Chapter 9 — Record of abuse (female witnesses)

Neglect

Witnesses said that poor supervision by staff during meals resulted in older residents taking food from younger and more vulnerable co-residents. It was also reported that some witnesses took the food and milk provided for infants and younger residents they were looking after in the nurseries.

Twenty two (22) witnesses provided accounts of eating grass, leaves and berries. They reported that they ate field crops including oats, ‘crows’ bread’, ‘bread and cheese leaves’, ‘sally grass’ and juice from rose stems, hawthorn berries and apple cores, orange peels and chewing gum from the pavement. Others reported eating flowers, eggshells, candles, glue and, in the reports of two witnesses, the pink ointment used to treat boils. I was always going around looking for food. If I was down the town and someone threw away an apple core I would pick it up off the ground and eat it.

Twenty six (26) witnesses reported on the lack of access to drinking water, and stated that drinking from the toilet bowl was their only means of obtaining water. They described being given nothing to drink except what was provided during their mealtimes. This practice was reported in relation to 10 Schools and to have continued in some Schools until the 1970s. You’d be more thirsty than anything else, we’d drink water out of the toilets, there would be little worms in the water, the older girls would show us how to spit them out like that ...demonstrated.... But you weren’t afeared ...(afraid).... It was the nuns you feared.

Reports regarding food from witnesses discharged in the 1970s and 1980s were more concentrated on the type of food than the quantity of food provided. Witnesses said they were expected to eat food they did not like and were not offered any choice in what they had to eat. They also reported that access to food was strictly limited to meal times.

The Committee heard 277 witness reports of poor facilities for the provision and maintenance of personal hygiene in 35 Schools across all the decades, with particular emphasis on those discharged prior to 1970. Many of the hygiene practices were described as primitive and degrading.

The use of communal and shared baths was reported to be a common practice. A small number of Schools were reported to have large communal baths where many residents were bathed together. Others had regular bathtubs that were shared by more than one resident at a time and consecutive groups used the same water. ‘You would line up naked, you would be with your own age group but your dignity was taken, the same bath, same water for everyone.’ Bathing was reported to take place at the end of the week, usually on a fortnightly or monthly basis, and coincided with the distribution of clean underclothes. There were several reports from witnesses discharged before 1960 where baths were provided infrequently in tubs with water carried from the kitchens. Cold-water baths were reported as routine in one School in the pre-1960s period unless the laundry was in operation. In other Schools, cold-water baths were reported as punishment for bed-wetting: ‘Cold bath if you wet the bed, otherwise you had to put on this frock going into the bath in front of others’. Witnesses said that the furnace was lit to provide hot water for the laundry and residents were then bathed in laundry tubs. Witnesses had to dry themselves with large sheets and towels shared by many co-residents. In one School residents were bathed in tubs in an outside building and waited in line without clothes in the open air. By contrast, in other Schools modesty was closely monitored when bathing, residents in those Schools had to wear a chemise when they were in the bath. Older residents were reported to wash younger co-residents under this garment and great care was taken to keep one’s body covered at all times. You got in to the bath with the chemise and there were 2 nuns holding a big sheet so you got out and went into the toilet to dress, still in the chemise.

Witnesses discharged prior to 1960 reported that in some Schools residents shared toothbrushes, other witnesses reported having no toothbrushes and cleaned their teeth with their fingers dipped in salt. The majority of witnesses had no individual toiletries, including toothbrushes, toothpaste and soap, which they reported were put in the bathrooms before inspections and later removed.

Ninety one (91) witnesses reported that arrangements for the management of menstruation were poor or non-existent in relation to almost all Schools across all decades covered by this Report. Witnesses from four Schools stated that there were no sanitary towels provided for their use. Residents were obliged to use newspaper, rags and whatever suitable material they could find as substitutes. In a number of Schools witnesses described being provided with reusable sanitary cloths. In the period up to the 1960s it was commonplace for residents to hand-wash their own sanitary cloths, the adequate provision of which was frequently problematic as they were carefully rationed. Witnesses from 13 Schools reported that in addition to their own, they also had to hand wash nun’s personal garments including sanitary towels. Witnesses stated that the poor facilities for bathing and the changing of personal garments led to considerable discomfort, chapped skin, rashes and offensive personal odours. And the periods, queuing up for sanitary towels, you got 2 that was it. It was horrible, you would smell. You would wash them out and put them back on wet.

