Madam, – I read today with growing incredulity the response given by the Christian Brothers to the suggestion that they should fund more of the €1.3 billion bill to be paid as compensation to victims of institutional child abuse. They feel that in the past they have been “inadequate” in terms of their response to victims and they now pledge to “listen” to them and their families.
Well listen up, my dad was incarcerated in St Joseph’s Tralee in the early 1940s. He left with a nose that was broken and never fixed, epilepsy and bouts of severe depression that affected the quality of his life. He wanted to live until he was 76, that was his number at St Joseph’s, and he felt that to beat that number would be victory of survival. He failed. He died six years ago aged 73, but for the first time since he died I am glad. I am glad he is not here to see this cowardly, mealy-mouthed response to his suffering and the suffering of all those other children.
It is imperative that the Christian Brothers and the other orders pay more money because it is that payment that shows that they have finally understood what they have done. Everyone in Ireland should demand it of them because for Ireland to be able to take its place in the modern world it has to deal with its past. That also means more trials for those where there is enough evidence to prosecute.
Like many other children denied information about his family and made to feel the socially inferior “monastery boy” my dad came to England in the 1950s. He didn’t want compensation. We all knew he wouldn’t be able to testify, as the memories of his childhood were too painful, but he would have wanted justice and fairness. So when the Christian Brothers say “As a congregation we want to make amends and to beg forgiveness”, I would say to them: do so by putting your hands in your pockets and paying up. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The abuse did not only happen in the institutions. In the early 1950s when I attended primary school, beatings and canings were seen as normal and if you dared to report it at home to your parents, as the nuns, brothers, priests, teachers were always thought to be right, parents would not usually question authority.
The nuns would get the stick or bamboo cane out and if you had been troublesome you would get three of the best. If you withdrew your hand you would get three more and sometimes on the back of the knuckles. The sting I will always remember. This was normal at the time and accepted in society and by the Department of Education. If you went home and told your parents at that time they would say “What were you up to”?
Another thing the nuns and teachers did: if you were a troublesome boy, a paper skirt was put on you and if you were a girl paper trousers, and you were put in the bold corner for hours, faced to the wall. This was mental torture because in the 1950s a boy was a boy and a girl was a girl. It was humiliating and sadistic and made you feel silly. Dusters were also thrown at you.
In the Christian Brothers, boys were beaten with legs of chairs and the Brothers used the belt from their tunic to beat you even around the ears, or anywhere, there were no holds barred.
This again was all accepted treatment, so God knows what went on in secret in the industrial schools. I dread to think. At least we had our mothers and fathers to go home to for a hug and a cuddle. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Defenders like Áine Ní Ghallchoir (May 27th) seem to forget the unkindest cut of all. Most of the clergy were well aware of the child abuse rampant in church schools and institutions in Ireland.
It was common knowledge when I was at day school in Dublin in the mid 1950s. We all knew which brothers to stay away from. While many of them were obviously gay, not all were paedophiles. Given the absolute control over children in the institutions, the appalling lack of State oversight, and the licence for frequent corporal punishment, the children in “care” were obvious targets to the sexually deprived and depraved. We shuddered at the thought even then.
I understand that the temptation was well recognised as a major hazard among themselves. They transferred the malefactors in response to parental complaints, hushed them up with a mixture of threat and religious claptrap, and would later create a rumour that the complainant, who transferred to another school, had been expelled for misconduct.
We found out later that a document from the Vatican called Crimen Sollicitationisinstructed the orders and parish clergy how to deal with these incidents internally. It essentially comprised a cover-up. This was easy in Ireland where local authorities would not proceed against the collar. The knowledge of the existence of sexual crimes extended all the way to the top. To Rome. From the church mice to the Holy Father of the day. They all knew. It was their business to know. Thus comments by the Christian Brothers concerning "unacceptably high incidence" of abuse.
The centre of Catholic clerical education in Ireland, the National Seminary and Pontifical University at Maynooth was itself riddled with sexual abnormality between high officials and coerced seminarians who subsequently complained. Then president, Dr Michael Ledwith, who given his high position would normally have been in line for the Primacy of Armagh or Dublin, was forced to stand down. This is a thoroughly corrupt organisation. Those who are not guilty by deed, are indeed guilty by omission, to use their language.
This insidious church has intruded in our lives in Ireland for too long. The vile Ne Temeredecree prevented the full national integration of the people of this island. This led to greater sectarianism in our nation, and contributed to partition.
Absolute separation of our State from this institution is a national priority. We did not separate from the UK to achieve theocratic governance by the Roman Catholic Church.
Flimsy legalisms must not get in the way of doing the right thing. The Christian Brothers, wily to the last, are transferring their assets to their controlled Edmund Rice Institute so as to place them beyond reach, but retain control of the schools in the twilight of the order. The State needs to bring forward a bill to assume control of these school properties. We paid for them one way or another. We are also paying the pensions of retired teaching brothers. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I’d like to put on record that 40-50 years ago, when I attended primary and secondary schools run by the Presentation Brothers in Cork, I suffered no sexual abuse whatsoever and far less violence than I experienced at the hands of others who did sexually and physically abuse me. I have nothing but good memories of eight years in their care.
