Catholic Child Abuse Report Out Today.

Report on Irish child abuse due
A religious statue
More than 35,000 children were placed in church-run institutions

The findings of a nine-year inquiry into abuse suffered by children in Catholic institutions in Ireland over a 60-year period are due to be published.

About 35,000 children were placed in a network of reformatories, industrial schools and workhouses up to the 1980s.

More than 2,000 told the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse they suffered physical and sexual abuse while there.

The BBC's Mark Simpson said the inquiry was expected to criticise the Church's handling of sex abuse complaints.

The institutions housed abandoned or neglected children, but courts also sent those guilty of truancy and petty crime.

Victim Andrew Madden describes the abuse

Unmarried mothers were also sent to institutions known as Magdalene Laundries, many by their own families.

Hundreds of the victims moved away from Ireland once they left the care homes and went to live in the UK.

Many of those who are alleged to have carried out the abuse are now dead.

The commission was established in 2000 after the then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern issued an apology on behalf of the state to the victims of child abuse.

Led by Mr Justice Sean Ryan, the commission's report is believed to be five volumes and 2,500 pages long.

Thousands of abused men and women testified to the commission, which was set up after a television series revealed the scale of the abuse.

Journalist Mary Raftery, who was behind the series, said the extent and depravity of the abuse was "profoundly shocking".

"It is off the scale in terms of anything we have any knowledge of or any ability to deal with, particularly, as it was perpetrated, in the main, by members of religious orders," she said.


SEARCH FOR JUSTICE
Shane Harrison

By Shane Harrison

BBC News, Dublin

Today sees the publication of another report in the Republic about the abuse of children entrusted to the Catholic Church.

The report looks at how children were physically, sexually and emotionally abused in schools run by religious orders.

I met three victims and heard their stories.

Read Shane's piece here

Ms Raftery said the children ended up in "houses of horror" and were essentially locked up until they were 16.

"They emerged deeply disturbed and damaged and so many of them immediately emigrated," she said.

"They felt their country had abandoned them as well as everything else, as well as their religion, that just stripped them bare of any kind of support.

"It is an absolutely shameful episode in our history."

The allegations include sexual abuse and repeated beating of boys and girls with a leather strap.

Some punishments were said to be handed out for talking at mealtimes or writing left handed.

More than 100 institutions run by religious orders have been examined and the inquiry is expected to produce specific findings against a number of facilities.

The Sisters of Mercy and Christian Brothers, which ran the largest number of children's institutions, were among the orders under investigation.


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The news on this tragic subject the way these poor people were treated by the Church,Irish State and police force is an absolute disgrace. This is like the worse Dickensian novel but 100 times worse. Shame on the people in power who allowed this tragedy to happen or turned a blind eye on it because of their miss given trust in the Church Authorities in charge at the time of this.

This is why the Church won't release my ancestor's records to us. This is why so many records of Home Children/Orphans/Waifs were destroyed.

People have heard about what happened to the Native populations when the Churches set up their schools here. They did it quick and well because....they were well practiced by what they were doing back at home.

Here is the official report on it.

Anyone else notice that the type in this document is seriously wonky?

Commission's Executive Summary

The more I think about this, the madder it makes me.

Do these guys have ANY idea what they did to my family? That what they did didn't just impact the one person they did it to?

Actually, I have more than one Home Child in my family. But one for sure was with these ones specifically. Here my grandmother was with Nuns for her childhood even though she wasn't an orphan. I have at least one other Home Child in my family as well.

They messed up people in my family for GENERATIONS. The impact of their abuse can me seen in ME - MORE than a hundred years later. Four-Five Generations along.

I think I'm sad and livid. I knew. Actually reading about their findings makes me want to hurl my computer out the window in anger.



[edit on 2009/5/20 by Aeons]

"Cardinal Sean Brady, the head of the Catholic church in Ireland, said: "I am profoundly sorry and deeply ashamed that children suffered in such awful ways in these institutions."-

I WANT MY FAMILIES' RECORDS! That'd be a good place to start.

