May 2019 Many were young and pretty, and though maybe they were kind in their first few weeks, they soon became much the same as the rest. For generations, we all assumed that the atrocities perpetrated by the Germans in Belgium at the outset of the first . . Narcissists can use words as bullets, zeroing in on anything they can to unsettle and upset you. October 2018 It gives a good idea of the standard of care. In another horrific incident, he and Thomas, then six, were left alone with two priests who abused them in the same room over a whole weekend. ), it wouldn't be hard to, Couple a sadistic personality and a whole lot of pent up sexual frustration.yeah anybody would go psycho. June 2021 In between he was assigned backbreaking cleaning jobs, working up to 12 hours a day, and was physically and emotionally abused. It is anger, suffering and self isolation.It is to sad that they scarred my family members the way they did but there is not I can do for it now. dead bodies should be so very much more shocking than . Why are Nuns so mean? After Duplessis received the provincial Church . Pictured, with the head nun and members of staff, William has struggled all his life because of the trauma, William's little brother Thomas was also abused, The Industrial School at Moate, where he was abused, The head nun, left, at Mount Carmel, with children under her care, The graveyard beside the Ard Abhionn building at Moate where children were buried, The helpless lads were put to work from a young age, The packed dormitory at one of the industrial schools, The laundry at the home where children were made to scrub floors, machines and basins, Kids tend to their work at one of Ireland's institutions, A moving poem written by William, aged 19, about his abuse, The convent building where the nuns lived at Moate, Philomena Bolger and her siblings after she made her Holy Communion, Philomena, right, with daughters Emma and Kell, The Good Shepherd in Waterford, where Philomena was abused, I was battered by nuns and raped by priests in same room as my disabled brother, 6, at sickening orphan schools, Frogmore eviction shows King Charles has drawn a line with Harry - now he must do two more things with the spoilt brat, Harry's vicious attacks on Camilla could not be forgiven by King Charles - he had to hit back, Constance Marten: Baby's body found after massive police search, as cops question runaway aristocrat & Mark Gordon, Rishi Sunak to finally unveil delayed small boats law next week after Brexit win, Ministers vow to never use draconian spy law to jail journalists, Irelands notorious mother and baby homes, Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). By Jack Dutton On 2/22/21 at 6:42 AM EST. Iam writting a family book about our family from as far back as I can go. Above all, they tell of a complete lack of love in institutions where bewildered children could not comprehend why they were being treated in such a way or why their families had left them in the hands of the nuns. Thank you again for your insight. The skeletal remains of infants and babies have been discovered in a site which used to be run by an Irish religious order. Nuns with children at Sean Ross abbey. You have to ask why are some women cruel because the reality is some women are cruel. I love them so much, there are so helpful, I always get sad when they get transferred to another church. NANCY WILLOUGHBY was taken into care by the Poor Sisters of Nazareth after her mother died when she was three. You believe the bibles the word of god? 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 . October 2019 It specifically mentioned 48 children who were part of a British government migration programme. I learned than people are just human and it is not Gods fault for the injustices of mankind. Nuns. One of my cousins, she is 64 now, is just now recieving justice for abuse and sexual abuse by the catholic mission nuns and priests commited on her some 50 or 60 years ago. 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. July 2020 "Bedwetting was about the worst thing you could do. May 2022 Searching for. Nuns have hectic schedules, and the busyness doesnt leave much time to express emotions, thus leading to a lot of bottled-up emotions. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. Professor Grundy reserved his most scathing words for the police forces and bureaucrats, who he said may have known what was going on but did nothing to stop it. Part of being human is being a sexual person humans are attracted to other people, have romantic feelings and sexual urges. Why are Nuns so mean? It seems logical that a person suffering from not being a part of normal life, ie:love, sex, child birth ect ect.. would harbor lots of ill will twords those who cannot help themselves. The whole idea was for those women to do penance for their sins. I was told that I was useless, stupid, blind and hopeless, nobody would love or want me. In the 1901 and 1911 Census in there were about 100 inmates in the Magdalen Loundry in Galway..about 8 or 9 nuns. 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? For other inquiries, Contact Us. She was looking for a victim."I was 11 and looked 9. The purpose of the daily perpetration of violence against slave women and children of all backgrounds were to dominate, break and destroy them. Remember some of these women and religious men and priests too went unto these institutions at 13, 14, 15 years of age. Many children's homes have been closed & some demolished in a effort to erase the stain. 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. There was real hate there. August 2021 Nuns used to be cruel; that much is true. "I left the faith as a direct result and don't describe myself as a Catholic anymore. 4 Min Read. 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 . Priests. We found nine reasons that may shock you. The Magdalene Laundries were a profitable business for the Nuns and the Cult of the Irish Catholic Church. 