Cruelty To Children

Dear Florence

Having read and re-read the latest transcripts from the "child abuse" Commission I have come across a possible glaring mis-carriage of justice.  A letter was produced by the Department for Education and parts of the letter contain the usual stuff about the Minister being "gravely concerned at the evidence which has been reaching him for a considerable time of the malnutrition of children in industrial schools"  and using phrases like "grave state of affairs",  but what caught my eye was the proposal, nay demand, that the religious orders managing these Institutions attend what I can only describe as a Home Economics Course!!

Doesn't that beat all?  I mean most of these religious orders were managing Boarding Schools and Secondary schools in Ireland long long before the State was even founded!!   This is a blatant attempt to put ALL THE BLAME on the religious orders managing the Institutions.

It's very insulting to the Sisters of Mercy to imply that they were "parsimonious" in their management of these Institutions because this same order had been managing Boarding Schools with almost the same amount of money that they were receiving from the State to look after the children confined in the Institutions.  Who can possibly believe that the Sisters of Mercy would deliberately starve children who were confined to the Institutions that they managed?

And having the Sisters of Charity attend this Home Economics Course is also HIGHLY INSULTING to these good sisters too as this order of selfless women were actually running hospitals for sick children (no less) and had been in that caring position for years before and since. Who on this earth could believe that this order of dedicated christian women would deliberately and maliciously withhold care from children who were confined to Institutions that they managed?  Who?

Regards

The Knitter

Hello Florence,

I was never in Artane, well not true as I was given a tour of it in December 2004. My first time ever to see Artane.

I am quite sure there ARE statements to the effect that "the Sisters themselves seem malnourished and exhausted". The nuns themselves had a hierarchy, so to speak, where one set of nuns would be left to do cleaning, child care, labouring tasks while another set of nuns would look after the paper work, office work and so on and another set of nuns would be the overseers of both these groups. And there would have been other nuns above all these. I know this because a relative of mine (on the non-Church of Ireland side) was in a convent for 15 years as a novice nun and then a "proper" nun. But I do know that the green mash I received for my dinner was not also being served to any of the nuns charged with my care.

But that said I didn't imply that the nuns were parsimonious - that's offered in the letter as one of the reasons for the "malnutrition of children".

Child Care is not akin to Rocket Science - - - the nuns were receiving MORE MONEY in capitation grants for me than my father was earning in work, and he had to care for 3 children on his wages? And while I was at home (I went into Care when I was 5 years and 3 months old, my brother was 3 years old) with my father I regularly had eggs, bacon, sausages, tomatoes, fresh bread, butter, milk etc., I was well-dressed and had a wide circle of relatives and friends, I was attending school too. So why couldn't the nuns provide for me even half of what my father could provide.

Yes I did learn how to Knit and Sew, but not how to cook. I was a dab hand at knitting jumpers, cardigans and socks, my darning skills were also excellent. I shone in the tailor shop too and could "knock-up" a mans suit in a week. In the shoe-shop I excelled too, I regularly etched designs into the toe-caps of our boots and had occasion to create and etch designs on stock sold outside of the Industrial School. As you can gather I am quite a practical person. So naturally when I was allowed out "on licence" I was sent to a guesthouse/hotel as a skiivy - and was eventually promoted to floor polisher. So Much For Practical Skills.

Child Care is NOT rocket science - it's a full-time job OK but men and women have been rearing children for millennia upon millennia yet the religious orders of Ireland seemed to think that the needs of the orders were of equal, if not more, importance to the needs of children. When they were failing - and there IS plenty in THEIR letters that they were failing - they should have done the Christian thing and given up their day jobs and gone back to contemplating their navels! They couldn't do the job they were paid to do and they should have stopped pretending they could CARE FOR CHILDREN.

But then again there is a big difference to practical Christianity and theoretical Christianity.

Best Regards