[edit on 2009/5/20 by Aeons]

A state controlled by the Catholic Church, they did what they wanted i'm truly sorry to hear of your families hardship.

I hope you get to the bottom of it but i wouldn't hold my breath with this tyranical, secret Church.

I think any institution like this has the possibility of becoming like this.

I imagine you can find this behaviour in other groups - it is the sheer scope of ongoing lack of responsibility for it that astounds with the Catholic Church. The institutionalization of it.

My family has even tried BEGGING the Church for our families records.

A "I'm sorry" doesn't really cut it, when the congregations and orders fought EVERY STEP OF IT. When they still won't cooperate. When they still care about covering their own butts more than they care about fixing what they can. They can't fix everything. But they could DO THEIR BEST at what they could do. But they don't.

When I think about the reverberations through geneartions, the sheer amount of harm this abuse has perpetrated......its mind boggling.

It is estimated that one in ten UK descent Canadians is descended from a Home Child. A goodly percentage of these came from these institutions, or ones like them. If I'm generous to those organizations, and say that only a few of those was ritually abused like is documented, that would probably mean that you'd still have about 1 in 60 people whose family, family story, family life, family discipline, family dysfunction, that has grown out of that fertile field.

That's HUGE. That's literally MILLIONS of Canadians' famiilies. And most of them don't know why their family fights being messed up. Millions of families who've got founding members who had been ritually abused. You add together the european institutionalized children to the residential school abused natives.....

Mind boggling.

[edit on 2009/5/20 by Aeons]

[edit on 2009/5/20 by Aeons]

this is quite sad. another predictable chapter in the big book of crimes against humanity of the (catholic) church. the same crime syndicate that proudly brought us the crusades, the (spanish) inquisition, the holocaust (they supported the nazis), child abuse, brain washing. i understand now why they are pro-life / against abortion or protected sex. it looks like the culture of destroying life and souls begins after birth for the catholic church. jesus is their trademark and they use it to fool uneducated peasants...

same goes for all other organized religions that poison the human souls. spirituality good. religion bad.

I'm really sorry to hear this, but I'm sure we all knew what the outcome of this investigation would be.

Ever wonder why a holy man who seems well versed on the consequences of sin and damnation would commit such vile acts? Think he may know something we don't about the stories they try and sell us or are they just simply isolated cases of depraved and dysfunctional individuals?

Yes, once again we have members of the "church" performing their deviant blood rituals and sex magic on the unsuspecting and the innocent. Not unlike the sudden bombing campaigns that we are told are extremely necessary and crucial that just happen to fall around certain times of the year.

Feeding the hex when their masters require it.

It won't be much longer.

- Lee

There is no clearer case for seperating Church and state

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BRIEFING
There is no clearer case for seperating Church and state
Irish News Friday Fergal Hallahan Friday May 22, 2009

SOME time ago details were discussed on Vincent Brown's radio show of testimony given to the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse that involved witnessing the sexual abuse of a small child in a Catholic institution. It was profoundly disturbing - for some reason it is even more upsetting to hear such a tale of horror given voice than to see it in print.

Yet for page after page, volume upon volume, the commission's report published this week recounts comparable incidents and, taken as a whole, paints a sick-making picture of depravity and mistreatment so widespread that it was accepted as the norm. The fact that physical, sexual and . psychological abuse of children in state-owned, Church-run institutions was endemic, as the reports states, speaks of a fundamental failure not just of responsibility of care but of human empathy.

The southern state abandoned its most vulnerable young citizens to, as one commentator put it yesterday, "a clericalist Church corrupt with power"
.
Members of clerical orders, part of that Church, flogged, raped, exploited tortured for financial gain, under-fed, poorly clothed, humiliated and denigrated thousands of Irish children at will, according to the report.

