Man (70) tells inquiry he was abused in NI institution and in Australia as child

Former child migrant had no idea where he was going when he was put on a boat to Australia

A former child migrant from Northern Ireland to Australia has told a public inquiry he was transferred with no idea where he was going and faced more sexual abuse after arriving in a Catholic home there.

Des McDaid (70) said he was targeted by older boys, a lay teacher and members of the Christian Brothers religious order which ran the Clontarf institution near Perth in western Australia. He thought he was an orphan until meeting his mother decades later who begged for his forgiveness.

He gave evidence to the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry, which was established by Ministers in Belfast.

“The big thing I want you to remember is the helplessness,” he said yesterday.

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The Sisters of Nazareth order of Catholic nuns in Northern Ireland was responsible for the removal of 111 child migrants aged as young as five before and after the second World War, some of whom faced grave sexual and physical violence after arrival. Another 20 were sent by other institutions.

Raped

Mr McDaid said he was raped by an older boy at the Termonbacca boys home in Derry run by the Sisters and the paedophilia continued in Australia under the custody of the Brothers.

Using a video link from home, he said: “I had a lot more of it over here, from the Christian Brothers etc.”

The witness has campaigned for many years on the issue and waived his right to anonymity.

In 1946, he was admitted to Termonbacca and stayed until 1953. He said he was thrown up in the air as part of the indignities suffered. He was left hanging by his feet. He said bath time, when boys were washed in abrasive Jeyes cleaning fluid, was dreadful and prompted real fear. He also witnessed other boys being flogged, recalling: “I am sitting there waiting for my turn and the fear was unreal.”

He suffered lumps to the head from his bashing. “You were never valued, regarded or respected as a child, as a human being.”

Some nuns were “very good” but most confined conversation to matters of utility and did not act to protect children when abused by older boys, the inquiry was told.

He said he was sexually abused by older boys, in the bedroom at night and during the day. They were hit with brooms in the dorms. They had to polish the floors chaingang-style, chanting to keep in time.

He said: “It was not all perpetually 24 hours a day bad, some of the older boys were very nice. By and large there was more pain than there were good times.”

One time he went to confess his sins to a priest, feeling really good about life. By the time he left the confessional box he had been told to say prayers for lying about his behaviour.

Aged eight, Mr McDaid – who was originally from Co Donegal – was not told where he was going when he was transferred on board the ship the New Australian. The only clues were labels on the luggage marked Fremantle, where he arrived in 1953. "There was not a lot of communication, we were just sort of shifted around."

He was transferred from the custody of the Sisters to the Brothers in Australia.

Emotional reunion

He thought he was an orphan until the late 1980s when, at the age of 48, he had an emotional reunion with his mother. Mr McDaid said she did not consent to the transfer. She said: “Forgive me, forgive me, forgive me.”

The public inquiry is examining the extent of child abuse in religious and state-run institutions in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 1995.