IRELAND
The Guardian (UK)
Emer O’Toole
In 2009 the Ryan report into child sexual abuse in state-funded, church-run institutions was published, costing the Irish taxpayer €82m. It uncovered decades of abuse endured by children in the ostensible care of Catholic organisations including the Sisters of Charity. This is the order of nuns that will be given ownership of the €300m state-of-the-art new National Maternity Hospital by the Irish government, They will be the “sole owners” of the taxpayer-funded facility.
The Sisters of Charity were once involved in the operation of five residential schools. I will tell you some of what happened at just one of them.
At St Joseph’s Industrial school in Kilkenny, little girls as young as eight who complained of molestation by male lay staff were ignored, disbelieved or blamed for their abuse. Children were told their mothers were prostitutes. Children were fostered out to paedophiles. On three occasions the nuns hired paedophile lay workers, then failed to act when informed by children and sometimes by concerned adults about what was happening. Children were subject to severe corporal punishment right up until the 1990s.
The Sisters of Charity never issued a general public apology for the abuse suffered by children in their care. They did, however, promise to contribute €5m to the government’s €1.25bn redress scheme for victims of child abuse.
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