The Church facilitated this regime of terror, its managers shuffling known abusers - known criminals, though they might not have been convicted of any crime - from one school or institution to another.

Although it tried to wash its hands of these children at the outset as a matter of policy, the state too bears-responsibility for their fate.

The report is particularly critical of the Department of Education, which kowtowed and craw-thumped instead of challenging and holding to account. Its "deferential and submissive attitude towards the congregations", the report says, "compromised its ability to carry out its statutory duty of inspection and monitoring of the [reformatory] schools".

Parents attempted to challenge the behaviour of one particularly monstrous Christian Brother who, although eventually convicted of abuse, is bizarrely given a pseudonym in the report. Not only was this paedophile "persistently protected by diocesan and school authorities" but "complaints to the Department of Education were ignored".

In some senses the report's least graphic lines are its most devastating.
"The danger to children was not taken into account ... The safety of children in general was not a conslderation ... The [Department of Education] inspector rarely spoke to the children in the institutions." And, of course: "The recidivist nature of sexual abuse was . known to religious authorities."

Since its publication on Wednesday some people, including a high-profile priest, have made comparisons between the south's reformatory and industrial-schools and Nazi concentration camps, so awful are the report's findings, so sinister their implications.

This is unwise because it risks minimising the hell on Earth that was the death camps. But it is worth considering that, just as questions such as 'How could they have gone along with it?' and 'Surely they must have known?' will perhaps forever be asked about ordinary Germans during the Hitler years, so too wider Irish society needs to reflect on its role in this dark chapter of our history.

Take the following, for example: "Witnesses reported being sexually abused by religious and lay staff in the schools and institutions and by co-residents and others, including professionals, both within and external to the institutions. "They also reported being sexually abused by members of the general public, including volunteer workers, visitors, work-placement employers, foster parents and others who had unsupervised contact with residents in the course of everyday activities."

(Children with special needs *physically and intellectually disabled people - were especially vulnerable to abuse. How grim is that?)

So, yes, it wasn't just priests and nuns and Christian Brothers shattering children's lives. And, yes, it is a fact that there are good clerics who do tremendous work and that the Church is in essence a force for good.

But far more important is the fact that for far too much of its history the Republic has been in thrall to the Church to the extent that as a society and as individuals people have abdicated responsibility for their own morality to what they have seen as the higher authority of the Church.

This is at best complacent, at worst, as the report by Mr Justice Ryan and his colleagues illustrates, potentially ruinous for those at the margins of society: .
If ever there was a clear' argument for the absolute separation of Church and state in Ireland, this report is it. It would be better for the health of both ..

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Shut down Christian Brothers says abused Co Armagh man
Irish News Friday May 22, 2009 By Valerie Robinson Southern Correspondent

A CO Armagh man who suf*fered physical and sexual abuse while in the care of the Christian Brothers has called for the congregation to be disbanded.
Tom Hayes, who lives In Richill and is in his sixties, last night said that he . had been "absolutely shocked" by revelations of the widespread sexual, physical and emotional suffering of children in the Republic exposed by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse.

The commission, chaired by Mr Justice Sean Ryan, published a five*volume report this week on the "en*demic" sexual abuse, brutal punish*ments and neglect suffered by thou*sands placed in the care of religious congregations during the 20th
century.
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Mr Hayes, a former resident of St Joseph's Industrial School in Glin, Co Limerick, said the judge's assertion that the Christian Brothers and other congregations had allowed the sys*tematic neglect and abuse of chil*dren was "horrifying".
"I am absolutely shocked by what I've read. I did not believe the extent of the abuse across the country," he said.
.
"I did not know of the Christian Brothers and other congregations using the same mechanism of moving violent and sadistic abusers between schools.
"In Glin we knew that one brother who'd been sent to us had been ousted and moved from another industrial school.

SHOCKED BY REPORT: Tom Hayes

"There was also a particularly violent and sexually active brother in Co Limerick that was moved to Tralee. He was later moved to a day school in Dingle, Co Kerry, despite his record of violence and abuse of children."

