NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times
Wed, May 21, 2014
The former bishop of Derry has strongly defended the Sisters of Nazareth for “doing the work that nobody else was doing” in providing shelter for children during many “dangerous decades”.
Speaking at the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry in Banbridge, Dr Edward Daly said their work was also “taken for granted” and he asked what would have happened to some 5,000 children cared for by nuns over that time had they not done so.
Earlier yesterday, the Sisters of Nazareth, who ran two children’s homes in Derry, again admitted and apologised for physical and sexual abuses suffered by residents there.
A senior nun and representative for the Sisters of Nazareth repeated the order’s apology for abuses and neglect of children in their care.
Sr Brenda McCall, speaking on behalf of the order, was asked if it was accepted by the order that in some cases the standard of care was not acceptable. She admitted much of the testimony already heard by the inquiry into historical abuses at care homes was “shocking and harrowing”. Certain behaviour by some nuns was “just not right”, she said.
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