2,143 entries for Witness Testimony

There were 275 witness reports of inadequate provision of clothing and footwear in relation to 19 Schools. Two hundred and thirty six (236) of those reports (86%) refer to witnesses discharged from 16 Schools before 1970. The most common reports made were of poor quality and ill-fitting clothes and shoes. Witnesses who were discharged during the 1940s and 1950s reported that their clothing and boots were most often made in the School. Shoes and boots were described as ill fitting, often mended and re-mended and uncomfortable. Misfits clothes, like hand me down clothes, and the boots clattering, they were too big, we would be like the German army. • We had no underwear, that changed in the 70s. You were in ...pants and ... shirt, they were all made in the School too, shoes, boots the lot, they were all made there. Anyone who had a hole in their sock at the inspections got a beating for that too, the boots were too big or too small.

It was generally reported that witnesses’ own clothes were removed when they were admitted, to be replaced with what were at times inferior quality clothing. Skin irritation and abrasions caused by rough material rubbing on bare skin, referred to by witnesses as ‘ire’, was frequently reported. ‘You wore this tweed, you got a red mark on your leg, it would itch, it was sore’ and ‘The clothes were very bad, particularly the trousers, very bad. Whatever the material it was something like bulls wool, it irritated the skin...’. This problem was considerably worse for those witnesses who wet or soiled themselves, as replacement clothes were frequently unavailable. Many witnesses who wet their beds were not given clean or dry clothing. In addition to the discomfort this practice caused, the resulting malodour led to witnesses being shunned by other residents.

The lack of underwear and the humiliation of being seen poorly dressed in public was consistently described: The clothes were brutal I wore short pants and no underwear until I was 14, even while attending the local secondary school. The clothes came from a general ...(communal)... pool and marked us out as from the orphanage ...(Industrial School)....

Witnesses reported being forced to spend periods of time out in the recreation yards in all weathers or sheltering in sheds during wet weather, without coats or suitable clothes. Witnesses described the ‘absolute misery’ of being routinely compelled to stay outdoors in cold weather and being too cold to play or move around: We were in a big shed with seats all around, it was cold, there was nothing in it, you wouldn’t put a cow in it.

Two hundred and seventeen (217) witnesses discharged before 1970 reported poor hygiene practices in relation to 16 Schools, and varied throughout the years reported on. Witnesses discharged before 1960 reported that bath and lavatory facilities were of a basic standard with many reports of dry toilets, no toilet paper and no facility for hand washing. We were on straw mattresses on the floor, the rats would go for you if you had any food.... They were as hungry as we were. I got bitten on the ear, another fellow got bitten on the mouth. ... There were dry toilets, the boys cleaned them out. I never did myself, I avoided it. ... The clothes were very, very rarely washed. You’d have to go for a swim to wash. • The toilet situation was abominable, there were old toilets with no doors and you could not sit down on them, nobody cleaned them. You would prefer to go out to the field if you got a chance.

Daily personal hygiene practices were not often recounted by male witnesses, but accounts were heard of queuing up for face and hand washing and teeth-brushing at communal sinks. The sharing of wet towels or sheets to dry off after a shower or bath was commented on by many witnesses. Most Schools had regular baths or communal showers, with the exception of a small number of Schools that were described as having communal baths like swimming pools. The routine for bathing varied from School to School over the decades, witness reports ranged from weekly to seldom. There was a big trough, you got into that with a togs on you to wash, that was the bath. You took off the togs then and gave it to the next guy, the water was never changed for the whole lot of the lads.

Witnesses from Schools with shower facilities reported that the water was most often scalding hot or freezing cold. Strict and severe discipline was imposed if residents attempted to avoid the discomfort of extreme water temperatures. ‘In the shower if the water was too hot or too cold and you pulled out you were hit with the leather by Br ...X.... He lined you up and leathered you naked.’

Witnesses with learning difficulties and speech impediments reported being the target of sustained abuse and criticism in the classroom. ‘In school I was picked out and made stand out in front of class with a dunces cap on my head. “You’re a dunce” was wrote on my cap.’ The Committee heard 17 reports of witnesses being ridiculed and constantly punished as a result of their difficulties. He’d say, “You’re an imbecile, an idiot, that’s what you are.... What are you? What are you?” I’d have to say “I’m an imbecile, Brother” or he wouldn’t stop. ... I didn’t even know what an imbecile was.