Mr .Hayes, who was sexually and physically abused by older boys throughout his time in Glin, accused religious congregations of regarding "children like me [of unwed parents 1 as being low-Iifes who were not worthy of any type of real protection".

When he complained to a priest of the abuse he suffered, the Christian Brothers threatened to transfer the boy to the notorious Letterfrack In-
dustrial School in Connemara.

He called for the order to be dis*banded and for the Catholic Church to conducta full investigation into the activities of the congregation throughout the country. The Christian Brothers in Ireland has said .its members are "deeply sorry for the hurt caused".

"We are ashamed and saddened that many who complained of abuse were not listened to," they said. Referring to those who may have fresh allegations concerning mem*bers of the religious, . a Garda spokesman last night said: "If people have complaints please bring them to An Garda Siochana."

Meanwhile, the lay Catholic group Voice of the Faithful said the public needed to know why institutions es*tablished to serve the most vulnera*ble children were allowed to betray the basic principles of Catholic social teaching.

"We need leaders who can recog*nise these realities. Any bishop or re*ligious superior who cannot provide this leadership should seriously con*sider his position," spokesman Sean O'ConaiII said."

President Mary McAleese said yes*terday it was "shocking and shame*ful that so many children had to endure such appalling suffering and abuse in institutions whose obliga*tion and vocation it was to provide them with safe and loving care".

"It was an atrocious betrayal of love. My heart goes out to the vic*tims of this terrible injustice, an in*justice compounded by the fact that they had to suffer in silence for so long," the president said.

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An inevitible product of a totalitarian state
Irish News Friday May 22, 2009 By Patrick Murphy

THE Protestant British didn't commit all the wrongs in Insh history. The Catholic Irish
were pretty good at it too. That is the inevitable conclusion from the Ryan Report, which reveals with startling brutality that industrial schools and orphanages were Ireland's concentration camps.

Just as Nazis regarded Jews as sub-human, some Cathohc clergy saw orphans, the poor and children of single mothers as worthless and expendable.
They did not kill them, they Just took their lives away.]
Child abuse was an inevitable product of a totalitarian state, governed not just by the Dail but by the Church.

Much of the problem originated m the actions of Eamon de Valera, three tlmes Fianna Fail taoiseach and twice Irish president.
De Valera gained power by preaching republicanism whilst practising partitionism.

He allied himself with the Church for electoral support. The Church responded because that gave them a "special position in his 1937 Irish constitution'.

That position was illustrated m 1950 when the inter-party government's health minister, Noel Browne, proposed the mother-and*child scheme: It would provide free maternity care for all mothers and free healthcare for all children up *to the age of 16, regardless of income. Dublin archbishop John Charles McQuaid opposed it. "Welfare' states were for pagan England and the - Protestant north. The Church would look after Irish children"

How could decent clergy men and women oppose him? Fearing a decline in income, the medical profession backed the Church. How very ethical. In 1951 Browne was forced to resign and de Valera returned to office. The archbishop had more power than the Dail. Even the GAA joined in. Bishops threw In the ball at big matches in Croke Park and the crowds sang Faith of Our Fathers - an English hymn with no Irish connection.

Child abuse, therefore, was not an accident. Irish children were given the same ideological treatment as Romanian children under the communist dictator, Ceausescu. His policies deferred to the ideological purity of the Communist Party. The Church was de Valera's communist party.

Children were forcibly seized from their homes and carried off by the thought police to remote locations far away from family and friends. Ceausescu was shot by firing squad. De Valera was given a state funeral.

His power was fortified by ownership of the Irish Press newspaper. Its motto - For the glory of God and the honour of Ireland - was lifted straight from the Irish constitution. The paper promoted state Catholicism.

Filthy Sunday newspapers from pagan England were effectively banned. But places in rural Ireland, like Letterfrack, Co Galway, were ahead of the British press and were well able to generate their own filth - all of it in the name of God.

