IRELAND
Irish Times
‘Fear of everything. Fear of God. Fear of the Christian Brothers. Fear that I would go to hell’
[The Ryan Report – via BishopAccountability.org]
Patsy McGarry
Tue, May 20, 2014
On May 20th, 2009, five years ago today, the Ryan report was published. It dealt with the abuse of children in residential institutions run by 18 religious congregations.
Pages 113 to 119 in Volume V of the report – the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, to give it its official title – record recollections of childhood by some who were in the institutions. They told their stories to an interviewing team.
Here are sample extracts, unedited, lest we forget . . .
Statements of “worst thing” that happened to participants while living in an institution:
– After running away having my hair cut off to a very short length and was made to stand naked to be beaten by nun in front of other people.
– When I told nuns about being molested by ambulance driver, I was stripped naked and whipped by four nuns to “get the devil out of you”.
– A brother tried to rape me but did not succeed, so I was beaten instead.
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