Man Describes "Psychotic" Behaviour of Derry Nuns at Children's Home

By Henry McDonald
The Guardian
January 28, 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/28/derry-nuns-psychotic-former-inmate-northern-ireland-abuse-inquiry

Nuns at a care home for children in Northern Ireland behaved like they were psychotic, the largest ever inquiry in UK legal history into child abuse has heard.

A former child resident told the inquiry on Tuesday that the Sisters of Nazareth in the Termonbacca care home thumped and kicked children.

In his evidence to the historical institutional abuse inquiry, the witness described the Derry home as a "hellhole" and akin to a concentration camp.

Some children, dressed in rags, were chained and forced to clean floors, the man told the inquiry at Banbridge courthouse.

The witness said he was once sexually abused by a woman at the home, although he could not recall if it was a nun or a civilian worker. At the time he was aged five or six years and was later transferred from the Derry home to another run by the Christian Brothers in the Irish Republic.

The nuns who were supposed to care for him were "bordering on the psychotic" in the way they maltreated him and other children, the witness said.

A second witness at the inquiry on Tuesday said he been beaten by older boys in the Termonbacca home.

"I thought I was going to die – it was torture to face another day," he said.

It was the second day of harrowing evidence in an inquiry that is investigating care homes, orphanages and other institutions that held children in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 1995. Termonbacca is among 13 such institutions under investigation as a result of a long campaign by former child residents.

So far 434 people have offered to give evidence – some on the record, others granted anonymity.

On Monday the senior counsel for the inquiry, which is headed up by retired judge Sir Anthony Hart, said children were forced to eat their own vomit as a punishment for being ill at Temonbacca and St Joseph's homes in Derry.

Christine Smith QC, said children were also beaten by nuns with sticks, straps and kettle flexes.

The inquiry continues.