A senior Christian Brother yesterday described as "absolutely indefensible" his congregation's dealings with a particularly abusive Brother at St Joseph's industrial school, Tralee, during the late 1950s to mid-1960s. Brother Séamus Nolan, of the Christian Brothers' St Helen's (southern) province leadership team, was giving evidence to the investigation committee of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse.
He agreed with counsel Mark Connaughton, for former residents at St Joseph's, that the Brother concerned was described as "a madman" by the boys there and that a congregation visitation report queried his mental health. He agreed this Brother had fractured a boy's jaw at another school before he came to Tralee; that he beat a boy with a stick, and gave another a black eye during an assault.
He had "engaged in serious physical assault yet was allowed continue teaching," said Mr Connaughton. It "demonstrated a complete indifference" to punishment regulations "short of injury to the boys and a tolerance of physical abuse short of sending someone to hospital," he said. Brother Nolan said he could not understand it.
Commission chairman Mr Justice Seán Ryan suggested that if the children's interest was being served the Brother would have been got rid of, but that if the institution's interest was being served he would be transferred. Brother Nolan agreed. Earlier he said no sanctions were imposed on Brothers who breached either State regulations or congregation guidelines on punishment, until 1989. He concurred with Mr Connaughton that a punishment book at St Joseph's Tralee, "never existed at all".
Referring to "another example of impermissible corporal punishment", Mr Connaughton quoted from correspondence following a complaint by a father about the "brutal punishment" of his son, when the boy was returned to St Joseph's after his fourth attempt at absconding.
The Brother involved, then acting resident manager, denied this in vigorous terms, saying the punishment was administered in the presence of a colleague; that the boy was beaten with a leather strap "on the bottom where nature intended it be used", and denied he was beaten around the neck or given a black eye.
Further, he ran away again, which he claimed was "not the normal behaviour of a boy subject to such [ alleged] abuse". He accused the boy of stealing during these escapades but said he had appealed to local gardaí for leniency, which he was then reconsidering. Specific allegations of sex abuse were made against a St Joseph's Brother in a letter to the investigation committee last February, Mr Connaughton said. He also referred to comment on inappropriate behaviour by a Brother there, as discussed in documents from the early 1940s.
Brother Nolan said incidents of peer abuse were not recorded at the school, but agreed there was a request for the transfer of three boys to the reformatory in Daingean because of a "moral problem".
In the 1940s also peer abuse was a problem at the Brothers' Carriglea industrial school in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, which closed in 1954. Counsel Marcus Dowling, for former residents there, read from a congregation document which described such "immoral" abuse as "pretty rife" even among younger boys.
Mr Justice Ryan said the committee had to date heard evidence from 450 witnesses. It resumes public hearings on May 31st
St Joseph's industrial school
St Joseph's industrial school at Tralee, Co Kerry, was opened in 1871 and continued to function there until 1970. As with other industrial schools managed by the religious congregations, it was established to cater for neglected, orphaned and abandoned Catholic boys. During its years in operation the number of boys it accommodated averaged 110 between 1940 and 1967, peaking at 155 in 1942.
From 1960 the numbers began to fall, although there was a short-term increase in 1966/67 following the closure of Glin industrial school in Co Limerick and the transfer of boys to St Joseph's from there.
