Chapter 9 — Record of abuse (female witnesses)

Arrangements for discharge

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.

Taking food from the kitchen, pantry, fields, gardens, scrap buckets and animal houses was regarded as rule breaking and punished accordingly. Twenty two (22) witnesses reported being beaten for ‘stealing’ food. All reported that they took the food because they were hungry or in some instances because it was irresistibly appetising as in the case of scraps from the convent kitchen or the priests’ breakfast tray. I was hungry, I took an apple. ... I took it off the ground, one of the nuns caught me ... and she gave me a slap on the face ... and she said “when you come in I want to see you”. I was kind of afraid, I was kinda confused. I said to myself “will I get over the railings or what will I do?” ... Anyway they called me out and 6 nuns held me and they cut my hair ...crying.... I just can’t believe that some people would do that to me. I don’t know why they done that, if I had done something, I don’t know why they done it, I did nothing wrong, I was hungry.

Twenty one (21) witnesses reported running away for reasons including physical and sexual abuse. Eleven (11) witnesses who ran away reported being severely beaten when they were returned to the School. Nine (9) of these witnesses were returned by the Gardaí and described often being greeted warmly on their return and later beaten by one or more Sisters when the Gardaí had left. Five (5) witnesses reported being beaten in a small room separate from the other girls.

Witnesses consistently reported that residents who absconded were severely beaten in a small number of Schools either naked or partially clothed when they were returned. The public nature and severity of the beatings were described as traumatic, serving as a caution against absconding and leaving a lasting impression on those who witnessed them. The police took us back, it was the second time I ran away. I was stripped to my knickers, Sr ...X... was supposed to hold me and she started beating me as well as Sr ...Y.... I was 13 years, I was beaten in the rec in front of everybody, it did not happen in that way again.

Other punishments for absconding reported by witnesses included three witness accounts of being locked in small rooms and given bread and water or cocoa for several days after running away. Other witnesses described seeing co-residents following such beatings with their heads shaved, bruised and marked. A number of witnesses reported having their hair cut or head shaved as a punishment for running away. They cut my hair ... they had this big thing, a blade, you know like an old man shaving, one of the nuns just had this thing on my head like a man for shaving himself. • I suppose we were about 9 or thereabouts, 3 girls from the orphanage got out, they ran away and got about 12 miles.... They were caught by the Gardaí and brought back. Not that night but maybe the next night, we were all brought to this inner parlour. ... There was tiered seating in each parlour ... we had to sit and watch. They ...(Sr X and Sr Y)... were there, and Sr ...Z... was brought over from the convent, this was all planned, she was to beat these girls who ran away. Sr ...Z... she was really, really cruel we were terrified of her, Sr ...X... and Sr ...Y ... and she took out the leg of a chair, it was the leg of a chair, that’s as true as I’m sitting here sitting looking at your face, she took it out from under her garb, and she lashed into these girls and we were all terrified. We were spectators, an exhibition was made out of them and she beat those girls into pulp for running away. She took the leg of a chair back to the convent with her because they did not want us to see it. That has stayed with me, to this day I have nightmares about it.

Specific practices used in physical abuse

Witnesses reported that staff at times employed severe practices that increased the traumatic impact of the physical abuse to which they were subjected. The most frequently reported such practices were ‘thrashing’, delayed punishment, being beaten by more than one person and in front of others.