Cruel beatings at Daingean reformatory, report finds

The long-awaited Commission into Child Abuse report into St Conleth"s reformatory school in Daingean has concluded that the boys sent to the school 'lived in a climate of fear', were regularly subjected to inhumane floggings and that there was strong evidence that five or six brothers sexually abused them. The Catholic order that ran the school in Daingean until it closed in 1973, has apologised 'unreservedly' for its 'shortcomings' and the 'serious consequences' for some of the boys in its care. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate welcomed Wednesday"s publication of the long-awaited Commission into Child Abuse report, ten years after the inquiry was established. The Commission found that 'corporal punishment was often excessive and was administered by staff using a wide range of weapons. Relatively minor offences gave rise to severe punishment' and while there were never any convictions of sexual abuse, the commission did conclude that 'sexual abuse of boys by staff took place in Daingean, as testified by complainant witnesses' but that the full extent was impossible to quantify because there was no 'proper system of receiving and handling complaints'. The Commission criticised the Department of Education for neglecting its 'regulatory and supervisory roles' in Daingean and said the Department failed to condemn serious abuses, including flogging. Despite its rules and regulations on corporal punishment the Department had an 'unambiguous policy of supporting the authorities'. The Commission concluded that 'Flogging was an inhumane and cruel form of corporal punishment, there was no control of staff in the infliction of punishment...serious complaints were not properly investigated.' Most of the children in St Conleth"s had been convicted by the courts of criminal offences that would in the case of adults have been punishable by imprisonment. It housed young offenders aged between 13 and 18, a total of 5,275 boys passed through in 33 years until its closure in 1973. Sexual Abuse After corporal punishment, the next most common kind of complaint concerned sexual conduct. Some witnesses appearing before the committee gave evidence that Brother Ramon had sexually abused them during his 17 years in Daingean. One witness told the committee that five or six Brothers abused kids and he named Br Ramon as one of these. 'Br Ramon was an evil man... There were other good Brothers there, they weren"t all paedophiles.' The Commission said that the Oblates in response 'made no reference to the fact that Br Ramon had been convicted of serious offences against young boys in Wales, but simply averred that the Brother was now deceased.' There was also a Garda investigation into allegations of abuse by a man who lived beside the school in 1960, however the commission found that no records of this appeared in the files of the Institution or the congregation. The Commission also concluded that sexual behaviour between boys was 'systemic and widespread', often abusive and was not seriously addressed by management. Corporal Punishment Corporal punishment was the 'first response' by many of the staff for even minor transgressions, said the Commission. It was often violent and black eyes, split lips and bruising were common. Violence was not the "only efficient means of keeping control on unruly boys" but, because management was inept and staffing inadequate, it was convenient concluded the Commission. 'Daingean had a system of administering corporal punishment in a formal, almost ritualised way. It meant more than just being beaten with a strap or cane.' One complainant gave an account of being kneed in the groin by a Brother. Records show that the complainant was admitted to Tullamore Hospital for two weeks, and was operated on for a hernia. Another man, there in the late 1960s, gave the following account: 'One Brother would stand on your hands and you would be kneeling down and as flimsy as the cotton night thing was that was lifted ... up to your waist ... then you would get - I think I had about six on that occasion ... I am almost sure after you had been done, you came back, (to bed) it was like a rota, like a line.' Some witnesses singled out particular men as "nice", but stressed that there were also a few people who did terrible things. The Brothers Br Abran was described as a valuable independent witness, because he gave an account of a flogging separate from the version given by the boys and by the records. 'Br Abran was named by a number of complainants as being excessively harsh and violent. He denied some of the specific allegations, such as giving an uppercut that led to a boy"s nose pumping blood, or that he had boxed and kicked a boy in the handball alley, but he nonetheless confirmed the policy of ad hoc punishments giving slaps or punches, believing that boys preferred to be dealt with in this way rather than being put on report,' said the Commission. Fr Luca, who was Resident Manager from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, also gave evidence. 'They weren"t stripped but they might have to let down their pants and get it on the backside. I was never present, but my understanding was that they had to let down their pants, lean over the form they sat on in the wash-up room and it was administered there,' he wrote to the Commission. The Commission said that despite his assertion that the practice revolted him, Fr Luca did nothing to stop the ritualistic flogging of boys in Daingean. Formal Complaints There are records of three formal complaints made by parents to the Education Department about the floggings. All were investigated but the Commission described the Department as 'ambivalent' to the use of violence in Daingean, even as late as 1969. An official investigation, the 'Kennedy Committee', was carried out in 1967. In a letter to the Department, it urged that the practice of undressing boys for punishment be discontinued. Finally in April 1970 the Education Department replied that after meeting with Fr Luca, he 'stated firmly' that boys were no longer undressed for corporal punishment and that corporal punishment was being phased out. In the private hearings, 25 complainant witnesses testified out of a total of 34. A further 44 attended for interview, out of a total of 86 who were invited to attend for interview. Two respondent witnesses gave evidence. Fr Murphy and Fr Michael Hughes also both gave evidence in 2005. Other conclusions from the Commission * The school was unable to deal with and unequiped to deal with boys with mental disabilities or psychiatric problems although these boys were sent there. * Daingean was not a suitable location or building for a reformatory. No responsibility by management for even day-to-day maintenance led to its complete disintegration over the years. * The Department of Education knew that its rules were being breached in a fundamental way but did not interfere. * Dirt, hunger, shabbiness and lack of supervision were all present, while staff were inadequate, ill-equipped and untrained. * Daingean did not in practice have a remedial function. Because it was not officially a prison, there was an absence of legal and administrative protections for detainees.