Sir, - Suffer the Little Children got good reviews, and its authors are taken as authorities on Catholic-run institutions. The book paints a terrible picture of children in care: badly fed, beaten, sexually abused; cruel nuns, priests and brothers in some cases living in luxury on the child maintenance grants and child labour on their farms and laundries; children poached from foster care to maintain grants. Wherever the truth may lie, it is a very unbalanced assessment of 100 years of Catholic-run institutions.
There were interviews only with former residents of the institutions. It would have been easy to get a broader picture of the past 30 years by interviewing nuns, priests, brothers, childcare workers, social workers, teachers, families who took children for weekends.
I was a childcare worker in a convent group home in the early 1970s and worked with a nun caring for 16 children. The nun was in charge from the age of 22 for 17 years without a break. No wages, no days off, and just two weeks' holidays a year. The children were well fed, well dressed, lovely children with endless needs and I have much respect for that nun and the many like her in the convents of Ireland. It's a very hard job looking after a huge group of growing children and there is no comparison with rearing three or four children in a family home.
Where the system fell down was when the children had to leave and make their way in the outside world so very unprepared. Foster care in the community is the preferred option now, though it's hard to place difficult children in a foster home.
Sr. Stanislaus is singled out in the book for criticism and accused of turning a blind eye to allegations of sex abuse. The authors do not believe her denials. Sr. Stanislaus has worked tirelessly for the past 40 years to improve conditions in childcare, in social services for the poor and for the homeless, and she does not deserve this attack on her reputation. The good name of everyone working in childcare has been damaged by the sex abuse scandals and allegations of brutality. I think the religious orders need to make their files available to some impartial commission and I don't think they should keep their heads down and wait for the next onslaught from the media. I think of Nora Wall, whose treatment by the media was appalling.
Besides acknowledging past wrongs and apologising for them they should tell the truth about their lives, the large numbers of children they had in their care, the responsibility, the long hours and the 30, 40 or 50 years working for no financial gain. There were many dedicated and hardworking religious and they deserve fairer treatment. - Yours, etc., Piccola Dowd,
Russellstown, Clonmel, Co Tipperary.