Four (4) Schools were reported to have dry toilets prior to 1960; these toilets were outside and unlit. Cleaning toilets and clearing blocked drains was a work task reported as given to residents without protection for their hands and minimal washing facilities. At night time chamber pots were provided under beds for residents of all ages in most Schools prior to the 1960s. In one School a witness reported that ‘a bucket in a cupboard was the only toilet for 50 girls locked in the dormitory overnight’. The toilets were always overflowing, it was terrible, we kept ...(cleaned)... them, the girls, you had to keep the toilets the same as the floors, we unblocked them. The stench was terrible. • I had charge of the toilets downstairs and they were ... filthy, you had to clean them. There was no toilet paper or anything, oh God, they were awful.

Five (5) Schools were reported as getting new indoor toilet and bathroom facilities in the 1950s. Witnesses from more than one of these Schools stated that they were not allowed to use the new facilities for some time after they were installed. They reported that these new facilities were opened for use before inspectors or visitors came but otherwise remained unused. We had a lavatory room as they called them, but we weren’t allowed use them. When inspectors came there was a towel on every sink and a bar of carbolic soap. There was new bathrooms, but we never used them.

Forty eight (48) witnesses from 12 Schools reported infestations or infections with some or all of the following: head lice/nits, scabies, thrush, ringworm, impetigo and fleas. Witnesses who had head lice commented that the treatment was at times to cut the infected residents’ hair. Witnesses from two Schools reported that they manually picked the lice from each other’s hair. Other treatments included the application of undiluted Jeyes Fluid, paraffin, treatment lotion and fine combing. ‘When we got there ...(when first admitted)... we were put into the care of 2 helpers who put us into a Jeyes Fluid bath, who cut our hair, steel fine combed our hair.’ Staff in three Schools were reported to deal with scabies infections by painting residents with a white or purple solution; witnesses reported that they stood in line naked for this treatment and that the same brush was used on many residents. Witnesses reported that spraying residents’ heads and beds with DDT was the treatment for fleas and head lice in six Schools in the pre-1960s period. There was about 26 beds in each room. The beds were full of fleas, they used to put DDT on the bed. Sometimes it was entertaining, we’d watch it jump and say “look at this one, look at this one”.

There were 272 witness reports of insufficient and poor quality clothing in relation to 37 Schools. The reports referred to witnesses discharged in all decades up to and including the 1980s. Witnesses consistently reported that their clothes and footwear were old-fashioned, ill-fitting, uncomfortable and unsuitable for cold and wet weather.

Witnesses generally reported that their own clothes were removed when they were admitted and replaced with clothes that were, at times, of inferior quality. This was a reported practice in the Schools regardless of the condition of the witness’ own clothes. The loss of personal items of clothing was described as traumatic for some witnesses who had been specially dressed for the occasion in new clothes, or their First Holy Communion and Confirmation clothes. The clothes provided were described as uniform and were reported to have often been made in the institution, especially in the period prior to the 1960s. There were a small number of reports from Schools where flour sacks were used to make clothes and underclothes.

Seventy seven (77) witnesses reported having to wear pre-worn, ill-fitting footwear to which many attributed long-standing problems with their feet. A small number of witnesses reported being bare-footed at times when no shoes or socks were available. These reports were from witnesses discharged prior to 1960 when witnesses rarely reported having new shoes. There were 36 reports of bags of second-hand clothes being periodically thrown out on the floor and residents being left to scramble for what they could find.

Before 1970, several institutions were reported to have had ‘Sunday clothes’ including coats and shoes. These clothes were worn when visitors and inspectors came and whenever the residents went out, for example for Sunday walks, to perform in competitions, to attend hospital or to see a doctor. Witnesses also reported that their clothing was generally not adequate for inclement weather and many described being forced outdoors in winter for recreation periods without appropriate clothing, such as coats, rainwear, hats, gloves or scarves, being provided.