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Abuse report: Placenames that still send a cold shudder through hearts of victims
Thursday, 21 May 2009
Artane. Daingean. Goldenbridge. Letterfrack. Seemingly innocuous placenames. They can still send a shudder of cold fear through the hearts of Irishmen and women of a certain age.
It was in these dark and sinister institutions that bad boys and wayward girls would disappear.
Society handed over responsibility for its children to a powerful and authoritarian Catholic Church. The great grey walls of these institutions were surrounded by even higher walls of secrecy.
They were described variously as reform schools or industrial schools. The “reform” we now know was brought about by a regime of terror, and the “industry” was hugely exploitative. Children worked long hours and the schools made a handsome profit on the state subvention given.
The children entered these schools at the age of eight and generally left on turning 17.
But only now are we beginning to realise just how menacing and unforgiving these corridors were.
Institutional state and Church silence has meant that these bastions of brutality have been slow to yield their horror stories. People bought into the notion that these buildings were worthy places where orphaned children, or children with parents who could not afford to clothe and feed them, were sent by order of the courts for their welfare and education.
But from the late 1930s Catholic bishops, parish priests and devout members of the flock were reporting to the Department of Education and to the courts the names of children whose parents might be always quarrelling in an alcoholic daze, or a Catholic widow who was living in sin with an unmarried Protestant partner.
Probation officers would whisk away those children who came before the courts and were allocated to one of the 100 institutions of clerical detention.
What really happened behind those closed walls is now revealed in the first major inquiry conducted by a state which abdicated to a clericalist Church corrupt with power. More than 90% of all the victims who gave evidence to the Ryan Commission reported being physically abused while in industrial and residential schools or out of home care. About half of the inmates were subjected to brutal sexual abuse.
Inspectors from the Department of Education who should have been whistleblowers were meanwhile deferring to the clergy. Some of these inspectors had studied for the priesthood before joining the civil service and were only too happy to sit with fine food in the parochial halls of their former colleagues, forgetful of the lack of food, nutrition and clothing of the incarcerated children.
The Ryan Report has opened our eyes to the evil done in the name of religion. The abusers were not just a few bad clerical eggs — it was a monstrous and iniquitous system. This report, even more than the Ferns Inquiry and the preliminary Cloyne probe, has dealt another damaging blow to the standing of the Catholic Church in Ireland.
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Comments
60 Comments
Dear all,
Unfortunately my dad was a so called 'student' in the Christian Brothers school in Cork in the 50's/60's. There is nothing 'Christian' about them. He is no longer around but when he was, he as unable to talk about it. i can only imagine the abuse he suffered and it pains me to my heart. This amongst many other things has prompted me to become a social worker - to protect those children that cannot be protected.
I applaud the individuals that have stood up against the abuse and let it come out into the open. i hope you can seek some further help to assit you to deal with the horrible expereinces that you have suffered.
The church, the institutions, the so called nuns, priests and any indivdual involved, repsionsible etc. should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.
I wish all of you the best for the future/
Posted by Clare | 10.08.09, 11:40 GMT
This is outrageous. The Sisters Of Mercy have not only refuses any responsibility they have told US Sisters that this is not true.
Last Sunday after mass an American Sister of Mercy, formerly part of their delegation at the UN, told me that she did not have to read the report because the Irish sisters she knows told her that it was all false and they were not culpable. These Mercy Sisters have NGO status at the UN. Peace and Justice begins with their own institutions and the ones they ran that victimized residents.
Posted by John LaPointe | 01.08.09, 23:05 GMT
For Info/ My post signed '' Maitiu '' Below refers to the Limerick ''CBS School at Creagh Lane of the 1950s and nothing to do with yesterdays Case in the High Court where the Ex Christian Brother was found Guilty., of Offences against students in the 1960s
Many thanks
Posted by maitiu | 24.06.09, 13:37 GMT
I came through the Christian Brothers system pretty ''messed- up'' in the head. Daily bout's of Hidings and Sexual abuse being endemic. Lay teachers at Creagh Lane School Limerick who could have spoken out did'nt. '' Shame on them. ''Final year we had a Head-Case Brother who gave us mental sums to do in a given time. Some got them all wrong, unable to concentrate, with the Monster overlooking them. We hadnt a Chance. Not to mention the Sexual abuse.
THANKS FOR READING MY SHORT ACCOUNT.
Posted by maitiu | 21.06.09, 13:42 GMT
I am so shocked at the scale of the abuse, that abuse, was so part of the whole system. That so many priests nuns bishops cardinals and the pope obviously accepted this behaviour, I thought just one or two may have been evil to the core but to know know this was an edpidemic, a plague on vunerable defenceless children by angry nasty cruel Non christian worthless individuals
Thank God for this report. May the hypocrates face 'their' God and rot. Long live the Truth.
