A senior member of the Sisters of Mercy order of nuns told the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse today that the order's treatment of children at its school in Dundalk had caused it "deep sadness and regret".
Sr Anne McQuaid, Provincial leader of the Sisters of Mercy's Northern Province
Speaking of St Joseph's School in Dundalk, Co Louth, Sr Anne-Marie McQuaid, provincial leader of the order's Northern Province, said: "No institution, even if it were perfect, could ever recreate what a loving home offered or even substitute for the love of parents, particularly for vulnerable and traumatised children who were frightened and lonely and suffered so much and lost so much."
The elderly nun had to pause in her evidence to the commission when she was overcome with emotion.
"The best efforts of those who cared for the children fell far short of their needs," she said.
Sr McQuaid said this caused deep sadness and regret to the Order as they remembered the people who had lived under the school's roof for 100 years.
She added St Joseph's was an unsuitable building to house children, was generally uncomfortable and had inadequate recreational facilities.
At its height in 1943, the nuns in St Joseph's were looking after 100 girls a year, but these numbers gradually declined to 30 in the 1960s and less than 10 in the 1970s.
It also looked after boys from 1969 onwards in an attempt to prevent children from the same families from being split up.
At the commission's public hearing into the school, Sister McQuaid said most of the children were admitted because of poverty or poor social conditions. "A parent had died, often the mother, or the family were not able to look after them," she said.
There were two general inspection reports in 1944 and 1966 that were severely critical of the nuns' care of the children in the school. They revealed that the children looked dirty, unkempt, underweight and had lice.
Sister McQuaid said that from 1947 onwards, more staff were employed at St Joseph's and there was a marked improvement. The school closed in 1983.
PA