated that they were beaten for being late and not having homework done as a result of the competing demands on them to do domestic chores in the School. There was one nun, a teacher, who beat me black and blue, there were lumps and bruises on the back of me hands. All this beating was over Irish lessons which I never used since. • I was left handed, they used to tie my hand. You were told to pick your stick, you were told to pick out your bamboo ...(to be beaten with).... The more you screamed the more you got beaten.... If you pulled back your hand you got an extra beating.

A number of witnesses reported being beaten every day in class because, due to learning difficulties, they were unable to learn. I had an awful problem in the classroom, I had a problem reading. The more you made mistakes ... it was terrible ... she ...(Sr X)... would humiliate you, and it stays with you. Sr ...X... used hit me with this long belt, they used to have this long belt, they didn’t care where they hit you it was just wallop, wallop.

Forty seven (47) witnesses reported being physically abused in the context of work activities in the Schools. They described being required to work, both inside and outside the Schools, in many areas, in the kitchens, laundries, bakeries, workrooms, gardens, farms, bogs, convents and residences of clergy, from as young as five years of age. Witnesses reported being beaten as they worked scrubbing and polishing the floors of corridors, dormitories, refectories and staircases, and being beaten for not working fast enough or to the satisfaction of whoever was overseeing the work. There was the scrubbing, the drying, the polishing and if there was one speck you would have to do it all over again, she ... (lay care staff) ... would then hit you. She had total control, the nun just passed through, they were in the convent, they had nothing to do with us. I hated 3 o’clock in the afternoon because I had to go back to the work and they ... (town children) ... were going home ... from school, you were going back to her. You got beaten for nothing, she had free rein. Sometimes it would be a wooden brush, hair brush or a wooden spoon from the drawer. She also had a leather with a buckle she would hit you with it, but not with the buckle, the other end of the belt. • We would be put down in the dining hall, a massive big room, down on your knees, this would be a punishment, scrubbing, constantly on your knees. That was a punishment, you couldn’t get up out of there until it was all clean, clean.

Witnesses reported being physically abused in the performance of other domestic tasks such as not getting fires lit in time to heat water, scorching clerical vestments and religious habits, cutting themselves while slicing loaves of bread, dropping crockery, not chopping enough sticks or carrying enough coal, getting their clothes dirty while carrying coal, dropping trays while serving visitors in the parlours and burning bread in the bakery.

It was consistently reported that residents in charge of younger co-residents were punished for any perceived transgressions committed by the children for whom they were providing care. Witnesses reported being punished if their ‘charge’ wet their bed, wet or soiled their clothes or in other ways failed to do what they were expected to do. The older girls, we would have “charges”, would be in charge of the younger girls. We would have to get up in the night and take them out to the ...toilet.... If they happened to wet the bed you would get beaten for it. They couldn’t help wetting the bed, but you got beaten for that.... If your charge was found with lice in their hair you would be punished for it, you were supposed to keep one another’s hair clean.

The Committee heard evidence that some work activities involved safety risks for the residents, for example being given responsibility for lighting and maintaining furnace fires, carrying heavy pots of boiling water and food, cleaning windows on upper floors and being sent alone to work for people who were unknown to them. Other witnesses reported that being taken out of class and being deprived of recreation was punitive. Certain work tasks were considered physically abusive in themselves; for example, four witnesses reported having to clear blocked drains and toilets with their bare hands on a regular basis as physically abusive. I was seldom allowed out to the yard to play with the other kids. I remember that I was washing nappies, doing the washing, servile work, out in the ... yard, breaking sticks, I was about 9 or 10 maybe. The working continued until I left. I remember being out in the ... yard, and to the best of my memory they were like floorboards, piles of old floorboards, like from old buildings and we had to chop them up into small sticks for the fire. I was in possession of a hatchet, I remember hitting it off the concrete and watching the sparks fly, thinking maybe I’d like to be hitting something else. We’d be out there hail, rain or snow. I’d be burned in the summer and soaked in the winter. • At 12 years I was taken out of school to work. I got the 9 toilets to do ...(cleaning toilets)... then I had to work in the kitchen.... Then there was the chickens we used to have to put the head of the chicken under the handle of a brush and twist its neck, you know, then it would be dead and we used to have to put it in a bucket of hot water to pluck the feathers. I never saw the chickens after that, I don’t remember ever eating chicken. I used to see other girls ... (when working)... and I’d see them in the summer holiday, and they would be typing but I didn’t, I didn’t get that chance. ... I don’t know why.

One hundred and thirty three (133) witnesses cited various aspects of personal care as the focus of physical abuse. Torn or dirty clothing was reported to provoke punishment, as did losing hair clips, shoe buckles, hair ribbons and handkerchiefs. Witnesses also reported being beaten if they failed an inspection for cleanliness following bathing or washing. Others reported that they were beaten for not having their socks pulled up properly, poor posture, for wearing a bra and for having long, untidy or lice infested hair. We washed our feet at night time in very, very cold water, it was out in a back yard.... There would be a couple of old towels there to dry them. You then went in and had to kneel down for the inspection. There was this lady there ...(lay care staff).... If there was one speck on your feet, she whipped you across the legs with a cane and you were put out again. If there was a speck on your sheet the Reverend Mother would come up and you were lined up for a thrashing.... She had a certain way of doing it. She’d get the lady to hold your hand and she’d beat you until she was tired and then she’d beat the other. • One lay member of staff ...X... she was cruel, she was absolutely cruel. There was one punishment she gave me that I will never forget it in my life. She used to say “hold your head up”, she was very nasty. She got my hair and she tied it and she pulled my head back like that ... (demonstrated hair being tied to belt at back holding head up in fixed position) ... and she got a string and she tied it up. Oh the pain of it. So my head was up like that, held like that for a couple days, that is why I will never forget it. The nuns knew of it but they gave her a free hand.

Thirty seven (37) witnesses reported being beaten for having soiled sheets or pants and/or seeking sanitary protection when menstruating. Facilities for managing menstruation were widely reported as poor and witnesses described being fearful of asking for sanitary protection. This fear inevitably led to clothes and sheets being soiled, and consequent punishment. The lack of toilet paper and washing facilities were reported by witnesses to contribute further to soiled underwear. Queuing up for your underwear once a fortnight, I always dreaded it. They would check your underwear and if they were soiled you would get whacked for it with a hand brush, 21 times. It was ...named lay care staff... who done it. ... So on Wednesday night you would wash it and wear it wet so that you wouldn’t get hit. • The washroom was known as the most fearful, there was no escape.... If the toothpaste was all gone by the end of the year you got beaten. Then there was the underwear, you all had to undress in front of everybody and then you would have to walk up to her ...(lay care staff)... with your underwear, if it was stained you had to wear it on your head and stand there and then you got beaten by her.