2,143 entries for Witness Testimony

Witnesses also reported that visits home depended on their parents’ ability to pay the necessary transport fare, which in the case of residents at some Schools was a considerable and often unmanageable expense. Many witnesses were placed too far from home to allow for visits and that poverty and distance contributed to loss of family contact. ‘We had no visits from anyone, they were too poor, we were too far away’, ‘You could have a visit once a month, if your mother had the fare, it would be a week’s wages.’ My mother didn’t want me to go to ...named School.... She wanted me to go to ...named School in local town.... She lived near there, but no, I had to go to ...named School....

Female witnesses recalled sitting in parlours with parents and relatives who came to visit. In some Schools nuns were reported to supervise the visits directly by controlling the conversation and determining when the visit was over or by their presence in the same room while parents or others were visiting. Other witnesses reported an awareness of contact with their parents being monitored by external authorities. My mother, she came in ... to see me down the years and took me out twice, she had to get permission from the ...local authorities... this is on the records ...displayed copy of records.... She got permission, it was written down, that I was to be taken out on such a day, at such a time and brought back on such a day at such a time.

The involvement of grandparents, aunts and uncles in maintaining family contact was reported by many witnesses to have provided continuing contact in the absence of parents through death, illness or emigration: ‘My mother ...(who had gone to the UK)... visited once, my aunt visited every month even though she had a large family of her own’.

A number of witnesses reported having no contact with their parents apart from occasional visits in the early years of admission, particularly those who reported that their families had disintegrated in circumstances of poverty, illness and death. Others reported feeling abandoned when their parents went to the UK in search of work and an alternative life. Anger was expressed by a number of witnesses towards parents who did not visit or maintain contact with them while they were in the Schools and who in their view demonstrated a lack of care and concern for them in this and other ways in the process of their admission and thereafter. Some witnesses acknowledged that their parents were also victims in circumstances of poverty, illness and both rural and social isolation. My ma came down every month. You had one visit a month, and if she couldn’t come she would send my eldest sister. She ...(mother)... was very religious and if you said anything of beatings she would not believe you. • I had 3 visits in 5 years in ...named School... my mother came to collect a borrowed coat I had worn in Court ...(on the day of admission).... A cousin came to tell me my mother had died; and my sister came to tell me the whole family were moving to England and would send for me when they could. I was allowed out to attend my brother’s funeral.

Two hundred (200) witnesses (25%), 87 male and 113 female, reported that they lost contact with their extended family one way or another through the process of their institutionalisation. They stated that that being separated from parents, siblings and others with whom they had affectionate bonds was traumatic and had a devastating impact on their emotional development. They were giving a man’s salary to the religious to keep us, me and my sister and brothers, but would not give it to my dad to keep us together. After my mother died, we were very poor. My father would be dressed so poorly when he visited us. The local TD did try to help my father and spoke to ...Ministers of Government... to help my father get us, but he did not succeed.... Once we were split the link was broken, it’s hard to link back up again. We think we can be together, my sisters, but we can’t. • My mother tried to get me out when I was 15. She tried, she wrote to ...the Government Minister.... Br ...X...he wrote to her and said “no he is better off here”.... My mother she wrote every week, she had it hard too. We were branded as criminals when we came out just because we were poor. • My father, he tried so many times to get us back and they would not let him have us. I did not know where he was ...(when discharged)... he tried really hard. I think he gave up in the end, I remember him crying from the time he came in ...(to visit)... ’til the time he left ...(contact had been lost).... I didn’t even know he was dead ...crying.... He always came to see us.

Thirty three (33) witnesses reported that they were given inaccurate information about their parents, including being told that they had no parents or that they were dead and discovering in recent years, following search and tracing, that this was not the case. I was told about 15 years ago my mother was dead, they told me all my records were destroyed. ...Then... after 47 years I had contact with my mother, I picked up the phone and she said “it’s your mum”.

A number of witnesses also learned in later years that their parents had visited or written to them but that the contact was denied and letters were not passed on. Such discoveries were particularly distressing for witnesses who learned they had unknowingly lived near their parents and/or other relatives for much of their adult lives. Other witnesses reported learning about the existence of parents and relatives after their mother or father had died and experienced a double loss as a result. The nuns told me my mother was dead, they said “do you see that star up there, well she is up there”. Then a few years ago, I got a phone call to say my mother was dead ...(had just died).... ... I’m in such shock, I can’t believe it. I asked some questions and then said “it’s got to be my mother”, if only I had been given a chance to see her, to say goodbye and to say “look mum I understand and I forgive”.

