Word: ireland
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...Christian Brothers ran more industrial schools in Ireland than any other religious order. Indeed, for much of the 20th century, the group was responsible for providing primary and secondary education for the majority of Catholic boys in the country. The order has come under fire from campaigners like Raftery for allegedly blocking the work of the child-abuse commission. The inquiry was delayed for more than a year, after the Christian Brothers won a court case preventing members and former members from being named in the commission's final report - including those who had already been convicted of abuse. "There...
James Quinn and his classmates called it the blackjack - five layers and 18 in. (46 cm) of leather, studded with coins and other metal objects. The priests at the school Quinn attended in rural Ireland in the 1950s each carried a blackjack and used it, along with bamboo rods and other objects, to dole out almost daily beatings to hundreds of children. "Whatever class you went to, you got a beating from whoever was in charge," says Quinn, now 70. "But knowing what other people went through, I know I was one of the lucky ones...
Quinn was one of more than 2,000 people to give evidence in a nine-year inquiry into child abuse at educational institutions, orphanages and hospitals run by Roman Catholic religious orders in Ireland from the 1930s to the 1990s. On Wednesday, May 20, the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse released its findings. The five-volume, 2,600-page report is a catalog of horrors, describing "endemic sexual abuse" at boys' institutions and the "daily terror" of physical abuse experienced by the estimated 30,000 Irish children who were sent to them. (See pictures of new hope for Belfast...
Raftery believes that the exhaustive nature of the report explodes one of the most persistent myths surrounding child-abuse scandals in Ireland. Before now, incidents had largely been blamed on individual clergy. Ryan's findings, however, reveal an entire system that was rotten at the core and showed scant regard for the welfare of the children placed in its care...
...damning indictment of the Christian Brothers in the report has raised questions about the order's future - and that of other religious congregations in Ireland. In an increasingly secularized country, what place do religious orders have, now that their reputations are in tatters? "It is a major crisis for us from a public-perception point of view," says Garvey. "There were people who believed they were doing the very best for these kids, but that was ruined by the unconscionable actions of a number of people. Is it irreparable damage? I would hope not, but there is a huge task...