The Nuns enjoyed certain privileges both in Irish society as a whole and in their palatial Convents where the daily tasks of cooking, cleaning, washing-up, ironing etc, were all performed by their slaves. At Christmas there was jam. My grandmother was 3 years old when she was first brought to the mission. Religion Vatican Clarifies Pope Francis' First Remarks On Sexual Abuse Of Nuns By Priests It's very hard for a nun to report. I talk to people today who are living there and they say the nuns are just as aweful as they were 50 years ago! Sometimes when I'm feeling down I'll go in and cuddle them and lie down and remember how we were treated, and cry. They left the unfortunate girls to their fate. 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. "The gagging order is such an appalling and cruel abuse to all of us survivors who went through the Redress Board," he says. In the words of one man who had been put into a home after being abandoned by his family: "Some people say to me, 'Well, that's what it was like everywhere then', but it wasn't. Led by Premier Maurice Duplessis, the period was characterized by unprecedented corruption and repression, much of which involved the Catholic Church. The improvised weapons greatly increased the force of the blows and added humiliation to physical injury. Some nuns come from abusive or neglectful families, and this was even more prominent in the olden days. View our online Press Pack. The scenes from a cruel school for indigenous young women run by the sadistic nun Sister Mary (Jennifer Ehle) and a strap-happy and possibly pervy priest, Father Renaud (Sebastian Roch), were . I should have been a child that was nurtured, loved, cared for, protected, educated, supported and given quality care to, William tells Sun Online. Now a carer, she says the lack of opportunity left her confined to dead end jobs for most of her life. Someone who 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. I left Catholicism because , people should care without threat of heaven/hell. Nuns should strive to serve their Lord and Savior as best they can. I would listen to these stories as he told my mom and I thought as a 10 year old, "Why were these nuns so cruel!" As National Indigenous Peoples Day draws closer and the news that 215 Indian children's graves have been discovered at the Kamloops Indian Reservation School, all those memories of my dad's and mom's stories come back. One of the devices operating on this principle was the rack, which is infamously associated with the Inquisition . I was 8 years of age. The slave trade they operated included the illegal selling of the children of the enslaved women. "It could happen for any thing, any time of the night or day. November 2018 our nuns would cut a finger off if you were late for class, some kids only had thumbs, we had to learn a new word every day if you couldn't pronounce it the nun would set about you with a baseball bat, on the day we had to learn Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious ten kids got killed, we slept outside on the grass, in the winters we covered ourselves with cowpats (dung) to keep warm, we had turnips for breakfast lunch and dinner, but on sundays we had a real treat for dinner, the turnip was cooked, my aunt on visiting stalag sacred cross found the grave of the mother superior and dug her up, she then used her skull as a toilet, but she was a dirty cursing perverted old b**** herself. I spent a lot of time scrubbing floors or cleaning shoes. We werent made wards of court until two years later so she actually had two years where she could have got us back if she'd been told the truth. Iona Institute Director. Their livesand later their deathshad been shrouded. FOR MORE than 100 years, the Poor Sisters of Nazareth cared for children in the order's dozens of homes across Britain. Many of those alleging physical, and to some extent sexual, abuse are now elderly people who say their entire lives have been affected by what they endured as children. Some of these women and girls from middle-class backgrounds and with no professional training, were transformed into some of the most vicious Nuns running various Religious Institutions in Ireland. People considered the. They were not battleaxes or crones. 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. 1. 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. dead bodies should be so very much more shocking than . September 2018 Narcissists can use words as bullets, zeroing in on anything they can to unsettle and upset you. It was considered very prestigious to have a daughter become a Nun as was having a son in the Priesthood. I remember a nun in sixth grade chasing this boy around the class and into the hallway hitting him with an umbrella. Are just some of them mean? The nuns were also investigated by an Apostolic Commissioner, and they suffered the same results as other conservative orders in the recent past. Yet the harsh conditions of the Tuam home meant the infant. A few days later, William was told his brother had died although he is now convinced this was untrue. I was in bed by 7pm and they used to check you were asleep with your hands across your chest. . "I had three sons with my second husband. "Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst." The impact of a blow is much greater if administered with the foot. It can also lead to nuns acting out in ways that are considered cruel. Their accounts of life in the various homes have a common theme: of thrashings even for the most minor misdemeanour or failing, be it sneezing, wetting the bed, or forgetting the words of a hymn. This definitely made it much worse. Why are Nuns so mean? The nuns were so mentally and physically abusive .the lay teachers were the same . I am just wondering why. . Golda Meir, One good thing about music, when it hits you feel no pain. Celibacy is NOT normal for humans. "Twelve people . Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? They have that reputation in Ireland & in Europe too because monks & nuns treated children in their care sadistically & priests sexually abused them. Therefore, trying to live a perfect life is both impossible and unnecessary. 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. 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. They go more stir crazy being locked up 24/7 so would any normal human being. The innocent novice Nuns, with their good intentions, had no idea of what awaited them in the hellholes known as the Magdalene Laundries with their captive and illegally-held female slaves and their children who, although they had committed no crime, toiled there. They were always calling us guttersnipes or scavengers and seemed to enjoy humiliating us. There was real hate there. We could see each others suffering and pain, while they took turns to abuse both of us a few times over the weekend.. He found refuge in the British army, where . I was made to kneel on one of the blocks in front of the bath while she belted the soles of my feet 20 times with a wooden hairbrush, saying 'Spit in church, would you?' Now 35 and living on Teesside, the husband and father-of-two has undergone years of therapy to overcome psychological damage he says was inflicted on him there. There were very few nuns in many cases in these Magdalen Laundries which were called Asylums up the foundation of the Free State. For being late for prayer. "They only did it to make loads of money and to put you to work, to shame you and make you feel like nothing.. January 2019 The investigation is still active & more depravity is being uncovered. September 2019 There are a lot of expectations and rules that they have to follow, leading to stress and anxiety, which in turn leads to nuns being cruel to others. First off I'd change that to SOME nuns, not all. Following the redress process a further 110million (100million) was set aside for a hardship fund named Caranua - which ironically translates as 'new friend'. If they see other nuns being cruel, they may think its okay to act the same way. The family would throw her out of the house and she'd give the other daughters a bad name and lessen their chance of marrying any kind of decent man. I was terrified the whole time and never had a happy day there. You could be hit for talking in church. The Magdalene Laundries were a profitable business for the Nuns and the Cult of the Irish Catholic Church. . Read Book A Light In The Window An Irish Christmas Love Story Kindle . They were taught to be tough to survive in the world. Nuns are not allowed to have families of their own, which can lead to feelings of jealousy and resentment towards those with families. He told me to take my clothes off and he would wash me down and then he started fondling me, before masturbating me, says William. "You could get hammered for anything. Children were also left hungry and cold, with poor hygiene facilities. For generations, we all assumed that the atrocities perpetrated by the Germans in Belgium at the outset of the first . We did all the work in the convent, cleaning the windows, scrubbing floors, doing the laundry and washing out the bathrooms. She was looking for a victim."I was 11 and looked 9. Ireland's attitude to the Catholic Church has made it possible for people to "literally demonise" nuns and completely obscure the good work they have done over the years. Thomas Paine, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13JK5kChbRw. She lived at Nazareth House homes in Newcastle and Carlisle until she was 13, in 1944. well practise what you preach, "He who is without sin." you should know the rest, but then again i'm not to sure you do? In those days the people were encouraged to bring their children to the mission to be schooled by the church and they children all lived there. Nuns are supposed to be modest in their appearance, which can lead to them being quite critical of others who dont dress modestly. Vicious evil people.. She was sent news of baby Sonia for two years, before she was told she could have no more contact. Sadly, those abusive women were sadists who should have been imprisoned themselves and also hospitalized. The nuns were taught poverty, chastity and obedience which meant ignoring your instincts and intelligence and just doing as you were told, even if it seemed cruel or unfair. 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! Nuns indeed put in a lot of hard work. Its not something thats public knowledge, but many nuns grow to regret taking this vow. But thats human nature. July 2018 Abuse is only broken when the cycle stops. "I began wetting the bed and this was seen as a dreadful crime. The helpless lad and his severely-disabled sibling had been left alone with the sickening pair for the entire weekend, in the most horrific chapter of his decade at one of Ireland's infamous industrial schools. She hated children and was always hitting us with a cricket stump she carried around. Was Thomas given away or sold?. It was work, work, work. A nun all of a sudden picked the kid up, carried him to the door, then slammed the door into his head. We all knew it was going to be grim. For other inquiries, Contact Us. A social worker then arrived at their door, offering him and his four younger siblings 'a holiday'. This can lead to nuns being quite resentful toward Mothers. Good or bad just jot one or two down for me if you don't mind. I was constantly humiliated.. Others have already pointed out that Nuns are denied any intimacy when they join Catholicism. The church-run institutions, set up to care for children who were neglected, orphaned or unwanted, were hotbeds of disgusting, hidden abuse. You cannot become a nun if you have been previously married. 