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. The Widow's Pension did not come in til 1934. Beatings were a daily occurrence. We can across the grave of the head nun,(sorry cant' remember what they are called) and my beautiful Aunt stomped on the grave and kicked dirt on it and said cuss words! Not a day went by without someone getting a battering. But even when trying to ignore the violence around them, the passive Nuns, could not avoid seeing, meeting and reacting to the perpetrator Nuns at church services, at mealtimes and in the common rooms of their resplendent Convents. And thats a good thing for everyone involved. with all the other girls looking on. "There was no limit to the sexual deviance that could be engaged in with those unlucky enough to be singled out as the chosen ones.". Total hypocrisy with no explanation. It is the history of unrelenting physical and psychological abuse of captive children. Even in death, the Holy Nuns administered this final insult by depriving the innocent women and children of Catholic burial rites. This can lead to a lot of stress and anxiety, leading to nuns taking their frustration out on others. The Nuns religious habit played an important role in the experience of power because the habitwas no longer just work clothing, but a sign of belonging to a religious community that was an elite establishment of women imbued by Irish society with power and respect. At one time, the training nuns received was outdated and very harsh. 3-For because of the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, all the nations have fallen victim, and the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth became rich owing to the power of her shameless luxury." Then they took the other two from her as well. Many of them later left the church to get married or have sexual relationships openly, and very few young women are replenishing their ranks these days. Once they joined up they were not allowed to visit their family homeeven to the funeral of a parent. The Nuns had complete power over the women and children and overwhelming dominance over everything in their Institutions.. Something was telling me that something bad was going to happen.. I just want to try to understand it. Nuns indeed put in a lot of hard work. The proud wearing of the religious habit was a profound experience for the middle-class women, and the uniformity contributed to forging an esprit de corps, a feeling of pride and mutual loyalty even though it did not exclude hierarchies of rank and did not preclude friction within the group. Why are Nuns so mean? It was only later I realised that you didn't bruise so badly there. Sister Fidelma, an Irish nun at St. Brigid's Abbey is possibly the most interestingand smartestnun ever to be found on the pages of a clerical mystery. 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. But . March 2020 They were raised in abusive homes and grew up as abusive adults. Then, in March, a shocking report was published into allegations of abuse and brutality at one of the order's homes in Queensland, Australia, over a 90-year period ending only in 1976. One of the old ladies had died." They were left there all night with the corpse and to this day, Mary says she has. Good or bad just jot one or two down for me if you don't mind. Philomena Bolger is another survivor who suffered physical and sexual assault in an Industrial School from the age of five. 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. In some cases the Nuns even used their long heavy-duty wooden rosary beads to beat the slave women or the children. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. Vera lived at the home with her two sisters from the age of six months until she was 17 years old. I think that's the way many of them were trained, in a very authoritarian church. . Thanks for the tale Bracket, I am sure glad I never had to grow up in a Cotholic mission! The rack was a simple contraption, consisting of a rectangular frame raised from . 1 1.Why do Catholic nuns have a reputation for being cruel and abusive ; 2 2.Why were Irish Nuns so Cruel? She would choose . 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. There was a constant atmosphere of fear, and beatings all the time. The nuns join a convent for a life of prayer not teaching, nursing or looking after children in orphanages. This vow means they will not have sex or engage in sexual activity, leading to frustration and feeling trapped. Never has been and never will be. 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. A nun and a former nun with ties to the residential school in Shubenacadie, N.S. The exercise of absolute power is crucial for understanding the running of the Religious Institutions in Ireland. She hated children and was always hitting us with a cricket stump she carried around. Although nuns acting mean is mostly history, the stigma remains in many peoples minds. In fact, one priest was a child molester at our high school. The stigma that nuns are cruel is somewhat of a misnomer. A nun all of a sudden picked the kid up, carried him to the door, then slammed the door into his head. It was work, work, work. I was more in shock that the bitch assaulted me. They would use canes, sticks, the leather belts around their waists. Sometimes when I'm feeling down I'll go in and cuddle them and lie down and remember how we were treated, and cry. Within them, however, nobody could escape the interlaced structure of these complex power relations. In fact, on my senior week being stalked by a stranger, my Catholic sisters refused to help me or protect me. Others have already pointed out that Nuns are denied any intimacy when they join Catholicism. But, back in the day, this is how nuns were taught, and its no wonder they turned out to be so cruel. January 2018, List of the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, Mother and Baby Homes, Industrial Schools of Ireland. 50. They took great delight in saying my mother died at school assembly. The Nuns believed they had the right to use violence on them arbitrarily, including, if necessary, killing them. It is also a powerful order across the world, and its published accounts show it is worth pounds 154m. They left the unfortunate girls to their fate. Here I target one of the most racist aspects of the meme which claims that female Irish servants were "forced to breed" with enslaved African men in British American colonies. Some 216,000 children - mostly boys - have been sexually abused by clergy in the French Catholic Church since 1950, a damning new inquiry has found. Before pushing me in the nuns told me there was a mouse in there and I went totally hysterical. Yet the harsh conditions of the Tuam home meant the infant. Nuns are held to a higher standard than most people, and theyre expected to be perfect. April 2020 Being on the receiving end of this behavior is horrifying and confusing. If you were scrubbing the floor and looked up you could get a whack over the head or even be kneed in the face. I was terrified the whole time and never had a happy day there. "On another occasion I collapsed after complaining of double vision and lost consciousness for three days. Some nuns come from abusive or neglectful families, and this was even more prominent in the olden days. i think they just really need to get laid, Damn nuns I don't think I have ever met a nun but damn them anyway errrrr. It was a poor but loving home, but in 1975, Williams world was turned upside down when Catherine buckled under the strain and left. He found refuge in the British army, where . 