Michael O’Brien was one of 13 children who received a visit from the “cruelty man”, an inspector for the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, after their mother died in 1942. Their father was out at work and by the time he returned, eight of the children had been taken to court and incarcerated in Roman Catholic-run institutions. When he tried to get them back, he was refused. Michael O’Brien, who was 8, remained at Ferryhouse in Clonmel, Tipperary, for eight years.
He is incredulous that the sufferings of his childhood and countless others were dismissed yesterday at the Holy See as “petty gossip”. He described “massive beatings” with a leather strap that were dealt out for no reason by the brothers of the Rosminian Order.
On his first night at the industrial school, a form of workhouse, he was raped. During the assault, the brother hit him in the eye. The next day the rector of the school asked what had happened to his eye. Mr O’Brien told him. He was blamed for the assault. That night he was beaten by two of the brothers.
“I was hardly able to walk the next day. It continued for some time, then a priest started. One Saturday I was coming in from the playground and I was called into the laundry. The priest raped me, The following morning he gave me Holy Communion.” As he got older Mr O’Brien tried to stop it, but was powerless. “I was only a little boy. It was a hell hole, a den of iniquity.”
He got out the day before his 16th birthday and joined the Irish Army, where a fellow recruit had to guide his hand to sign his name because he could not read or write.
During his 22 years in the army he educated himself by torchlight at night. A year after leaving he joined the republican party Fianna Fáil and in 1993 was elected Mayor of Clonmel. Many of the children who were incarcerated with him were damaged beyond repair and ended up homeless. He is now fighting for justice for those who survived.
Ten years ago he set up the survivors’ organisation Right to Peace. He is campaigning for an independent investigation into every diocese and reparation for victims of the abuse.
He remains a Catholic because he believes in God and loves his mother, who had him baptised. But he rarely goes to Church.“If my mother was alive she would have killed the people who did that to me,” he said. “I tried to myself. I went to see the priest who abused me. It was my definite intention to kill him. But when I saw how decrepit and miserable he looked, I thought ‘Thank God’. He was dead about ten days later.”
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