Comments on: The House Children

By: Bock

Bock — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:53:44 +0000

The person who gave me that information is someone I would trust with my life. That person did not hide their identity. It was my decision not to disclose the source.

By: Rosarie

Rosarie — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:25:43 +0000

What a pity that whoever gave you that information did not have the courage to put their name to it. Mrs Maher and the area she lived in are more than clearly identified. Mrs Maher also taught me in fourth class and my memory of her was of a strict ( but in no way abusive!!!) and fair teacher.

By: formerhousechild

formerhousechild — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:23:57 +0000

I am a former house child in the mount, I was in there from 1972 to 1984 and I totally agree we were treated like lepers. The nuns treated us like crap and got away with it. I tried to tell the truth at the redress and i was called a liar, they accepted the nuns lies in a letter and I was treated like a criminal.
I had years and years of abuse, all kinds and the nuns are nothing but liars and deserve to rot in hell.
In the school where I attended I was treated like crap and suffered many years of abuse and no one is responsible. Growing up in hell was a nightmare and I wouldnt wish it on my worst enemy.
I wasnt an orphan but was called one as I was an inmate, This abuse has been going on for many years, I know of women who were there in the fiftees and they tell the same story, the nuns were dictators as were the lay people who worked there who were there just to make the innocent children suffer.
we are the silent majority and the nuns and other staff have the power because they have the money and paedaphiles behind them so what hope have we???????????????
Good for you Christy speaking out, we as children had no one to speak out for us, I was 7 years old, what hope did I have???????????

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 10:55:08 +0000

A letter, addressed to the nun in charge of Newtownforbes Industrial School, told the nun: "I cannot find any excuse which would exonerate you and your staff from the verminous condition of several of the children's heads."

The letter, written by the medical inspector of the Department, Dr Anna McCabe, continued: "I was not satisfied in finding so many of the girls in the infirmary suffering from bruises on their bodies. I wish particularly to draw attention to the latter as under no circumstances can the Department tolerate treatment of this nature."

It blamed the "neglect of supervision and individual attention" as the reason for "the dirty condition of the heads and the untreated abscess I discovered in the child in the infirmary".

It warned that "immediate steps will have to be taken to remedy" conditions at the school, and that, unless there was "a marked and sustained improvement when the school is next inspected . . . I will be reluctantly compelled to take the matter further."

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And of course she didn't take the matter further!
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A QUESTION not addressed in the Department's letter is "If parents were found to be treating children in a similar fashion to the Sisters of Mercy in Newtownforbes Industrial School what would the authorities have done to provide Proper Guardianship for the children?"

???

Well the children would have been carted off to …. an Industrial School !!!!

By: problemchildbride

problemchildbride — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:34:52 +0000

It's horrible.
Christy's right, the silent majority could have spoken up but they didn't cowardly careerists the lot of them that would put themselves before an abused child. It's disgusting.

By: Bock

Bock — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:02:39 +0000

It must have been a great comfort for abused kids to know that their rapists were the minority.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:51:21 +0000

Christy raises a very valid point when he writes about

"those people whom [he] regarded as good or not so bad.were they so blind that they could not see,so deaf that they could not hear or did they simply turn and look the other way."

Yes there were people in those Institutions who didn't beat us, who didn't starve us, who didn't rape or bugger us, who didn't demean us or denigrate us – in fact they didn't do much at all apart from standing by as we were abused.

Some supporters of the Religious Orders go on and on about the fact that the abusers were in the minority – probably true – but I say the majority of them didn't give a damn.

By: V

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:17:22 +0000

There's been a debate in the UK about bringing corporal punishment back which made me sick when I heard it as I'm sure it did everyone who got hammered by those reptiles and their peons. I have no idea why it took me two years to say that I was being hit in school. Fear I suppose. Well it backfired big time because I don't forgive and the not forgiving keeps me going.

By: kit ban

kit ban — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:26:11 +0000

I would like to comment, I too went to that school and was not a "House Child", however I can remember vividly being brought to the blackboard on a number of occasions and being bashed accross the head, I was not disadvantaged in any way. I had lots of friends who were house children who often visited my home and on occasion I would visit them in the convent. I am not seeing things with rose coloured glasses but making an comment on a memory

By: C'est La Craic

C'est La Craic — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:31:04 +0000

If there is a hell, there's some comfort in the fact that it's populated almost exclusively by members of the clergy.
Maybe if we actually learn from all these horror stories and never let them reproduce, then perhaps, just perhaps, the victims will not have suffered in vain.