Irish society was built on state sponsored ignorance, held together by religious fervour verging on superstition.[/color In Belfast unbaptised children were separated from their families in death and buried in land later deemed fit only for wildlife conservation. Mere existence was their crime.

Did no-one notice? No-one but the poet: "Now I must search till I have found my God/ not in an orphanage," wrote Patrick Kavanagh in 1951.




Quote:
Irish children were given the same ideological treatment as .Rornanian children under the communist dictator, Ceausescu. His policies deferred to the ideological purity of the Communist Party. The Church was de Valera's communist party

How could it happen?

It was easy. It was just another example of the use of ideology to facilitate human wrong-doing. Loyalty to a set of beliefs allows those who most fervently advocate those beliefs to do as much wrong as they wish, particularly if their actions are done in the name of those beliefs. The education system, the media and the government did not encourage people to think. It told them merely to believe.

Now there is little left to believe in. It is too early to assess the impact of the report on today's Church but the horror and sadness on 'the face of Cardinal Sean Brady showed a keen sense of awareness of the size and scale of the evil that was perpetrated in the name of God and the Church.

The cardinal's display of humility and penitence suggests a willingness to face the past with a level of truth and honesty which has not always been evident in the Church's handling of abuse revelations in the past.

The first step is to bring the guilty to justice.



[edit on 24-5-2009 by orangeman dave]

A MAN who claims he was abused at two orphanages in Northern Ireland run by religious

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A MAN who claims he was abused at two orphanages in Northern Ireland run by religious orders said he fears northern victims of clerical 'abuse have been forgotten.
Irish News Friday May 22, 2009 By Claire Simpson

James Henry (53) was sent to live at the Nazareth Lodge Children's home in east Belfast, run by the Sisters of Nazareth, after he was abanoned by his parents as a young child.

He said the abuse began at the age of six when he was molested by a man employed at the home.

The former plasterer said he was then abused for several ears from the age of 11 by a brother at Rubane House a boys' home in Kircubbin, Co Down, run by the De La Salle order.


Quote:
"I have been going on for over 40 years with this hurt and suffering," he said. "These were evil people. I am very sympathetic to the people in the south. I understand what they have suffered. I want it recognised that we suffered up here as well."

Mr Henry said the brother regularly indecently assaulted him and other.boys.

He took a case against the De La Salle order, which agreed to compensate him in February this year and sent him a letter stating it "regrets if any boy was abused while under its care". Rubane House later closed as a De La Salle institution.

Mr Henry's solicitor advised him that the insurance company that represents the now*defunct Nazareth Lodge did not "take a sympathetic approach" to his situation and he would be unlikely to win a legal case because the abuse happened more than 40 years ago.

"It was hard for me to communicate or pass on to the appropriate people because no-one would listen to me," Mr Henry said.

"Most people thought I was mad; so you may guess what way I felt, me being a molested and abused boy at the age of six years old."

Mr Henry said although he had benefited from three years of counselling, the harrendous sexual abuse he suffered continued to blight his family and working life.


Quote:
'It has ruined and destroyed me. I thought I was the only one and now I know there are thousands'

"All I know is the people who did those things are not going to heaven, if there is such a place."

The father-of-two said the publication of a report into child abuse in the Republic earlier this week has brought back painful memories.

The report found that sexual abuse was "endemic" in state*boys' institutions run by religious orders.

"Why did those sinister, evil*looking monsters pick on vulnerable orphans like us and damage us?" Mr Henry said.

"They must have known the hurt they would cause.

"Words can never describe the pain that they have inflicted on me

IN ITS 10 year investigation the child abuse commission heard evidence concerning 161

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IN ITS 10 year investigation the child abuse commission heard evidence concerning 161 settings other than Industrial and Reformatory Schools.
Irish News Friday May 22, 2009 By Valerie Robinson Southern Correspondent

Primary and secondlevel schools, children's homes, foster care, hospitals and services for children with special needs, hostels and other residential locations were included in its report.