Posted by Linda | 26.05.09, 22:47 GMT
Those Christian Brothers were up to their same tricks in Australia over the same period of time. and in 1996 the order was reported as having paid out millions of dollars to victims.
It would appear that the brothers learned from that experience.
Posted by Josh | 24.05.09, 12:10 GMT
Total respect to the survivors who fought to get this out in the open. May all who belong to the world's largest cult take note and protect themselves and their families from its abuses. An isolated fall here or there can happen to any group, but this is ages long corruption and protection of a powerful elite. It is not the church of the New Testament. Every Catholic who loves Christ should seek our fellowship with his fellow Christians, outside that dishonourable body.
Posted by Ian M | 22.05.09, 20:45 GMT
The Irish Catholic Church is not contrite. They hide behind mealy mouthed legalistic verbiage prentending to be sorry. They are more concerned about scandal than about the welfare of their victims. We the Irish people must now desert them, teach them a lesson they will never forget. I cannot understand their hold over the people. The Irish people must free themselves from these shackles. We have to have names of the abusers and what an outrageous deal the Irish Government did in 2002.
Posted by Patrick Murphy | 22.05.09, 17:31 GMT
Patrick,
Heny's reasons were selfish and deeply flawed, but corruption in the catholic church of the time was all too real. His new church resonated strongly with the populace and subsequent monarchs found themselves unable to re-convert.
Posted by SteveW | 21.05.09, 16:10 GMT
SteveX, not quite sure what you mean here.
Henry plundered the Churches for cash to do what Spain did a generation before - plunder the Americas. Henry set up his own "yes" men puppet church in the process. He didn't want Rome to have its share. A male heir was a cover (see Eliza1). So Steve, the big 3 were all there sex, politics and religion. He died a repentant Catholic with a Jesuit priest at his bedside.
I'm hoping someone will mention the 90%+ of Ch. Br. who were decent men. Fat chance.
Posted by Patrick | 21.05.09, 13:41 GMT
they should be named! why let them hide? they don't deserve it, these people were brave enough to come foward and tell their stories, and they can't even get closure, knowing their abusers will be punished. what's the point in having a legal system if it's not used? jeeezzzz.
Posted by Grace | 21.05.09, 09:47 GMT
Ellen: "Ireland needs to stop burying its head in the sand!"
Quite the opposite, I'm actually surprised the authorities in Southern Ireland have not continued to try and sweep this issue under the carpet. Better late than never, however the damage done to the reputation of Southern Ireland will take decades to heal.
Posted by micke | 21.05.09, 09:39 GMT
Horrific. This is what happens when you mix church with state.
Posted by McD | 21.05.09, 09:36 GMT
Ireland needs to stop burying its head in the sand! Keeping names quiet (the wicked Christian Brothers!) will not make anything better. It only gives undeserved safe haven to perverted psychopathic criminals who carelessly destroyed countless lives. The 2004 ruling should be overturned immiediately. And it seems to me that offering pay-offs to those victims who agree not to sue the church amounts to blackmail. Shame, shame on the Catholic church for so many reasons!
Posted by Ellen | 21.05.09, 05:31 GMT
Dear Merry of Australia,
You do make me sad, are you merry or simply drunk?
The religious orgs in Oz have run riot in the areas of child abuse ever since they set foot in Australia.
Why not google "broken rites" or "cathchurch", a guide to catholic church publications which even suggests Australian priests are implicated by the report published in Ireland. Possibly playing away from home?
There have been numerous proven court cases involving priestly child abuse in Oz.
Posted by jonno | 21.05.09, 01:59 GMT
Hello Merry as a resident of Australia how long have you been asleep??
People of these same child abusing organisations have been active in Oz for just as long. Have you not heard of "Bindoon, wa"etc.
Go learn about the "Lost Generations" of children exported by the church to Oz.
Get your head out of the sand, or is ignorance bliss?
Posted by jonno | 21.05.09, 01:32 GMT
Vatican authorities should act swiftly to establish a highest-security "Worldwide Pedophile Penitentiary" where convicted pedophile priests from everywhere in the world can be committed to live out their years under the harshest of conditions while seeking atonement for their sins before Judgement Day. This facility, when combined with an unswerving committment policy, should discourage pepedophiles from seeking to enter the priesthood to fufill perverted desires.
Posted by Bruce | 21.05.09, 01:19 GMT
Forget the idiocy of the celibacy, is rubbish. Trying to follow a religion n destroying the children lives. What kind of christian are? True devils disguised as saints.
Posted by Steve X | 21.05.09, 00:36 GMT
Henry the VIII was not so wrong then...
Posted by Steve X | 21.05.09, 00:30 GMT
it's clear that all of this was tolerated and considered normal by Irish society 40-60 years ago,or it could never have happened. The question we should be asking ourselves is: what things are we turning a blind eye to in 2009 that will be considered atrocities in the future?
Posted by Ciaran | 21.05.09, 00:10 GMT
60 Comments