SISTER XAVIERIA, the former reverend mother at Goldenbridge and Rathdrum orphanages, has denied all accusations of serious physical abuse made against her, but has apologised for any hurt caused to the children in her care.
Speaking on RTE's Prime Time television programme last night the Sister of Mercy nun admitted striking the children in the orphanages which she ran, but claimed that she never cut or marked any child while "correcting" them. She used a "slapper", which she inherited, to punish the children. She slapped them on the hands, legs and arms and was now "thoroughly sorry for doing so". Some children were afraid of her, she said. "At times I was too harsh."
Speaking for the first time since the screening of the Dear Daughter documentary on RTE two months ago, Sister Xavieria said she hoped that, in time, she could resolve her differences with those who had made accusations against her.
Her greatest regret was that many people said she had hurt them and caused them suffering and pain while in her care. "For any hurt, pain or damage I caused, I am truly sorry. I wish them well."
The 78 year old nun said her family had been "wrecked" by the allegations. She had received a letter from her sister, a nun in Ethiopia, who had said: "I wish I could die."
Sister Xavieria denied ever deliberately scalding a child. "I would never have deliberately poured water on anybody", she said.
She denied beating a child so much that the girl had to get between 80 and 120 stitches, saying that, if she had done such a thing, she would never forget it. She denied that any child was put into a tumble drier while in her care, but said that she recalled an occasion when a child's mother had asked her not to speak about the drier because it frightened her daughter. "Before my God, and from my conscience, I have never put a child in a drier."
She admitted that a child had been put into a furnace room on one occasion for 20 minutes to half an hour as a form of punishment. "I would not approve of it, I did not do it. I'm sorry it happened at all."
Sister Xavieria accepted that too much pressure had been put on children in making Rosary beads, an activity she described as a money spinner for the orphanage. The girls, she said, might have been hurt, but she was not aware that anyone had been cut while making the beads. "They should have been playing instead of working," she said. "I feel very badly indeed. I apologise to each one who feels hurt."
She accepted responsibility for forcing children to go to the toilet in the middle of the night. "I hate to think it would be done to any child today." She also felt "dreadful" about children being forced to wait for hours for her on the landing in front of her room and said that the children had been put there by staff because they were "out of control" at bedtime.
Her own childhood had been a happy one, she told RTE. Her father, she said, "never put his hand on any of us".