Mr Justice Sean Ryan heard 59 reports of abuse from 58 witnesses, 39 men and 19 women in relation to their time in 14 specialneeds schools and residential services managed by religious congregations.

Between 1919 and 1992 the majority of children's homes, previously known as orphanages and approved schools, were also managed by Catholic religious communities or boards of trustees affiliated to Protestant Churches.

Witnesses gave evidence of physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect in homes. Eighteen facilities categorised under the general heading of hospitals were also investigated, including general hospitals, specialist and rehabilitation hospitals, and county homes.

There were 33 reports of abuse made by 31 witnesses 17 men and 14 women with one person reporting abuse in three different facilities. The complaints covered a 56 year period and included physical and sexual abuse, neglect and emotional abuse.

Witnesses reported being hit with sticks, canes, straps, scis*sors, hair and handbrushes, as well as having their hair pulled, being punched, kicked, immersed in cold water and being subjected to painful treatment with little care or consideration.

They told of being force fed, left lying in wet beds or on bedpans for lengthy periods and being made to kneel on the floor or stand with their arms raised for extended periods.

Former patients reported 23 people as physically abusive, 10 of whom were named female staff members. Six abusers were identified as lay nurses and four as religious sisters who were believed to be nurses.

Fourteen people said they were sexually abused, with assaults taking place in hospital beds, in examination rooms and cubicles, doctors' offices, bathrooms, and toilets. One witness said: "There was no one there to protect me, no*one to look after me.

Another described being nauseated by food and being force fed when he refused to eat, while one man said he had been made to eat his food off the floor after he spat it out.

The Christian Brothers ran some of the most notorious institutions for young boys and

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The Christian Brothers ran some of the most notorious institutions for young boys and teens during the 20th century but a number of other orders were also condemned by Mr Justice Sean Ryan's report.

Valerie Robinson reports Irish News Friday May 22, 2009


Quote:
An RTE documentary about the Goldenbridge industrial school run by the Sisters of Mercy proved to be the first step in exposing the staggering scale of abuse and neglect inflicted on, children in the care of religious orders. ' Valerie Robinson outlines what the child Abuse Commission said about institutions run by nuns.

Joseph's Industrial School, Artane, Dublin
Its public face was the Artane Boys' Band which regularly appeared at Croke Park but for its young occu*pants Artane was a place of constant fear of violent beatings and sexual abuse by Christian Brothers. Older boys in the school, which op*erated until 1969, routinely abused the smaller, vulnerable ones, while predatory paedophile brothers were moved from school to school.

Letterfrack Industrial School, Co Galway
The school, which remained open*until 1974, fostered a climate of fear and sex offenders availed of its iso*lated location to abuse boys for longer periods of time. One Christian brother was allowed to abuse undetected for 14 years.

St Joseph's Industrial School, Tralee, Co Kerry
Over a 3D-year period, hundreds of boys were sent to the school for a va*riety of reasons including homeless*ness, begging, poverty and skipping school. .
The young occupants lived in- con*stant fear of the Christian Brothers staff in an atmosphere where brutal violence was the norm. The sexual misconduct of one brother, which had been allowed to continue for many years, led a junior member of the community to com*plain to his superiors.

Carriglea Park Industrial School, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin
Boys as young as six were admitted to Carriglea Park, which became a concern for the Christian Brothers congregation because of problems with discipline. -
In response, brothers who had been criticised in other schools for their violent nature were sent to the Co Dublin institution.

St Joseph's Industrial School, GUn, Co limerick
The school, which operated until 1966, was also characterised by a se*vere system of corporal punishment as Christian brothers known to have a propensity for the violent treat*ment of children were sent there. Two Christian brothers suspected of sexually abusing boys in another institution were transferred to Glin.

