The chairman of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse suggested yesterday that factors in residential institutions might have been "conducive to a good deal of violence".
At a hearing of the commission's investigation committee, Judge Seán Ryan wondered if he was right in thinking that "inadequacies in a lot of areas, failure to address the emotional needs of the children, \ loneliness . . . extremely unhappy, miserable . . . made for a difficult body of children and looking after them was an untrained group of stressed- out carers, if it created a mixture which was conducive to a good deal of violence?"
Sister Claude Meagher, provincial of the south-east province of the Presentation Sisters, said these "contributed to a regime which had to be strictly organised, with strict rules. It was difficult to deviate from the rules to a more softly-softly approach."
Judge Ryan, saying he did not mean to be pejorative, asked if the structure of the system may have been militaristic, a rigid regime, and when it broke down that the result was inevitable? Sister Meagher said the congregation had "no record of a violent response" in the context and that recently two former residents in their 60s said they had very positive memories.
She said 30 cases before the Redress Board related to institutions run by them while, as of January 2002, legal proceedings had been initiated in 28 cases. These involved former residents at St Bernard's industrial school in Dundrum, Co Tipperary, and St Francis's industrial school in Cashel, both closed. She acknowledged there had been "poor healthcare, a harsh regime, inadequate schooling, no preparation for leaving the institution, physical punishment" at both.
Sister Noreen Shankey, regional leader for Ireland of the Sisters of St Louis, said the order managed St Martha's industrial school in Monaghan from where the children were transferred to St Joseph's, Bundoran, in 1957. It closed in 1965. By June 2002 they faced legal proceedings in 13 cases involving former residents, while there were nine cases before the commission.
She told the committee of a 1963 incident where girls who had run away from Bundoran had their hair cropped when brought back. Following a Department of Education investigation, two nuns were removed. She acknowledged a "harsh regime" in Monaghan and Bundoran.
Sister Patricia Rogers, congregational leader of the Poor Sisters of St Clare, said they managed an orphanage at Dublin's Harold's Cross until 1996 and St Joseph's industrial school in Cavan which closed in 1967. Legal proceedings had been initiated in 10 cases against the congregation, she said, with two cases before the commission. She accepted that "the daily routine of the institutions did not meet the needs of the children".
Mr Patrick Walsh of Irish SOCA said the survivors support group was set up in London in June 1999 following the Taoiseach's apology the previous month. The apology sparked "huge interest" in the UK and was followed by advertisements in newspapers by Irish solicitors seeking out former residents. Meetings were called. Following disagreement, Irish SOCA was set up in February 2000 to lobby for former residents' interests and was funded by its executive membership, he said.
An OECD report on the Irish education system in 1965 reported it as desirable that some industrial schools be closed. It had also asked why 3,240 children were in State detention. Mr Walsh was critical of civil servants whom he described as "desk criminals" who had presided over such "a child-imprisonment system".