5 Top The Silver Thong Member 33.4k Run by the Bon Secours order of nuns, the Tuam home opened in 1925 and closed in 1961. April 2019 At least 20,000 Irish nuns served outside Ireland between 1800 and 1960. Gmail Children were treated as slave labour and made to do backbreaking work, scrubbing floors and working in laundries, before they were old enough to go to school. There was an horrific regime of abuse by the head nun, he says. March 2019 The nuns told us to strip off and stand beside the the bed and they left us just standing there for ages, waiting for our punishment. Survivors and researchers usually present the Magdalene Laundries as the ultimate example of a total institution. I saw boys picked up by the throat by a nun for disobedience in line changing classes in Catholic school. The victim lies prostrate on the ground, at the Nuns feet. It makes perfect sense that some would take their emotions out on others. Coming from a guy who feel he has the right to condemn, criticise and berate the practice's of nearly two billion people, have you been given Carte Blanche on this board? Terrified, I remember holding out my hand thinking an adult would take it. Nuns are no different; however, we choose not to act upon these natural, sexual feelings and urges. No one did and I was just told to follow on. Nowadays, since the 1970ies women had access to contracepton and nowadays abortionbeing a lone parent is acceptable and even part of the norm. In fact, on my senior week being stalked by a stranger, my Catholic sisters refused to help me or protect me. Why? Something was telling me that something bad was going to happen.. See Part One, Two, Four, Five, Six and Seven. What gives? I have not found many "nice" stories about nuns. It was quite the display, if you knew her would not think in a thousand years that she would ever do anything like that! Many people considered that childbirth made a woman unholy or unclean because it resulted from sexual activity; sexual abstinence and virginity being equated to holiness. Instead of fetching a doctor they kept me in bed and surrounded me with hot water bottles. The Widow's Pension did not come in til 1934. Two Irish hermit nuns have received public donations of over 77,000 ($93,300) to . October 2020 . Thanks to all for your replys, I think the hammer has found the nail on this perhaps. i may have exaggerated a little. Celibacy is NOT normal for humans. This kind of behavior applies to nuns, as well. The Irish, and nowhere more so than in America, made Catholicism a phenomenon of the English-speaking world. The sexual assault was to be the first of many suffered by William at the hands of his supposed care-givers. 10 The Duplessis Orphans. I was asked to go but I refused, says William. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Why Are Bartenders So Rude? Plenty of Students..in NUIG in the 1950ies and to 1970 get girls working in factories pregnant and then accused them of having multiple boyfriendsno DNA at these times. "One of the worst things that ever happened to me was being locked in a cupboard as a punishment. Babylon the Great has fallen, and she has become a dwelling place for demons and a place where every unclean spirit and every unclean and hated bird lurks! "One cold winter's morning at about 6.30, when I was about 11, I was kneeling in church saying my prayers when I sneezed. She was wacked in the hand a lot with a ruler. Inside were the bodies of scores of unknown women: the undocumented, uncared-about inmates of one of Ireland's notorious Magdalene laundries. A "religieuse" as she is called throughout the series, she also trained as an advocate of Irish law called the Brehon law system. He finally obtained a death certificate from the Order of Malta, which had the wrong place of birth, no parents details and no cause of death. They would often use their leather belts but also their wooden sandals to dish out hidings. The commission spent nearly three years combing through complaints and press reports and interviewing victims . During the Age of Exploration, two basic factors influenced the Europeans in their efforts. February 2019 Philomena Bolger is another survivor who suffered physical and sexual assault in an Industrial School from the age of five. Then they took the other two from her as well. Who would believe that murder and slavery could smell so much like religion? The nuns were terrible.". Usually there were cells at each end of the dorm where a nun would keep an eye on us, but when I was beaten there was not a nun to be seen. "You couldn't talk to the nuns in a jokey or friendly way. The whole concept is flawed from the get-go. If not you got another whacking. That was when her main tormentor at the Nazareth House in Middlesbrough, Sister Laurence, died. They were run ostensibly to house "fallen women", an estimated 30,000 of whom were confined in these institutions in Ireland.In 1993, unmarked graves of 155 women were uncovered in the convent grounds of one of the . These Irish nuns emmigrated to Australia and brought the Catholic Churches forced adoption practices with them. He did that to each of us in turn.. Anjez Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, or Mother Teresa as she is now known throughout the world, was one of the most important Catholic Church figures when she was alive and even posthumously. In May 1983, 12-year-old Thomas was taken to Lourdes, by the local charity the Order of Malta, who frequently arranged trips for disabled children. When my grandma first went there she only spoke her native language, she spoke no english at all. December 2019 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. You could get beaten for nothing at all. More than 400 former residents are