IRELAND
One in Four
Irish Examiner
Nuns were actively discouraged from showing affection towards the children in their care in Saint Joseph’s Industrial School in Clifden, the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse heard yesterday
Sr Margaret Casey, from the Sisters of mercy, admitted to the investigation there was an “embargo on hugging” young girls and boys in the school, which closed in 1983 after more than a century in operation.
The commission heard that one nun, praised for her kindness by residents during the inquiry, would have given a hug to children “on the sly” and “when no one was looking”.
Sr Casey agreed that this would have been the case.