The trade workshops were a feature of the School system in the period prior to the 1970s. There were 206 specific accounts of time spent in one or more different trade areas, referred to as ‘shops’. The most commonly reported trades were tailoring and shoemaking. The work in these settings was believed to be predominantly related to meeting the institutions’ needs for clothing, boots and leather straps. In the shoe shop you started off as a polisher, you polished the boots for everyone. Then you became a repairer, there was top, a piece of a tyre cut to save it ...(the boot)... when you were playing football. There was ...number... lads doing them. Then there was the “generals” who made the shoes and then there was the head shoe boy. • Everyone worked from day one. I was assigned to tailoring at 13 ...(years of age)... instead of school. I was not able to read and write. The tailoring was initially confined to making and mending boys’ clothing.

Witnesses generally reported that they had little choice about the type of work they were appointed to do: Eventually I got a job in the shoe repair shop where I was not welcomed as I was left handed, I hated working there. • I was told after 2 months “it is time to start earning your keep”. I was put to work in the Brothers’ kitchen where I remained during my stay in School. This meant I missed Mass as I had to prepare for breakfast for the Brothers and missed school as I was needed in their kitchen.

Food was generally served in large refectories designated for residents with members of religious and lay staff taking their meals in a separate area. Most witnesses commented on the provision of food, which was generally regarded as inadequate. The standard breakfast diet described was salted porridge with or without bread and tea or cocoa. The main meal was consistently described as boiled potatoes with vegetables and some meat. The evening meal was often bread and dripping, or jam and tea or cocoa. I worked for a time in the kitchen and used to see ...(what was provided)... vegetables came from packets, once a week mince, fish once a week. All meat was boiled and streaky. We were constantly hungry and we robbed each others food, you just grabbed. Youngsters who were weak suffered.

In a small number of Schools summer holidays and trips to the seaside were a popular break from the everyday routine of life. Thirty three (33) witnesses from Schools situated near the sea, lakes or rivers described being taken swimming and also for holidays at the seaside. Recreation all depended on the Brother, if he had an interest. There was one Brother who loved swimming. He brought us all the time, you could go down and dive in.

Prior to the 1970s, classroom attendance in a number of Schools was described as generally confined to the morning period followed by afternoons spent working in the trade workshops or on the farms. A number of witnesses reported being removed from the classroom to work full-time. Many witnesses stated that the main emphasis in the School was on manual work for the institution with minimal emphasis on academic education apart from Irish and religion: Education was not important. You were moved from class to class; the main aim was to get you working at 14. The teachers ran a strict regime rather than provide knowledge.

The practice of religious observance was reported to have brought comfort and sanctuary to some witnesses and hurt to others. There were 381 accounts of regular attendance at Mass in the 26 Schools that were reported to the Committee, with daily Mass more commonly reported by witnesses discharged before the mid-1970s. Daily Rosary, evening benediction and prayers were described as part of the regular timetable by 187 witnesses. Attendance at Mass was either within the institution or at the local parish church where witnesses generally reported being segregated from local people: ‘We sat in our own corner’; ‘We had to attend side chapel in the local parish church’.

Ninety seven (97) witnesses reported that the general conditions for their care and welfare were temporarily improved for inspections, with extra food, toothbrushes, schoolbooks, better clothes and bedding reported as available for the duration of the inspector’s visits. Fifty four (54) witnesses reported that the Schools were thoroughly cleaned in preparation and 32 witnesses described being dressed in their ‘Sunday best’ or ‘going-out’ clothes when inspectors came. Twenty eight (28) witnesses reported that bedspreads were put on each bed prior to visits from a Department of Education or other inspector and were removed when the inspector left. Witnesses recalled that the leather straps were put away and residents were warned beforehand to be on their best behaviour and told that the inspector was ‘the teacher’s boss’. Forty one (41) witnesses stated that they were coached in advance about what they could and could not say when the inspectors came. Sixty four (64) witnesses stated that residents were not spoken to directly and that staff were always present. I have no memory of anything really being inspected, we were never spoken to, we wore our Sunday clothes and had extra food. We saw them at a distance, you would see them for a moment standing and looking, they were always accompanied, you would be asked to recite a poem for them in class. • We always knew when inspectors were coming as white quilts and pillows were put on the beds. The inspectors walked around with the Brothers, they didn’t speak to the boys. • The food was always very good with chops or other recognisable meat, vegetable and dessert for the inspection. Boys were coached by Br ...X (Resident Manager)... to say it was like this all the time, the inspector spoke to boys, who followed the instruction with Br ...X... present and did not complain.

A small number of witnesses reported being specially dressed up and shown to visiting couples understood to be prospective adoptive and foster parents, some of whom selected witnesses and/or their siblings to adopt or foster. Once a month on visiting Sunday the place was cleaned, we all wore our best clothes, the parents were conducted around, by the priests and Brothers who monitored the visits, we were all warned to say nothing.