In high school I realized that what we were taught about loving one another was just words. Nuns. Only my opinion of course, but I'd blame it on a lack of physical and emotional shenanigans with members of the opposite sex. These Irish nuns emmigrated to Australia and brought the Catholic Churches forced adoption practices with them. The early Irish monks and nuns, who tried for a time to be as strict with themselves as the hermits of the Egyptian desert, found that it was just about impossible to starve properly in Treland, because the country abounded in delicious food of all kinds-"leeks from the garden, poultry, game,/Salmon and trout and bees," as a salivating monastic The nuns from the Good Shepherd were called, she says. He would feed him at breakfast, dinner and lunch then undress him and bath him before putting him to bed. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. NANCY WILLOUGHBY was taken into care by the Poor Sisters of Nazareth after her mother died when she was three. "Holidays were spent at other Nazareth House homes. January 2020 Many youths vow to never be like their parents, only to grow up and mimic the very things they hated as children. Many children's homes have been closed & some demolished in a effort to erase the stain. After all, we all have our own crosses to bear. Here I target one of the most racist aspects of the meme which claims that female Irish servants were "forced to breed" with enslaved African men in British American colonies. He found refuge in the British army, where . It is anger, suffering and self isolation.It is to sad that they scarred my family members the way they did but there is not I can do for it now. As the result of a rape and beating by a Nun, I spent two years in a coma in hospital hiding from my mangled mind and body. April 2021 The nuns told us to strip off and stand beside the the bed and they left us just standing there for ages, waiting for our punishment. The novice Nuns watched and learned from the older, more experienced Nuns, so that they too could attain the level of cruelty and depravity they daily saw being committed on the slave women and their fatherless children. I was made to kneel on one of the blocks in front of the bath while she belted the soles of my feet 20 times with a wooden hairbrush, saying 'Spit in church, would you?' No one would believe how bad it was. Sister Fidelma, an Irish nun at St. Brigid's Abbey is possibly the most interestingand smartestnun ever to be found on the pages of a clerical mystery. What gives? Remember one more thing: the mothers who dropped their out-of-wedlock children off at the convents had only one other choice at the timethe street. Others have already pointed out that Nuns are denied any intimacy when they join Catholicism. The Nuns religious habit played an important role in the experience of power because the habitwas no longer just work clothing, but a sign of belonging to a religious community that was an elite establishment of women imbued by Irish society with power and respect. IN THE early Seventies, six-year-old Simon Taylor (not his real name) was admitted to Nazareth House in Middlesbrough after his mother had a nervous breakdown. One of these burst and burnt my foot badly, leaving a permanent scar. Yes, these sisters know there were cruel women among them and they live that sense of betrayal very painfully. What is it that makes these Nuns so down right nasty mean? By using physical violence, the Nuns exercised power not only over the slave women and children, but also over their fellow Nuns.Physical domination was indeed the proof of what they were capable of and, for some Nuns, it expressed a real thirst for power. Clodagh Kilcoyne via ReutersROME"Marie" was placed in a French Catholic boarding school for "young girls from good families" when she was in the fifth grade. Remember some of these women and religious men and priests too went unto these institutions at 13, 14, 15 years of age. secrets passed from mother to daughter. However, nuns arent the cruel teachers they used to be. "One cold winter's morning at about 6.30, when I was about 11, I was kneeling in church saying my prayers when I sneezed. By Jack Dutton On 2/22/21 at 6:42 AM EST. Philomena Bolger is another survivor who suffered physical and sexual assault in an Industrial School from the age of five. The children were beaten regularly and the nuns were never really nice to them. The extravagant Convents offered the Nuns a degree of gentile comfort, a warm room of their own, the best of food and drink, and wanting for nothing. Claims of abuse have been made about homes run by the order in places including Newcastle upon Tyne, Plymouth, Swansea, Manchester and Sunderland. I don't know the answer, but i do know that my grandparents were in catholic school and they also told stories about nuns hurting the kids. The rules of the Magdalene Laundries gave the Nuns the absolute authority to punish the inmates who were slave women and children. It is a greater act of contempt than striking the face because it emphasises the asymmetry between the torturer and her victim. Boston College's O'Neill Library says there's even a word for fear of nuns, and it's scenisciphobia. Archaic teaching methods are now seen as barbaric. After