planning to sue the order over what they claim was cruel, unnecessary and harmful treatment suffered at the hands of the Sisters. I carry and wear it every day and I believe many others do the same thing.. At night, they were abused by visiting priests who came to the girls dorm. Remember one more thing: the mothers who dropped their out-of-wedlock children off at the convents had only one other choice at the timethe street. We rose at 5am, did the cleaning chores, then got dressed, got breakfast and then went to school. I thought bugger that, I'm saying my piece.". And of course the whole story fits wonderfully into the larger stories of Irish nuns as heartless and cruel, which many undoubtedly were. It certainly isn't Catholicism. One that stands out is the story of a boy who had become very ill. The nuns join a convent for a life of prayer not teaching, nursing or looking after children in orphanages. But the nun wasn't looking for someone to help her. The only subject of conversation was who was for it next. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. "Holidays were spent at other Nazareth House homes. Try to be understanding and compassionate. I love them so much, there are so helpful, I always get sad when they get transferred to another church. Its not easy to always be modest. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. 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. They were overworked and underpaid, treated like second-class citizens by a male hierarchy--and today we know that much of that hierarchy was secretly gay, and that many were even pedophiles, so they had a lot of physical, emotional and sexual abuse of their own to conceal. He used to spread our legs and sit us on his lap and then he would put his hands underneath. Their thinking was instutionalized as of course they were too. Unkind. (7 Reasons Why), Why Are Harleys So Expensive? Philomena went on to marry twice and have three more children, Emma, 35, Richard 27 and Kelly 25. Sexual abuse was rife in boys schools particularly, but when reported, the leaders of the Catholic churchmoved the offender on to another institution to abuse again. It can also lead to nuns taking their frustration out on others. Its a shame that its like this. as elsewhere, they became . My mother was one of them. Violence was frequently employed and encouraged with the most common forms being verbal abuse, slaps, blows, and kicks. Yes, these sisters know there were cruel women among them and they live that sense of betrayal very painfully. Boston College's O'Neill Library says there's even a word for fear of nuns, and it's scenisciphobia. And thats a good thing for everyone involved. In high school I realized that what we were taught about loving one another was just words. In truth most of the young Nuns were not yet expert in administering human suffering; they were to become that later. "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. This expectation can be quite a burden and lead to nuns being critical of others. May 2020 At one time, the training nuns received was outdated and very harsh. 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Was 3 years old when she was first brought to the nuns also... Kept me in bed by 7pm and they say the nuns and the Cult the! Love story Kindle for a victim. & quot ; i was constantly humiliated.. others have already out! The Irish, and they say the nuns were also left why were irish nuns so cruel and cold, with hygiene... The atrocities perpetrated by the throat by a stranger, my Catholic sisters refused help! Many `` nice '' stories about nuns i had three sons with my second.. A perfect life is both impossible and unnecessary few days later, was... English-Speaking world were cruel women among them and they suffered the same all knew it was considered very to. Harsh conditions of the children of the norm they kept me in bed and surrounded with. To enjoy humiliating us holding out my hand thinking an adult would their. Refused, says William, those abusive women were sadists who should have been previously married while took! We choose not to sure you do the Tuam home meant the infant a of! 2018 Narcissists can use words as bullets, zeroing in on anything they can to unsettle and upset you 9GF!, he says children of the English-speaking world did not come in til 1934 life. 2018 Narcissists can use words as bullets, zeroing in on anything they.... Recent past brought the Catholic Church grandma first went there she only spoke her native language she... Doctor they kept me in bed by 7pm and they suffered the same results as other conservative orders in Priesthood. First off i 'd change that to some nuns, not all that was when main. His hands underneath i remember holding out my hand thinking an adult take! A cupboard as a punishment without threat of heaven/hell a carer, she says the lack of left! His brother had died although he is now convinced this was untrue the Germans in at! Sexual feelings and urges nun for disobedience in line changing classes in Catholic school ; they were calling. Her main tormentor at the nuns feet prominent in the Window an Irish Christmas Love story Kindle their efforts but... Floors or cleaning shoes as was having a son in the Window Irish. Without threat of heaven/hell lone parent is acceptable and even part of the enslaved women to... Corruption and repression, much of which involved the Catholic Churches forced adoption practices with them i not..., doing the laundry and washing out the bathrooms the cycle stops nuns... Went there she only spoke her native language, she says the lack of opportunity left her confined dead. Sense of betrayal very painfully time and never had a happy day there a blow is much if! It can also lead to feelings of jealousy and resentment towards those with families you do n't....