Most Schools were reported to have had an infirmary, some of which had a nurse in attendance. The infirmaries in four Schools about which there were many reports of abuse to the Committee were described by witnesses as places to be avoided due to the fear of abuse by members of religious and nursing staff in charge. Nurses were generally remembered as non-committal about non-accidental and other injuries. Repeated wounds from beatings were reported to have elicited no query from most nurses as to their cause, while some were sympathetic but unable to intervene on the residents’ behalf: ‘what could she do, they employed her’. One witness stated that in recent years he met a School nurse who had treated his injuries following a particularly severe beating. She remembered the incident and told him she ‘could do nothing about it’, as she had been sworn to secrecy. In one School witnesses were attended by a nurse who ‘did not want to know what happened when boys turned up badly beaten’.

One hundred and thirty eight (138) witnesses reported that the lack of supervision of religious and lay staff by managers facilitated opportunities for physical, sexual and emotional abuse. I was in there for 4 years, Fr ...X (Resident Manager)... was in charge. I only saw him 5 or 6 times in the 4 years.... Lack of supervision by priests who were in charge meant that prefects had a free hand and when I reported ...(the abuse)... to Fr ...X... he wouldn’t hear of it.

The Committee also heard reports from witnesses that changes of staff and Resident Managers could have a noticeable impact on the atmosphere in the School, increasing or decreasing the risk of further abuse for residents: ‘The peaceful life of the School was shattered when this Brother came. He was brutal and went berserk. He enjoyed beating us and took every chance to do it’.

The lack of adequate supervision and follow-up was reported by witnesses who were placed by the Schools with ‘foster’ and ‘holiday’ families or on work placements while still under the age of 16 years. A witness who had been placed with a farming couple without follow-up or supervision when he was 10 years old had to work hard from the day he arrived and being told by the ‘foster’ father: We gave the nuns £10 and a box of chocolates for you, if we had bought a pair of suck calves they would be worth more to us now. He was never paid, but had been ‘fed well and not been beaten’. This witness also reported being sexually abused by local men who he believed were aware he had come from an Industrial School.

The most common report regarding discharge was of residents being given a day’s notice that they were leaving the School and given the fare either home or to other destinations. For many witnesses who had been reared in institutional care since birth and who had no known family, no knowledge of or links with the outside world, this lack of preparation and opportunity to say goodbye to siblings, co-residents and staff was often catastrophic. In these circumstances a number of witnesses stated that they were subsequently imprisoned, homeless or in emotional turmoil in the immediate years after their discharge from Schools. There was no aftercare; I got long pants for the first time and let go ... I was lost, I wanted to go back. • When I left on my sixteenth birthday, I got nothing, no job, no advice, nobody said goodbye. I walked down ... to get the bus and it was the loneliest day of my life. • There were some of them ...(co-residents)... who didn’t even get the correct fare for where they were going to, it was just “welcome to the world”. They got nothing.

One hundred and twenty five (125) witnesses (30%) reported that they were discharged home to their families. Many arrived at their family home to find that their parents had not been notified of their return, or that they no longer lived there. The day before my sixteenth birthday I was dropped in the city centre with 10 shillings by Br ...X... I did not know where the family was – they had been re-housed.

Witnesses reported a daily existence in the Schools that was dominated by fear, humiliation, loneliness, and the absence of affection. Fear was strongly associated with the daily threat of being physically and otherwise abused and seeing co-residents being abused. Constant apprehension about the next abuse to which they would be subjected was also a feature. Witnesses reported being humiliated and denigrated in many ways, both deliberately in the presence of others and, less directly, in the way they were spoken to and treated. The rejection, hostility and criticism of staff was consistently described by witnesses as a cause of great distress. The isolation of witnesses from their parents and other family members was traumatic. The most frequently reported areas of emotional abuse are summarised and include: deprivation of affection, personal ridicule, deprivation of family contact, the denial of identity, being given false and/or inaccurate information regarding their background, and witnessing others being abused, the associated guilt and constant apprehension. Even when I was in the dormitory you used to hear the frock, the thing they ...(Brothers)... used wear. I’d hear them walking down and you’d be hoping they would not stop at you. I remember in the bed praying to God they would take somebody else instead of you, and then would say “thanks God for saving me”. You’d feel guilty about that.... The screams of the fellas being abused, everyone could hear it.... I was actually terrified.