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As a child I could relate to sufferings
By Austin King
FORMER Neerkol Orphanage resident Mary Adams could never be whole again. The "cracks" of severe trauma from her childhood, when she was a resident at St Joseph's Orphanage in Neerkol, prevented her from being so. Those cracks were the permanent scars she received, from the physical, sexual and psychological abuse, at the orphanage between the 1950s and 1960s. Mary, 64, along with her brother and sister, were placed there in 1951 after her mother fell into financial difficulties. During her moving testimony at yesterday's Royal Commission hearing into Neerkol, Mary said she was two years old and her sister about four when they were placed into the care of the Sisters of Mercy. She recalled one night when severely whipped by the nun-in-charge Sister Frances Regis, who used a blue, rubber, skipping rope to flog her. One night when there was an electric failure, pandemonium erupted in the girls' dormitory. The girl that slept next to Ms Adams' bed let out a blood curling scream. At the time, Ms Adams was brushing her friend's hair. "We were not allowed out of our own beds after lights out so I hastened to get back to my bed... I managed to make my way back to my own bed before Sister Regis arrived in the dormitory. "The girl (who screamed) told Sister Regis that someone had pulled her leg from underneath her bed. As no one owned up to doing it, and because I was in the bed next to her, I was hauled out on to the veranda by Sister Regis, with another girl, and she asked us who pulled the leg? "I could not have done it because I was at my friend's bed but was fearful of telling Sister Regis this as I was out of bounds at the time. I told Sister Regis that I did not do it and the other girl said the same thing. "Sister Regis then made us both bend over and touch our toes and she belted into us with a blue skipping rope repeatedly on the back of our legs and bottom. Sister Regis left us standing there." When she was 12 years old, she and a group of girls were punished for being out of bounds. They were made to stay and conduct chores at the orphanage rather than be allowed go on holiday with other families. It was the sexual abuse she endured from a visiting priest, she simply knew as Father John, which "destroyed my childhood" the most. When Father John visited the orphanage to hold the nuns' retreat, Ms Adams thought the priest was "friendly and approachable". Because he was from out of town, Ms Adams believed she could trust the priest enough to tell him about the abuse she and the other residents were suffering at the orphanage. Father John agreed to meet with Ms Adams. He led her to his office. There, he tried to hypnotise Ms Adams when he pulled a silver watch out of his pocket and started dangling it in front of her. She pretended to doze off and closed her eyes. The Royal Commission heard Father John carried her to his bedroom and sexually abused her. Ms Adams became a single mother of three sons, in her later years. She told the Royal Commission she had left the orphanage with very limited education abilities because of the poor standards at the Neerkol institution. "I was constantly tormented with thoughts about why the powers that be treated children in an inhumane manner," she said. "My experiences distorted my views of the world... it has been a struggle to remain on top and to keep on keeping on. "I admire the beauty of nature, but with human nature I've been disillusioned... Neerkol was a place where only the strong survived. "Neerkol's masters destroyed my childhood and robbed me of my childhood innocence, leaving me with shattered emotions. "Children are builders of tomorrow and are extremely important; they must not be considered a burden... as a child, I could identify the sufferings on the road to Calvary." She was placed in a nursery and moved to the "big girls' dormitory" when she turned five years old. During these years, Mary remembered regularly wetting the bed and being punished for it. Those punishments came in the early hours of the morning, when the nuns would conduct rounds to see which residents (children) had wet the bed. Mary told the Royal Commission the children who had urinated in their beds were made carry their wet sheets to the dining room. There, they were made to stand with the saturated sheet draped over their head. After morning meals they returned to their dorms. It was upon their return they were made to extend their arms to receive floggings with a cane. Following this punishment they had cold showers. Mary told the Royal Commission there was a "wet bed veranda", where those who frequently urinated in their beds were made to sleep on army-styled stretchers covered by a thin mattress. She was even made to wear a make-shift nappy to school. In her tear-jerking testimony, Mary recalls a nun dragging her by the hair and made to sit in a corner with her head down. On occasions she also went without meals.
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