all, slavery played a crucial role in the development and ongoing operation of the Cults economy. The Irish Brigade fought in most battles during the War of Spanish Succession, including the Battle of Ramillies in Central Belgium on May 23, 1706. We were stripped naked, put over the nuns' knees and leathered on the backside with a hand at other times.. One of the old ladies had died." They were left there all night with the corpse and to this day, Mary says she has. I hear stories about the nuns from non family members too and not many people have "Found memories" of their days with the nuns. Their livesand later their deathshad been shrouded. I managed to buy my own house and pay the mortgage off. Orphans, abandoned babies and children deemed uncontrollable or accused of petty crimes were all put in the hands of the nuns who, to the outside world, epitomised kindness and compassion. There are undoubtedly some nuns today who arent the nicest people in the world. A nun all of a sudden picked the kid up, carried him to the door, then slammed the door into his head. When my grandma first went there she only spoke her native language, she spoke no english at all. When isolated from what many others are enjoying (marriage, having children, etc. Its not easy to always obey those in authority, and many nuns who cant obey suffer from stress and anxiety, leading to nuns lashing out at others in positions of power. My grandmother was 3 years old when she was first brought to the mission. My Grandmother has told me many stories of the evil nuns. Not a life of such abuse, torture, pain and hell. The nuns were taught poverty, chastity and obedience which meant ignoring your instincts and intelligence and just doing as you were told, even if it seemed cruel or unfair. I wish all devout Catholics would do the same. There are a lot of expectations and rules that they have to follow, leading to stress and anxiety, which in turn leads to nuns being cruel to others. It certainly isn't Catholicism. In Ireland, the Sisters of Mercy operated, from the time of their foundation in 1831, as a series of autonomous convents, each of them subject to the authority and jurisdiction of their local bishop.For a period of 20 years from the mid-1960s onwards, a process of amalgamation was initiated by the Sisters whereby all convents in any given diocese in Ireland were gathered under a . The scathing report, by Professor Bruce Grundy of Queensland University, told of how one girl, Helen Carter, had her legs burnt with a red-hot poker, to exorcise the Devil, while another child almost lost her legs which became infected after a nun pulled out her ingrowing toenails with pliers. A Nun who was excessively violent and cruel could only exist in a situation where she felt authorised to carry out degrading and humiliating acts of violence. In her absence, Philomena says, the parish priests took the children into the industrial schools, with the girls entering the Good Shepherd in Waterford. It was work, work, work. Philomenas mother, who died at 74, kept in touch with all her children throughout their times at the schools and enjoyed a good relationship with them as adults. reflect on their experiences and this week's TRC report. It was a known fact among the slave women and children that beating them was a way of compensating for the Nuns own incompetence and of imposing and demonstrating their authority. This is part three of my series debunking the "Irish slaves" meme. I don't think my grandma knew exactly what he was sick with but she told me that the Nuns had NO empathy for a sick child. August 2020 There was a constant atmosphere of fear, and beatings all the time. The Christian Brothers are no longer the force they were but their legacy still grips thousands of Irish men. Instead of fetching a doctor they kept me in bed and surrounded me with hot water bottles. I became agnostic when I learned about the Crusades. The Nuns enjoyed certain privileges both in Irish society as a whole and in their palatial Convents where the daily tasks of cooking, cleaning, washing-up, ironing etc, were all performed by their slaves. I went to a convent and the nuns were from Ireland - I landed one who also beat me and her face whilst hitting me with a ruler on the back of my legs was absolutely horrid. She was tied to a chair and beaten for weeks until she started to learn english. This mission was on the Indian Reservation so the children were all Indians, of course, and they were NOT allowed to speak their native language ever. The daily torturing and beating of the slave women and children enabled the cruelest of the Nuns to assert their place in the Magdalene Laundries and other Institutions. "You could get hammered for anything. Catholic nuns, as decreed by Pope Francis, are not allowed to use smartphones or social media. Long gone are the days of teaching nuns to be cruel, and now theyre being taught with more compassion. The Nuns had complete power over the women and children and overwhelming dominance over everything in their Institutions.. There was nothing unusual about it. "Most of the nuns were Irish and though they were trained to be nuns they were not trained to look after kids, and that is where a lot of the problems were. Revelation 18:2-42-"She has fallen! Not once did the nuns ask why I was off school or what was wrong with me. This caused a huge strain on me.. i may have exaggerated a little. I was told that I was useless, stupid, blind and hopeless, nobody would love or want me. And of course the whole story fits wonderfully into the larger stories of Irish nuns as heartless and cruel, which many undoubtedly were. This can lead to a cycle of cruelty thats hard to break. