A NUMBER OF people who gave testimony to the scoping inquiry into sexual abuse in religious schools described how they felt they couldn’t tell anyone what was happening to them when they were children because of the power of the Catholic Church in Ireland at the time.
In some cases, survivors described being intimidated and threatened to remain silent, including some being told they would go to hell or be killed.
The scoping inquiry revealed almost 2,400 allegations of sexual abuse of children in schools run by religious orders. There were 844 alleged abusers in over 300 schools run by 42 religious orders across the country.
The report of the scoping review, which was published on Tuesday evening, details the harrowing testimony given by survivors.
The majority of them told the inquiry that they were not able to tell anyone they were being abused due to feelings of shame, thinking no one would believe them or not knowing how to tell someone.
Of those that did tell their parents and were believed, few saw any substantial consequences for those responsible for sexually abusing them.
Some children who disclosed what was happening at the time were either not believed or were told not to tell anyone about the abuse.
‘In that era, the word was the priests”
According to the report, a number of people described how the idea that religious figures could abuse children in this way was unimaginable. This made it very difficult and left them feeling like there was nobody they could tell.
“Who could you tell? The Church ran the country back then,” one person said.
Another person who never told anyone about the abuse described how students were “brainwashed” into staying silent as the school cultivated a culture of fear. “They knew how to show you that they had the utter power,” they said.
“Absolutely not” was another person’s response to being asked if they told disclosed the abuse to anyone. “Priests were like God’s right-hand man on Earth.”
The report notes that participants described how having a religious family and a culture of deference to representatives of the Church made it impossible to tell their loved ones what was happening.
One man explained that his father was an alcoholic who died when he was still a teenager, and his mother trusted figures in authority.
“She believed the Church, the doctors and the guards were the hierarchy. I waited until she died until I made a statement about him,” he said.
Another person recalled how they couldn’t tell anyone, citing the pervading influence of the priests at the time.
Once he got a grip of you, you were done for. I never said it to anyone. In that era, the word was the priests’, and that was it.
“You couldn’t tell,” another person told the report. “That time religion was a very big thing. They had such power, they put a fear into you that you’d get another beating if you told on them.”
‘They train you to be quiet’
Others told the inquiry that they didn’t tell anyone because they had been threatened or warned not to tell and they were frightened of what the consequences might be if they did.
“He was threatening that if you tell anyone you’ll never see your parents again,” one participant said. “The Brothers had that grip over you; you had that fear already.”
Another participant said: “The priest told me if I told anyone my mother wouldn’t go to heaven.”
The priest raped the person on two other occasions and told them: “This is our secret; you can’t tell anyone.”
Another person said: “They train you to be quiet.
People need to understand that it takes every ounce of horror in your being to go against your training and say it. The worst thing I could do in the whole world was say it.
The report states that one man described to the inquiry how, after he had been raped while he was unconscious, he would hide the sheets which were stained with blood and semen under his bed.
Some people recounted being issued with death threats to not disclose what had happened before they left the school.
One participant told the inquiry that children were “individually threatened” that if they told anyone when they left the school, they would be killed.
‘Don’t tell your father or he’ll kill him’
As children, some participants did tell their parents about the abuse when it happened. In some cases, they were believed and their parents complained to the school, or in some cases, informed the Gardaí.
In these cases, the participants told the inquiry that they were not aware of any criminal justice consequences or proceedings at the time.
One man who told his parents said they didn’t believe him initially, but did eventually. He told the inquiry that his mother wrote a letter to the school, but “nothing happened, they brushed it under the carpet.”
Another man said he left school one day and told his mother, who believed him. He told the inquiry that after that, while the sexual abuse stopped immediately, the teacher continued to teach in the school and the physical abuse continued.
He told the inquiry:
I was believed by my parents. I was taken seriously. I am very lucky. A lot of former classmates didn’t tell their parents, or they wouldn’t have been believed.
In one instance, a participant’s father told the school headmaster that he wanted the abuser to be kept away from children.
“In reply, the headmaster explained this would take some time, but the school would move him out of school performances,” the report states.
The participant told the report that it took another year before the abuser was moved out of the school.
The report states that some parents didn’t have the resources to follow through with actions after they were told, while others did not take action for various reasons.
One woman said she told her mother about what had happened at school when they went home that day. While her mother believed her, she warned her: ”Don’t tell your father, or he’ll kill him [the abuser]“.
The woman was confused and didn’t understand why her mother didn’t want her to tell her father, but she complied and didn’t tell her father.
‘She was remorseful for the rest of her life’
Another person said their parents believed them and supported them when they told them what had happened to them, but when asked about telling anybody else what happened, they said they had not.
“You didn’t report these things back then,” the person told the inquiry.
For others, their parents didn’t believe them or thought that there was exaggeration, although many subsequently believed their children at a later point.
“My mum thought he [participant’s friend] was telling tall stories when he said why we didn’t want to go to the pool,” one man said.
He said he told his mother he didn’t want to go to the pool because of the priest. “It was not in her experience that a priest would abuse a minor.
She dismissed it and said it was a generous offer which we would respect by joining him at the pool. So, the abuse went on longer than it should have.
The man said that he told her again when he was older and his mother believed him.
“I told her again later, when I was 18, with my dad. She believed me then and was remorseful for the rest of her life that she had let me down as a parent.”
The report states that a number of people said disclosures of abuse were effectively ignored or denied by schools or individual adults in those schools.
One man recounted telling a teacher about how another member of the school’s staff was molesting him. He told the inquiry that the teacher beat him and rejected what he had said about his abuser.
Another man said he told his parents about the abuse and his father went to speak to the school, but it was broadly denied and the blame was put on him, rather than the school taking any responsibility. “He felt blamed by others after the experience of the abuse,” the report notes.
The inquiry was told by another man that “all disclosures went nowhere” and the abuse was allowed to go on. The man said the priest who he told avoided him afterwards.
He also said he knew that other boys’ parents made complaints before, during and after he was abused about their respective children.
“The [member of religious order] would say it was the first they had heard about it every time and would do nothing about it,” he said.
Garda appeal
Gardaí have urged anyone who was abused in a school run by a religious order to “please come forward” and contact them.
They said that anyone contacting them on such matters will receive personal contact as soon as is practicable.
A spokesperson said Gardaí will deal with any matters reported by complainants “in a sensitive manner and will, where possible, progress matters through investigation”.
Anyone wishing to contact Gardaí can do so by emailing GNPSB_SCMU@garda.ie or by contacting a local Garda station.
They can also phone the Garda Child Sexual Abuse Reporting Line on 1800 555 222. This is a confidential and free service and it is available 24/7.