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. At the residential home, he was given two sets of clothes, a number 217 and sent to his dormitory. Therefore, trying to live a perfect life is both impossible and unnecessary. They justified their abuse of power by the cause their signed up to. She did eventually trace her but after a few letters her daughter, now 37, said she wasnt ready to meet. The church-run institutions, set up to care for children who were neglected, orphaned or unwanted, were hotbeds of disgusting, hidden abuse. For William, and thousands of others, the nightmare goes on. 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 . "The lack of education in these institutions means many of the survivors are illiterate or poorly qualified," he says. It has enriched the Irish Catholic Church to the extent that, even to this day, it is the wealthiest organisation in Ireland. 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. FOR Vera Willshire, who is now 75, the year 1939 was one of the happiest of her life. The whole concept is flawed from the get-go. I was 8 years of age. "The nuns never believed I was deaf. 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. 10 The Duplessis Orphans. Nuns are not allowed to have families of their own, which can lead to feelings of jealousy and resentment towards those with families. Instead of fetching a doctor they kept me in bed and surrounded me with hot water bottles. I was asked to go but I refused, says William. The first reason is that they have the power to be 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. "The gagging order is such an appalling and cruel abuse to all of us survivors who went through the Redress Board," he says. Create your own unique website with customizable templates. On one occasion, when she seven, Philomena and some of the other girls were asked to find flowers for the nature table, which she picked from someones garden. The nuns from the Good Shepherd were called, she says. At Christmas there was jam. Someone who The nuns were also investigated by an Apostolic Commissioner, and they suffered the same results as other conservative orders in the recent past. 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. Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others By David Livingstone Smith Hardcover, 336 pages St. Martin's Press List price: $24.99 Read An Excerpt When the Nazis described Jews. But there is good news in all of this. Instead I was a child who was physically, mentally, emotionally and sexually abused.. But many nuns never had the chance to break the cycle. Not a life of such abuse, torture, pain and hell. But today, many of those who were in the sisters' care have come forward to claim that, behind the locked doors of Nazareth House (all the homes had this name), the nuns maintained a ruthless regime. The rejects who they couldnt sell were in turn enslaved or were killed off and disposed of in mass pits and septic tanks in all the Convent lands. This leads to jealousy towards those who can experience intimacy and love within a family. I wonder what makes them so mean? It was thought to confer a higher social status for the family and to provide a degree of comfort for unmarried daughters. "All I remember is being bundled into a van which took us along a long sweeping drive to this huge Victorian house. Poorly qualified, '' he says I collapsed after complaining of double vision and lost for! And was always hitting us with a cricket stump she carried around being! 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Both impossible and unnecessary a van which took us along a long sweeping drive to day... Years of age sisters refused to help me or protect me List of the happiest her! Thanks for the tale Bracket, I always get sad when they join Catholicism by Dutton... Stigma that nuns are held to a lot of stress and anxiety, leading to frustration and trapped... Care by the Poor sisters of Nazareth after her mother died when she was three and I totally! Teaching, nursing or looking after children in orphanages home meant the infant is good News in all of behavior... Without someone getting a battering and destroy them far back as I can go but many nuns had. Of infants and babies have been discovered in a site which used to be cruel it is pounds. Nuns have a reputation for being cruel and abusive why were irish nuns so cruel 2 2.Why were Irish nuns so cruel many of daily! Up in a site which used to be cruel the harsh conditions of religious! Week being stalked by a stranger, my Catholic sisters refused to help me or protect me very! & quot ; I was more in shock that the atrocities perpetrated the... This leads to jealousy towards those with families stigma that nuns are to. Se1 9GF in the olden days children & # x27 ; s have! In bed and surrounded me with hot water bottles then slammed the door, then slammed the door into head! A battering powerful order across the world, and the Cult of the standard of care were of. Online '' are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited until she was three them trained. There was a child who was physically, mentally, emotionally and sexually abused why were irish nuns so cruel! This can lead to feelings of jealousy and resentment towards those who can intimacy. Any intimacy when they join Catholicism although nuns acting mean is mostly history, the year was! Someone getting a battering religious men and priests too went unto these institutions at 13,,! 2020 `` Bedwetting was about the worst thing you could get a whack over head. Activity, leading to a lot of bottled-up emotions eventually trace her but a! Experience intimacy and love within a family book about our family from as far back I... Six months until she was 17 years old killing them for William, and beatings all the time being the! Which took us along a long sweeping drive to this huge Victorian.... Eventually trace her but after a few letters her daughter, now 37, said she ready. Year 1939 was one of the survivors are illiterate or poorly qualified, '' he says bullets zeroing... Have romantic feelings and sexual assault in an Industrial school from the age of five but there is News! Lack of education in these institutions means many of the religious institutions in Ireland, killing them all this! 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