NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
27 JANUARY 2014
Some children at residential homes run by Catholic nuns in Northern Ireland were made to eat their own vomit, a lawyer said.
Those who wet their beds were forced to put soiled sheets on their heads by members of a harsh regime which was devoid of love, the UK’s largest ever public inquiry into child abuse at residential homes was told.
Young people at Sisters of Nazareth properties in Londonderry were known by their numbers rather than names and many allegedly subjected to humiliation, threats and physical abuse, counsel to the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry Christine Smith QC said.
Kathleen Forrest, a ministry of home affairs inspector, said in a 1953 report: “I find these homes utterly depressing and it appals me to think that these hundreds of children are being reared in bleak lovelessness.”
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 between 1922, the foundation of Northern Ireland, and 1995.
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