Chapter 9 — Record of abuse (female witnesses)

Arrangements for discharge

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.

Head lice and scabies were reported as contributing to the risk of physical abuse in the form of head shaving, hair cutting and ‘body-painting’ with white emulsion. The manner in which these treatments were undertaken was the source of many witness reports of physical abuse. The emulsion caused skin irritation and was reported to have been applied in a rough manner with large brushes.

Fourteen (14) witnesses who were discharged prior to 1970 reported having teeth taken out without any anaesthetic. Witnesses reported that crying when teeth were being extracted led to physical abuse by accompanying staff members in a number of instances.

The Committee heard evidence of witnesses being physically punished for rule breaking. Examples of rule breaking were talking during ‘silent periods’, running in corridors, entering places that were out-of-bounds, fainting or coughing in church, getting out of bed at night, being in another resident’s bed, talking to boys and being thought to seek male attention and talking to town children. Examples of being punished for rule breaking included the following witness accounts: It was a cruel harsh place.... It was illegal to go out. ... Our letters were always opened and read, she ...(Mth X)... asked “who posted this letter you wrote to your mother?” She came into the dining hall where we eat our meal. ... I knew I was in deep trouble. Sr ...Y... came right up to me and told me “you posted the letters, why didn’t you own up?” I said I was afraid, she said to me “you go right up to Mth ...X...”. She was outside walking, I told her I posted the letter, she drew out and she hit me across the face several times and “now”, she said, “go down and stand up on the table in the refectory and when I go down I will deal with you”. I went down and took my shoes off and stood up on the table. She came down and told me to go up to her room. She sent ...lay care staff... to get the cane, she beat me and beat me and beat me, it went on for weeks every time she would pass, she would be walking, she beat me on the legs with a cane. Once when I felt faint I went to pass out, they said I was as white as a sheet, I heard her say “it’s not my fault I didn’t do anything to her”. ... It was Mth ...X... she was the one who would do all the beatings, after that she began to ease off on me, she got ...lay care staff... to help, if ...lay care staff... wasn’t around she did it on her own too. • Well this night she ...co-resident... was having fits and I was frightened and I got into the bed of another girl. The nun come up in the morning and found us, she made us sleep on the concrete floor, locked in the cloakroom for 3 nights for getting into the bed of another girl. We didn’t know what we had done wrong.

Rules of silence were enforced in most Schools at some part of the day. Witnesses discharged in the period up to 1970 reported in many Schools it was routine for work and most day-to-day activities to be conducted in silence, as described: The silence was terrible, we suffered in silence, hours and hours of silence, worked in silence and got a severe beating if caught talking.

Witnesses described how as children they were forced to lie in their beds in certain positions including: on their backs with their arms crossed over their chests, on their right side, arms crossed and facing the chapel or with their arms crossed on top of the bedclothes. Inspections were carried out and children woken and, in some instances, physically punished if found not lying correctly. You had to sleep with hands out like this ...(demonstrating position)... and your fingers touching you shoulders it was like that and it was very uncomfortable, if you moved you got a beating.

Witnesses reported that they were punished for answering back, being assertive, defending others or attempting to intervene on their behalf in the course of a beating. These behaviours were described as frowned upon and heavily sanctioned.

Refusing to eat was another reported precursor to punishment as it was generally expected that all food would be eaten. Witnesses described nausea, distaste and illness as reasons for refusing to eat. Forty one (41) witnesses reported being forced to eat, frequently by having their heads held and mouths prised open. Seven (7) witnesses reported being beaten for refusing to eat and eight others reported being physically forced to eat regurgitated food. I remember sitting at the table and, excuse me now, but being forced to eat my own vomit because you were not allowed leave the table until you eat, if you didn’t eat it I would get a slap for retching. Sr ...X... hit on the head. They used to hit with the ring they had on their finger or with the knuckles on the head or with a steel comb. The food would be there the next day and it would be left there until you eat it, you would be days without eating and there would be mould on it, so you would have to eat it.