St Joseph's Industrial School, Salthill, Co Galway
Boys in St Joseph's were described as poorly dressed and slept in dirty and inadequate bedding. Their living quarters were shabby and their education was substandard. Complaints were made about Christian brothers and staff members alleged to have sexually abused boys, but no reports were made by the congregation to gardai.

St Joseph's Industrial School, Greenmount, Co Cork
The Presentation Brothers and the Department of Education ignored physical, emotional and sexual abuse being inflicted on boys. Two brothers accused of abusing children were allowed to move on to new positions dealing with young people, without any complaints being made to gardai.

St Conleth's Reformatory School, Daingean, Co Offaly
The Oblates of Mary Immaculate ran the notorious Daingean school where boys convicted of criminal offences ranged in age between 12 and 17. Punishment was meted out in a "cruel, sadistic and excessive man*ner designed to maximise the terror of all the boys". One staff member, known as Brother Enrico, was said to have ad*ministered "ritualistic floggings", while boys were sexually abused by brothers, lay staff and other inmates.


Quote:
'NOTORIOUS': St Conleth's Reformatory School in Daingean, Co
Offaly, above and left PICTURES: TV3/pA

St Patrick's Industrial School, Upton, Co Cork
The Rosminians ran the school in Upton until 1966, creating an atmosphere where the sexual abuse of boys was a "chronic problem". No member of the order was expelled or reported to gardai, with abusers moved to other institutions to keep the problem quiet. In one case a brother known for abusing children was sent to a school for the visually impaired. As in the case of other industrial schools managed by the religious, Upton's young inhabitants lived in an "all-pervasive climate of fear" of severe punishment.

St Joseph's Industrial School, Ferryhouse, Clonmel, Co Tipperary
The Rosminians' school, which closed in 1999, had a "chronic" prob*lem with the sexual abuse of boys but the congregation treated the issue as something to be kept secret rather than a crime. "In Ferryhouse the system allowed individuals to gain absolute control over large groups of children so that they could do what they liked with little risk of detection," Mr Justice Sean Ryan said.

Our Lady of Good Counsel, Lota, Cork
The Brothers of Charity ran Lota be*tween 1939 and 1999 for children with learning disabilities. Two brothers were convicted of sexually abusing children between 1952 and 1984, while the child abuse commission heard evidence from three complainants. A staff member named as Brother Guthrie in the report abused at least 100 children over a 32-year period.

St Joseph's School for Deaf Boys, Cabra, Dublin
The Christian Brothers, who man*aged the school until 2000, failed to protect children from being sexually assaulted by staff while complaints were ignored or treated inadequately. Staff were poorly trained for dealing with children with disabilities, in a fa*cility where young occupants were "frightened, bullied and abused".

Goldellbridge Industrial School, Inchlcore, Dublin
The report paints an extremely bleak picture of the institution where life was full of drudgery; punishment was pervasive and children were treated brutally by "wholly unsuitable" carers. In some cases carers were former pupils who were incapable of living independently and one-time residents spoke of living in a "climate of fear" and being "scarred for life" by physical and emotional abuse. Children who wet the bed said they were denied water and dr$nk out of toilet cisterns 10 quench their thirst. .. Former residents also reca!led how scraps of bread or of cake were thrown out of a window

This is quite similar to one of the posters on this thread wanting his familys records hear we have young boys buried and it shows no parents on their death certificates. All these records should be released with any other information imagine being buried in an unmarked grave with no records and no record of your parents what gave them to right to take these boys away in the first place. Seems like they were running the goverment.

www.youtube.com... lands%2Dsex%2Dabuse%2Dshame%2D3%2Ehtml&feature=player_embedded

Disbanding the Order - that would be a VERY good thing.

I wonder what sort of blackmail that they have on their superiors that they haven't been, when they so obviously ought to be.

www.guardian.co.uk...

just a small update on the subject quite sickening thier is a video contained in the link.