By contrast, Glasheen National School, which meted out much violence to small boys, had only lay teachers ( noBrothers whatever). What went on in Daingean, etc, was, of course horrible, but let's retain some sense of proportion. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – As a former "mon boy", who benefited from a classical education, I'm reminded of Cicero's question " cui bono"? To whose benefit is it to censure all Brothers and all schools? Does it help the victims and survivors that we now have so many commentators condemning the Christian Brothers? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I suggest the Catholic Church donates, for at least a month, all church collections in the parishes throughout Ireland to the victims of clerical abuse. Each collection should be preceded by an unequivocal apology from the altar. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Sheelagh Morris (May 22nd) says: “The War of Independence ushered in a reign of terror for children who were poor, abandoned or from family circumstances which did not conform to a semi-fascist ideal. Would their lives have been as wretched had the entire island remained under British control?”
I believe the economic, social and political regression here and in the North (remember Kincora boys’ home abuses), vindicates James Connolly’s prescient prediction of “a carnival of reaction, north and south”, if partition was imposed on Ireland. Perhaps it was the defeat of more progressive forces in the Civil War that led to Ireland’s tragedy? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Having heard that a listener to Radio Kerry asked “why St Joseph’s Sisters of Mercy School, Killarney was not investigated by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, I looked again at my own connection with this convent. The records will show I was there from 1948 to 1954 and was then transferred to the Christian Brothers in Glin, Co Limerick. The home, as it was known as, could be harsh at times and we experienced the usual levels of corporal punishment for bed wetting etc, but no cruelty or abuses.
I was an orphan. When I was abroad from 1964 onwards, in England, Germany, Swaziland, Botswana, Bahrain, Cyprus, Canada and finally Northern Ireland in 1971, it was nuns who always sent me a card and letter for Christmas and Easter – the only mail that I would get for many years up until I got married in 1974. Indeed, I was also delighted to be able to visit as a family many years later.
This support was particularly welcome in the years after I had left the Christian Brothers Industrial School in Glin, Co Limerick, in 1962 and was making my way alone in life – often lonely, afraid, fearful of the future, until I got married in Derry in 1974. We have two boys.
I have spoken to many former residents of the convent who the nuns also kept in contact with and know of many others who also visited with their own families years later. Thankfully there was nothing for Mr Justice Ryan to investigate at Killarney. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Many of the children who were incarcerated in these hideous institutions were there because they came from large, impoverished families. The families were large because the Catholic Church decreed that contraception was a mortal sin. Even in the 21st century this same church won’t sanction the use of condoms to control the spread of Aids in Africa. I have not been a practising Catholic for a long time, but such is my revulsion at the Ryan report that I am applying for the removal of my name from the records of the vile and corrupt institution that is the Catholic Church. To have even a tenuous connection with it would be an insult to the victims of abuse. – Yours, etc,
Madam, I refer to articles by John Waters (May 15th and May 22nd), which purport to be about the Monageer tragedy in Co Wexford and the Ryan report into child abuse, but are in fact shameful attacks on both mothers and the social work profession.
The essence of Mr Waters’ article relating to Monageer is that in Irish culture “nobody tells a mother what to do about her own children”. While I cannot comment on Irish culture in general, I can state that, as a social worker working in this area, child protection assessments are made on the basis of the evidence available, and not on the basis of a bias against fathers, or for mothers. Mr Waters reflects on the many times he has “witnessed mothers battering the heads off children without attracting attention”. Is one to assume that Mr Waters followed what he believes to be the cultural norm, and did nothing when he witnessed this abuse, or did he report the abuse to the appropriate authorities, ie, the HSE or the Garda Siochána? Mr Waters bemoans the fact that he has had problems trying to write about one particular case, presumably for confidentiality reasons. He says he wanted to draw attention to “abuses perpetrated by social workers”.
In his article of May 22nd, Mr Waters gives a one-sided account of a case where he claims a father had his children removed in circumstances “defying comprehension or justification”. He states, “the vindictive whim of a social worker is sufficient to unleash the most draconian response”.
A social worker’s role is to ensure the welfare and protection of children. This function is carried out under the aegis of the Child Care Act 1991. The Act states at Section 3 (1) “It shall be a function of every health board to promote the welfare of children in its area who are not receiving adequate care and protection”. Furthermore, social workers follow the Government-produced Children First guidelines in the course of their work. Social work departments are under-resourced and under-staffed, yet despite these difficulties their work is carried out professionally and with the welfare of the child as the paramount concern.
The fact is that the primary abusers of children are their carers, not social workers. It is shameful Mr Waters has used the Monageer tragedy and the Ryan report to attack the social work profession. – Yours, etc,