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. Never has been and never will be. The religious habit was a distinctive set of clothing worn by members of a religious Order with the style and colour differentiating each Order. Only my opinion of course, but I'd blame it on a lack of physical and emotional shenanigans with members of the opposite sex. December 2018 Powered by Invision Community, People who don't know how to weep with their whole heart, don't know how to laugh either. Police are also investigating after lawyers representing former residents passed on relevant files. The slave trade they operated included the illegal selling of the children of the enslaved women. View our online Press Pack. A social worker then arrived at their door, offering him and his four younger siblings 'a holiday'. "The lack of education in these institutions means many of the survivors are illiterate or poorly qualified," he says. October 2018 The Nuns had been punishing this boy for not doing his chores and on that fateful night he was murdered by the Nuns. November 2019 My heart was deeply touched by reading this article which reports the most horrifying cruelty to women and children. So far, the Poor Sisters of Nazareth have refused to comment, but it is believed that the allegations will be contested vigorously. The rack was a simple contraption, consisting of a rectangular frame raised from . The tears, the upset of my brothers and sisters, the thought of my father being upset and being lonely was all too much for me, he recalls. My child never went to church or catholic upbringing. Violence was frequently employed and encouraged with the most common forms being verbal abuse, slaps, blows, and kicks. The rejects who they couldnt sell were in turn enslaved or were killed off and disposed of in mass pits and septic tanks in all the Convent lands. There was real hate there. For William, now 54, the trauma of the abuse haunts him in every waking moment. In May 1983, 12-year-old Thomas was taken to Lourdes, by the local charity the Order of Malta, who frequently arranged trips for disabled children. The Nuns must have realised that the exercise of power over others can never be definitive, as to act with their accustomed violence beyond the walls of their institutions was impossible. Babylon the Great has fallen, and she has become a dwelling place for demons and a place where every unclean spirit and every unclean and hated bird lurks! Getty Images. Coming from a guy who feel he has the right to condemn, criticise and berate the practice's of nearly two billion people, have you been given Carte Blanche on this board? ", Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Today it is different, but I believe the stories I have been told. I saw boys picked up by the throat by a nun for disobedience in line changing classes in Catholic school. It is also true that in the Free State times families could have taken their daughters home at any stageWe had a Constitution which obliges due process before incarceration. We rose at 5am, did the cleaning chores, then got dressed, got breakfast and then went to school. In the words of one man who had been put into a home after being abandoned by his family: "Some people say to me, 'Well, that's what it was like everywhere then', but it wasn't. Reports show that they suffered malnutrition and neglect, which caused the deaths of many, while others died of measles, convulsions, TB, gastroenteritis and pneumonia. While your doing that, tell any stories of nuns that you might have. Searching for. "I call on the Irish State and government to remove the gagging orders and give us survivors the right to speak out for the sake of our mental health.". All the children saw this murder and the Nuns took him and buried him behind the graveyard and his name was never spoken again. Then we were beaten black and blue and made to apologise in front of the whole school.. March 2020 June 2018 I was more in shock that the bitch assaulted me. No matter what any "spiritual leader" might say. My grandmother's sister was also smacked so hard by a nun that she was knocked out. The purpose of the daily perpetration of violence against slave women and children of all backgrounds were to dominate, break and destroy them. The recipients often turn . 