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Abuse report: State officials stood by as thousands were raped

Thursday, 21 May 2009

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Irish State officials stood idly by as thousands of children were subjected to a horrific litany of physical and sexual abuse in institutions run by religious orders.

The damning report by the Ryan Commission, published yesterday, found the Irish Department of Education did nothing to prevent a staggering cycle of abuse spanning more than half a century in the Republic.

But the findings failed to satisfy many victims who criticised the report for concealing the identities of abusers.

More than 1,000 victims also refused to give evidence or cooperate with two key committees set up by the commission amid claims that it was too adversarial and legalistic.

The report found government officials were aware of widespread physical, emotional and sexual trauma inflicted on children by Catholic priests, brothers and nuns. But instead of tackling the problem, complaints by parents and others were not properly investigated by the department.

The €60m report follows almost 10 years of work by the commission which dealt with complaints from former residents of predominantly Catholic institutions dating back to 1936.

More than 200 institutions and 1,800 reports of abuse were examined by the commission chaired by Mr Justice Sean Ryan.

But the inquiry was hampered by the unexplained disappearance of files on almost three-quarters of the children admitted to the institutions under investigation.

The report found:

l More than 25,000 children were sent to 55 industrial and reformatory schools — for ‘crimes’ such as missing school, committing offences or mainly because they were needy or poor — in the years between 1937 and 1978.

l Files related to 18,000 children sent to these schools and other church run institutions are missing from the Department of Education.

l Sexual abuse was endemic in boys’ institutions. It was identified as a “chronic” problem in industrial schools in Artane, Dublin and Letterfrack in Co Galway.

l Corporal punishment was widespread at institutions throughout the country and used in the belief that instilling fear in the pupils was essential to keep order.

l The “deferential” and “submissive” attitude of the Department of Education towards religious orders allowed the abuse to continue unchecked.

l The most vulnerable children — the poor, the abandoned, the neglected — suffered “disturbing” levels of abuse.

The commission also called for a memorial — inscribed with the words of former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s 1999 apology to the victims of abuse — to be erected as permanent public acknowledgement of their experiences.

The launch of the report was marred by chaotic scenes at a Dublin hotel where some of the victims and groups representing them were denied access to the press conference launch.

The commission found the harshness of the regime was ingrained in the culture of the schools.

Corporal punishment was the option of first resort for breaches of discipline.

“Prolonged, excessive beatings with implements intended to cause maximum pain occurred with the knowledge of staff management. Individual brothers, priests or lay staff who were extreme in their punishments were tolerated by management and their behaviour was rarely challenged,” the commission found.

Children who absconded and were caught ended up being severely beaten, sometimes publicly. Some also had their heads shaved.

Neither the Department of Education nor the schools investigated the reasons children ran away — leading to cases of absconding related to chronic sexual or physical abuse going undetected.

The commission found that instead of investigating complaints the department “sought to protect and defend the religious congregations and the school”.

Department officials had a deferential and submissive attitude towards the religious orders which compromised their ability to carry out statutory monitoring and inspection of schools runs by the religious orders.

The report also found the system of funding of industrial schools helped perpetuate the problems. It found sexual abuse was “endemic” in boys’ institutions, but not in girls’ schools.

Documents uncovered by the commission found that sexual abusers were often long-term offenders who repeatedly abused children wherever they worked.

When confronted with evidence of sexual abuse, the response of the religious authorities was to transfer the offender to another location.

Religious orders covered up cases and were more worried about the potential for scandal and bad publicity than the danger to children.

Additional reporting by |Dearbhail McDonald, Eilish O’Regan and Fergus Black

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35 Comments

My heart goes out to the poor kids and also the Irish people, so terribly let down by these so-called followers of Christ.

Posted by charles covey | 23.05.09, 05:54 GMT

my father always said the cathoic church was corrupt, now i know what he meant, its time for these people to confess and cleanse their souls before god. ( but will they? ) justice must be done before their victims can find peace.

Posted by sylvia | 22.05.09, 22:57 GMT

This is an absolute disgrace on many different levels as innocent children were put into supposed state "care". The images and faces of the angry men and victims outside the Conrad Hotel on Wednesday at the launch of the Child Abuse Commission Report convey more than we could ever begin to comprehend. Those responsible for pastoral care and who were meant to be people capable of responsible well-being for young children instead ruled with fear and inflicted sickening abuse upon many. Why?

Posted by Barry Fennell | 22.05.09, 10:23 GMT

Not only should the perpetrators be named, but they should be jailed, along with anyone who 'turned a blind eye' and thus was complicit these most heinous of crimes.

It is high time the Roman Catholic Church (and any other religion or denomination whose leaders are or were perpetrating such crimes) were told in no uncertain terms that their laws do not supersede those of the land.

Posted by Tom Sullivan | 21.05.09, 23:37 GMT

News like this really makes me question why I would even want to belong to such an organisation which despite recent condemnation, allowed these atrocities to happen and denied them and now actually wish to keep their names from being revealed. It really baffles me that the CC condemns sex outside of marriage and homosexual sex so badly (which doesn't harm anyone) but they will actually TOLERATE this sort of behaviour. Not a sad day for Catholicism, but a sad day for the people of Ireland.

