There was kissing, fondling, sucking and penetration, things that I still find very difficult to talk about, he says, emotion choking his voice. . 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 one thing that I have found from talking to them and from past stories they have told me before they died was the Nuns of the Caotholic Missions were always mean and abusive to the children. One that stands out is the story of a boy who had become very ill. Some of these reasons include the high expectations placed on them, the fact that theyre not allowed to express their feelings, and many of them come from abusive or neglectful families. Strangely, this type of thinking goes against the doctrine by which nuns are supposed to live. Its no wonder nuns can be so cruel. Across thousands of miles, across decades, the abuse took eerily similar forms: People who grew up in orphanages said they were made to kneel or stand for hours, sometimes with their arms straight out, sometimes holding their boots or some other item. It can also lead to nuns acting out in ways that are considered cruel. "Bedwetting was about the worst thing you could do. They may feel they are missing out on something essential and wonder what could have been. Its 2,500 pages also detailed a climate of fear in both boys' and girls' schools, created by excessive physical violence, as well as emotional abuse, with constant belittling and with bodily functions, such as bed-wetting or periods, used as an opportunity to humiliate children. Why? 4 Min Read. I was told that I was useless, stupid, blind and hopeless, nobody would love or want me. August 2019 Not a day went by without someone getting a battering. To this day I cannot go into a loft or a small room and I sleep with the light on because of that. The Nuns believed they had the right to use violence on them arbitrarily, including, if necessary, killing them. However, she has become as cruel, petty and jealous as the rest of Garradrimna, and connives with the postmistress to sabotage Myles Shannon's chance at romance with an English girl, to get revenge on the Shannon family for rejecting her. At Christmas there was jam. I was frequently made to sleep in the soaking sheets and humiliated in front of the other boys. as elsewhere, they became . Being on the receiving end of this behavior is horrifying and confusing. reflect on their experiences and this week's TRC report. There are only half as many religious sisters today as there were just a half century ago and a majority of sisters are either retired or in late middle age. secrets passed from mother to daughter. Then they took the other two from her as well. This is true of Jewish women who were in charge of the different units in Concentration also true of the German women who worked in these camps. 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 . Williams story and many others like him formed the basis of the Ryan Report, published in 2009, which found that sexual and physical abuse were endemic in Irelands industrial schools. (9 Reasons Why), Why Are Netflix Originals So Bad? You can't judge the past in the context of the present where there is social supports by the State for lone parents, unemployed etcup to 1974this did not exist for women. 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 . I spent a lot of time scrubbing floors or cleaning shoes. But trying to be perfect always is enough to make anyone go a little crazy. Was Thomas given away or sold?. After all, slavery played a crucial role in the development and ongoing operation of the Cults economy. 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. The savage, merciless and more seasoned of the Nuns in the Magdalene Laundries and other female Religious-run institutions encouraged and taught brutal Catholic Cult reality to the simple, well-meaning and middle-class rural women who were now Holy Nuns. "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. For decades, "bad" Irish girls were sent away to convent-run laundries, where they worked for no pay in awful conditions for years on end. It has enriched the Irish Catholic Church to the extent that, even to this day, it is the wealthiest organisation in Ireland. A Nuns wooden rosary beads was used to beat me after she had stripped me naked leaving me to suffer painful welts and bruises all over my body for months. Nuns used to be cruel; that much is true. "The nuns never believed I was deaf. I was in bed by 7pm and they used to check you were asleep with your hands across your chest. Others have already pointed out that Nuns are denied any intimacy when they join Catholicism. June 2021 The Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, also known as Magdalene asylums, were institutions usually run by Roman Catholic orders, which operated from the 18th to the late 20th centuries. Some of the nuns were cross in my primary school but so were the lay teachers, some complete rotters with punishment. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. A child rape victim has accused nuns at a now-shuttered Catholic children's home in Germany of "pimping" out orphans . December 2018 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. August 2020 During the time of the French Revolution there was a Jannist, Pls explain in detail why this was a cruel society thank you, Clearly a huge part of Babylon the great! No matter what any "spiritual leader" might say. Its not easy being a nun. Nuns are no different; however, we choose not to act upon these natural, sexual feelings and urges. "I had three sons with my second husband. For the barbarous Nuns who lived there and in other Institutions, they were a great place in which to eat, drink, work and play once you locked the slaves away at night as any competent slave trader and owner would do. "On another occasion I collapsed after complaining of double vision and lost consciousness for three days. Not once did the nuns ask why I was off school or what was wrong with me. Many Nuns pretended not to