Children's Home Resident Tells Inquiry of 'Sadistic' Nuns

By Michael McHugh
Irish Independent
January 29, 2014

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/childrens-home-resident-tells-inquiry-of-sadistic-nuns-29962119.html

Christine Smith QC, senior council for the inquiry into allegations of historical child abuse in church and state-run homes in Northern Ireland. Picture: PA

A priest told a former resident of a church-run children's home in Northern Ireland that he was the product of an evil and satanic relationship, an inquiry has heard.

The son of an unmarried mother became a zombie, introverted and fearing the next beating, lying soaked in urine at night in an attempt to dissuade sexual abusers from "dropping the hand", he told the hearing.

He lived at St Joseph's in Termonbacca, Londonderry, run by the Sisters of Nazareth order of Catholic nuns, in the 1950s after being born in abject poverty and abandoned by his parents.

The child was later placed in a dormitory full of youngsters crying for their mothers.

"It would break your heart, you would have to have a heart of steel and cement, I used to join in crying. I had not a clue what mammy meant," he recalled.

The former resident complained about his treatment to a cleric after leaving the home.

The response was: "You must never speak about this, you must understand... you and the other orphans are bastards. You are the product of an evil and satanic relationship. You never had a chance."

The witness said: "That was the day I left the Catholic Church."

The treatment of children in church-run residential homes is a key concern of the investigation being held in Banbridge, Co Down. It is chaired by retired judge Sir Anthony Hart and is considering cases in 13 residential institutions between 1922, the foundation of Northern Ireland, and 1995.

The witness said: "The truth is setting me free today more than this Commission knows. I have come here to tell the truth and as I am reaching out, I am reaching out in healing and trying to forgive but at this moment I cannot.

"I have waited 65 years to say this. When I was reared by the Sisters of the Congregation of Nazareth it was equivalent to being reared by the Taliban, such was their sadism, their lack of empathy, their fundamentalism, their lack of dignity to the little helpless boy," he alleged.

He was known as 10b.

"I was truly a feral child, an introverted child. When I came back from school I would be at the window on my own for hour after hour, night after night. I never played as a child," he told the inquiry.

He attended school with the opposite sex. It was also run by nuns, who warned the girls not to speak to "filthy" boys.