Posted by JB | 21.05.09, 23:13 GMT

I just want to point out that I went to a primary school in County Armagh in the early 1960's and there was a sadistic Catholic Lay Teacher who beat me constantly almost every day. I would love to see him behind bars.

Posted by Patrick Murphy, Mexico City | 21.05.09, 22:27 GMT

whats all the fuss about...............the irish government will let the church off again.......... they are still doing it mannnnnnn.....wake up!

Posted by billy | 21.05.09, 20:57 GMT

This is the biggest failure of the Irish government since the birth of the state. They have let down Ireland's children, the biggest crime imaginable.

While there are many thousands of true & honest priests, nuns & monks around the world the hierarchy of the catholic church is currupt. This goes all the way upto the pope. Documents have been uncovered in Rome that prove they've always know about these world-wide abuses. Yet they covered-up and protected these monsters for countless years.

Posted by napper | 21.05.09, 19:37 GMT

I read a while back of a mother and doctor in Italy who had been excumunicated from the church because they carried out an abortion on the womans 9 year old daughter who had been raped and become pregnant by her step father,who was also accussed of raping the other disabled daughter. The step-father was not excommunicated from the church. Does the modern catholic church really consider that child abuse is a forgivable sin?? Nothing seems to have changed. its sad.

Posted by R | 21.05.09, 17:26 GMT

The report displays the astoundingly disgraceful control the church had over peoples minds and the government. It highlights how most children left these places, not only scarred, but with a true hate of religion. The details of the physical abuse, before even getting to the sexual abuse, make for somber reading. I hope victims can feel somewhat "relieved" that there stories are finally being read by all, when before, their complaints where discarded and written off as lies.

Posted by Jason | 21.05.09, 17:05 GMT

Mags, if you're setting yourself as spokesperson for the 'Irish people' I ask you what are you going to do about this?

Really? Calling people bigots is an underhand move. I'm aware certain loyalists are quickly able to fall off their high horses at anytime, but I suspect this will just simmer for a while and then die. The state religion of Ireland has been showed to be complicit in the rape and torture of thousands of vulnerable children. So whats to be done?

Posted by Martin Dee | 21.05.09, 17:04 GMT

And who would want to be united with a nation that allows such a corrupt church to have so much input into it's administration...

'Never, never, never'.

Posted by Merry | 21.05.09, 16:56 GMT

What can be said? Ireland will only be truly free once it's liberated from the CC's slavery of the mind. As Luther said "every man is his own priest".

Posted by Will | 21.05.09, 16:51 GMT

Hello to all the bloggers here. This isn't shocking news. We as Aboriginal people often felt the abuse at the hand of the churches were only a Aboriginal issue. Today within Ireland the truth as come out. The Canadian government have paid out Millions of dollars to victims of these crimes made by Priests and Sisters. The Government is also accountable. I encourage more victims to come forward. Let your healing start. Stay together and get Legal advice. The can of worms is only half open.B brave.

Posted by Being Aboriginal | 21.05.09, 16:50 GMT

I went to St Colmans High School in Strabane from 1983 to 1988 were my entire class was subjected to years of constant mental abuse by a female member of staff. St Colman's was pulled down a year or two ago much to my great delight but this teacher remains employed in the school that replaced it. The point here is that not all of those who subjected children to cruelty in Catholic Institutions were in religous orders and not all of the abuse was physical.

Posted by S | 21.05.09, 16:49 GMT

Nothing will happen - it will all be quitely pushed to the side,
and the church will carry on as normal,
and the un-named Paedophile Priests will carry on abusing as normal.

Posted by seen it all before | 21.05.09, 16:15 GMT

This systematic, sickening abuse of generations of the most vulnerable of Irish children proves the adage - the more devout, the more deviant.

Also, for those lily-livered compliants in positions of power within the Irish State and Educational System - all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

Roasting in Hell would be too good a reward for these doers of Satan's deeds

Posted by Jay Szusz | 21.05.09, 15:49 GMT

Some of this abuse was just 30 years ago. The perpetrators could be walking down the street as you take your children to school or maybe even working in our schools. Why do they refuse to name the perpetrators?

Posted by Patricia | 21.05.09, 15:36 GMT

Ed, you are obivioulsy a bigot towards the Irish people in general. Why should, as you quote "the Irish people should also hang their heads in shame", not all the Irish population is responsible for this nor all of the government. The people who caused this and those who hid it should hand their heads in shame. Your comments are unhelpful.

Posted by Mags | 21.05.09, 15:31 GMT

Why is anyone suprised at this? I thought everyone already new all this. The report has taken the best part of a decade to produce because of obstruction by the Dept for Education and religious orders. No matter how many reports are produced these people never change. Vincent Nichols response to this report - to bemoan that the report makes people forget about all the good things these people did.

If they could get away with it they would still be doing it.

Posted by Paul | 21.05.09, 15:25 GMT