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"It could happen for any thing, any time of the night or day. and Our Lady of Good Counsel in Yorkville, where the Sisters of Charity were), the Irish Christian Brothers that I had for high school could be a lot worse, being bigger and stronger, and having the same "philosophy" of punishment (seen by my Irish-born . No Nun ever died of hunger, yet hundreds - if not thousands - of the enslaved women and children in their care died from hunger and cold. October 2019 Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Your post was so full of hate & sarcasm Im surprised you havent been banned what you wrote was absolutely inexcusable. Good or bad just jot one or two down for me if you don't mind. You believe the bibles the word of god? Later in life, all the Nuns were exhausted with the monotonous work and the intolerable religious life in the convents attached to the Magdalene Laundries or other institutions to which they were assigned. You must remember that Catholic Ireland believed that the Religious-run Institutions were legitimate and acceptable places in which to put unmarried women and their children who were judged as being anti-social and ungodly. An inquiry last year into Ireland's Magdalene laundries, where for decades thousands of women were forced to work by nuns, found no evidence that workers were abused. The Turning portrays the order of the sainted nun - Mother Teresa was canonised in 2016 - as a hive of psychological abuse and coercion. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration are a. Some of these women and girls from middle-class backgrounds and with no professional training, were transformed into some of the most vicious Nuns running various Religious Institutions in Ireland. Firearm Discussion and Resources from AR-15, AK-47, Handguns and more! "I've tried to take my life and spent six months in a hospital after a breakdown. A police officer later told him he believed it was faked. I think my time there has left deep scars. I was never so happy as when I left that place, but it's stayed with me ever since. VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - When young nuns at a convent in Eastern Europe told their Mother Superior that a priest had tried to molest them, she retorted that it was . Nuns are no different; however, we choose not to act upon these natural, sexual feelings and urges. This definitely made it much worse. Was Thomas given away or sold?. A few days later, William was told his brother had died although he is now convinced this was untrue. They may feel they are missing out on something essential and wonder what could have been. A "religieuse" as she is called throughout the series, she also trained as an advocate of Irish law called the Brehon law system. Children were also left hungry and cold, with poor hygiene facilities. First off I'd change that to SOME nuns, not all. I've never found it easy forming relationships and had periods when I've had to go to hospital and had all sorts of problems.". Gods truth? The exercise of absolute power is crucial for understanding the running of the Religious Institutions in Ireland. Nuns indeed put in a lot of hard work. Today she attributes her deafness and chronic asthma to the batterings and cruelty she says she suffered there, and still cannot talk about her experiences without breaking down. They were raised in abusive homes and grew up as abusive adults. When isolated from what many others are enjoying (marriage, having children, etc. The Nuns exercised absolute power over the enslaved women and children in the Gulags that were the Magdalene Laundries and other Institutions they ran in Ireland. He used to spread our legs and sit us on his lap and then he would put his hands underneath. "There were two slices of bread and dripping for breakfast, a ladle of soup at dinner and two more slices of bread and dripping in the evening. This mission is still in use today and as far as I know they have not slacked off of the punishments. (9 Reasons Why), Why Are Contractors So Unreliable? Are they all mean? The atmosphere was one of sheer terror. Thank you again for your insight. In the 1901 and 1911 Census in there were about 100 inmates in the Magdalen Loundry in Galway..about 8 or 9 nuns. May 2020 Your marriage needs to be annulled (not 'divorced') first. July 2018 First off I'd change that to SOME nuns, not all. Why Are Chihuahuas So Aggressive? No one did and I was just told to follow on. There was church every day of the week. Which makes you think that older women who were long time inmates were in charge of the day to day running of the Laundry. This was not the case in mid-19th Century . The whole idea was for those women to do penance for their sins. I was in bed by 7pm and they used to check you were asleep with your hands across your chest. Some thuggish Nuns who worked in the Magdalene Laundries and other Institutions were notorious for hitting the enslaved women and children for no reason, even beating some to death. "One of the worst things that ever happened to me was being locked in a cupboard as a punishment. Content Summary. At the residential home, he was given two sets of clothes, a number 217 and sent to his dormitory. You must wear modest clothing when not wearing your nun's habit. Eventually, the crochet schools established by the nuns in the 1850s and 1860s disappeared as fashions changed and the demand for Irish lace declined. Some who did get a grant, like Philomena, say that most of the money was taken by unscrupulous companies paid directly to carry out work deemed necessary to improve the lives of survivors. Something was telling me that something bad was going to happen.. i think they just really need to get laid, Damn nuns I don't think I have ever met a nun but damn them anyway errrrr.