see or hear what was going on around them, but instead were passive, taking refuge in their work and silent prayers. It's easy! 5 Top The Silver Thong Member 33.4k It was a matter of impressing and/or shocking fellow Nuns by specific acts of violence, and thereby proving ones authority and skill. The exercise of absolute power is crucial for understanding the running of the Religious Institutions in Ireland. Then we were beaten black and blue and made to apologise in front of the whole school.. Kicking, you see, took the degradation of the victims to a new level. My kids have grown up and I have a great relationship with them.. Violence was frequently employed and encouraged with the most common forms being verbal abuse, slaps, blows, and kicks. March 2018 And 40 nuns belonging to the Poor Sisters of Nazareth and the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul are named in a civil action by more than 500 people, mostly middle-aged or elderly, who. The Magdalene Laundries were a profitable business for the Nuns and the Cult of the Irish Catholic Church. But the nun wasn't looking for someone to help her. The Nuns total exercise of power included the daily use of extreme mental as well as physical violence as they believed that the women and the children were to be broken on the Catherine wheel, so to speak, and destroyed mentally, if possible, by the whims and acrimonious tempers of the sexually frustrated Nuns. I love them so much, there are so helpful, I always get sad when they get transferred to another church. You could be hit for talking in church. A nun and a former nun with ties to the residential school in Shubenacadie, N.S. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. "When the Sister died, we were told to pray for her in Heaven, but we all prayed that we were glad. Nowadays, since the 1970ies women had access to contracepton and nowadays abortionbeing a lone parent is acceptable and even part of the norm. 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. The skeletal remains of infants and babies have been discovered in a site which used to be run by an Irish religious order. My aunt said I never stammered before I went there. I remember being made to sit in a cold bath. 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.". I am just wondering why. That was when her main tormentor at the Nazareth House in Middlesbrough, Sister Laurence, died. Your post was so full of hate & sarcasm Im surprised you havent been banned what you wrote was absolutely inexcusable. BERYL HITCHEN, 55, was dumped on the doorstep of the Nazareth House in Cardiff when she was not quite two years old. I was constantly humiliated.. (7 Reasons Why), Why Are Harleys So Expensive? Which makes you think that older women who were long time inmates were in charge of the day to day running of the Laundry. "One of the worst things that ever happened to me was being locked in a cupboard as a punishment. Survivors and researchers usually present the Magdalene Laundries as the ultimate example of a total institution. I certainly didnt need any time to reflect on my own experience of cruel Irish Nuns.. After all, I was nine years with the Sisters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul in Dublin in both a Mother and Baby Home, St. Patricks on the Navan Road where I was born and spent the first four years of my life, and for five more years at St Philomena's Home, Stillorgan. Why Are Nuns So Cruel? 'sparing the rod' has nothing to do with punishment ..the rod mentioned in the bible was from the early times of agriculture & farming ..the oxes that pull the plough in order to stay on a straight line had the person with a long stick (called a rod) ..they wouldnt hit the oxes with them but push their heads forward to maintain a line, This as come as a complete surprise to me ,I thought you were and just winding us all up, You took what I said to literal. So nuns did their best to keep you from committing a mortal sin and their way of doing that was to enforce a sort of discipline by various means of which some were mean like hitting your knuckels with a ruler. You think your nuns were bad? Instead I was a child who was physically, mentally, emotionally and sexually abused.. I think so many of them are mean because they think they can get away with it. It is one that most Irish people think they know, but a vague awareness of the cruelty meted out to vulnerable, scared children is nothing compared to having to live with it. They had no rights, were (still are to some degree) exposed to all sorts of abuse of the Catholic hierarchy, who always were their superior and who always has to be present to some degree because women can't do things by themselves in Catholicsm by design. It was only later I realised that you didn't bruise so badly there. It was considered very prestigious to have a daughter become a Nun as was having a son in the Priesthood. Nuns are held to a higher standard than most people, and theyre expected to be perfect. Following the redress process a further 110million (100million) was set aside for a hardship fund named Caranua - which ironically translates as 'new friend'. I was 8 years of age. NANCY WILLOUGHBY was taken into care by the Poor Sisters of Nazareth after her mother died when she was three. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. The tank previously believed to have held victims of the Irish famine of the 1840s was on the property of a "mother and baby home" run by the Bon Secours nuns between 1925 and 1961; while . "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. The only subject of conversation was who was for it next. 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. See Part One, Two, Four, Five, Six and Seven. All the children saw this murder and the Nuns took him and buried him behind the graveyard and his name was never spoken again. Operation of the why were irish nuns so cruel your hands across your chest by 7pm and used. 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