What school did you go to?

[kevin]

Kevin: Well I tried to claim against them for abuse a few years back. They went out their way to hurt me. So any other Liverpool folk who go down that road they should be careful. The Church in Liverpool has held out for years against scandal whilst other places notably Ireland have tried to face up to it.One more point,they take away your right to remember your childhood!

Hi Paddy,
Attack is usually the best form of defence - but should it be deployed against children, or adults because of what happened to them as children?
Indefensible.

[Paddy]

Well Kevin heres an insight.

I spent my formative years in Nazareth house Crosby. My official history claims it was a happy time and we were all treated well. My own recollection is somewhat different. Thing is they have gone to great lenghts to cover up. In this country the Catholic Church has not had to answer and Liverpool that has the biggest Catholic community has remained in denial.Discrediting claimants is common practice and falsifying records another. I got my records from Liverpool social services. As a child they had quartly visits to check on children in care. The forms in my possesion state clearly the general state and welfare of the child. As in recording measles and the mumps and also School medicals. I have a scar on the back of my head that was the result of having three stitches after being attacked in the nursery. There is no record of the incident or my trip to the hospital. For that reason Kevin quite frankly they make me sick.

[spekelad]

Good to know someone else went to school in Speke, even though you were on the otherside of the fence. I recall some of our teachers actually encouraged us to dislike Those other Schools. All seems so petty nowadays.
Good to know know you Kevin. I left school in December 1961 and left Liverpool in October 1962.

[kevin]

There is no record of the incident or my trip to the hospital. For that reason Kevin quite frankly they make me sick.

I know that feeling. In 1959 I spent 15 weeks in Alder Hey hospital, having had an operation to correct flat feet - most of that time in plaster from my toes to my knees (had to learn to walk again afterwards). Two years later my younger brother was diagnosed with the same problem but my mum told the doctor she didn't want him going through what I went through. The doctor said it was OK as they didn't do that operation any more. He was given insoles for his shoes, which corrected the problem and he has been fine ever since.

I've had problems with my feet for the past 15 years and was curious to discover what they had actually done to me. Asked my current GP to check my health records, and he rather surprisingly told me my records didn't start until 1960.

Coincidence?

[Paddy]

Well I had the same problem collecting medical records I can remember having the stitches? put in my head even so. In my childhood view I thought the stretcher was an ironing board and the stitches were like little silver stars. It was a painful experience and the scar is still there. It was caused by an assault on me in the nursery and other welfare reports predate the incident which leads me to believe that it has been omitted. The person who assaulted me was a care worker and I think that the church was mindful of a scandal .Other things such as unnatural punishments are denied. It was common practice to be beaten with coat hangers and hairbrushes and that was by nuns .The regime was at times quite sadistic yet the institution was presented as a happy place for children in care. Things got much worse for me in other homes but I do feel that we as very young children endured particularly harsh treatment. Then when I started doing alright they sent a posse after me too make sure you don?t get too confident and remain little Patrick forever grateful to them for their kind care. Well this medium is one way of having a go back.

[Ged]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magdalene_Sisters



.

[kevin]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magdalene_Sisters



.

When I saw the film it had me in tears - repeatedly.

[Paddy]

With the Irish Church being linked in with the state they made it possible to address the issue of cruelty in Catholic establishments. That has not been the case for those Liverpool children who suffered. Recently the Pope apologized on behalf of the church in Australia to children who had suffered in their institutions. Quite a lot of them would have been scousers who got shipped out to Australia not long after the war. They made a drama about it called the leaving of Liverpool. The point is that kids like myself who grew up in their institutions are portrayed as lucky well cared for children. The legal services commission won?t grant legal aid to approach them. So there is no closure and they have more legal power than their victims

[gerry_2]

I went to St Margret Mary's school starting in 1938. The young children who went to St Edwards Orphanage also attended junior school there. I can remember my mother would give me a a piece of toast or a jam butty to have with my free milk. One day I was eating my snack at playtime, when one of the kids from the orphanage asked me if he could be my wacker, he said he was hungry, so I gave him some of my lunch. I toled Me Mam about it, and the next day she put an extra butty in my lunch for Me Wacker. Most people at school had a wacker. In scouseology to wack out is to share. A wacker is a scouser. I often if the word Wacker originated at our school. It would be nice to think it did.

[Paddy]

Good post Gerry lad. The weirdest school I attended was the school at the remand home on Menlove Avenue. They put me in there because I kept running away and going back to my Mam. Any road the system at Menlove was quite mad. If the teacher asked you a question and you could not answer you got hit over the head with a blackboard duster or a wooden wedge. Being a bright pupil I managed to escape quite a lot of knocks. If the teacher requested you stay behind that meant a hiding, and I mean a hiding.

[gerry_2]

Good post Gerry lad. The weirdest school I attended was the school at the remand home on Menlove Avenue. They put me in there because I kept running away and going back to my Mam. Any road the system at Menlove was quite mad. If the teacher asked you a question and you could not answer you got hit over the head with a blackboard duster or a wooden wedge. Being a bright pupil I managed to escape quite a lot of knocks. If the teacher requested you stay behind that meant a hiding, and I mean a hiding.

Would that be Woolton Vale Paddy. I was reading in a blog about a solitary confinement cell in there. One or two of my mates where sent there, for commiting very minor offences.

[Paddy]

Yes it was Woolton Vale and the Regime was cruel beyond belief. I got stuck in there for nothing they just had nowhere to put me. I got beaten up by grown men and the memory of that place stays with me. The cell they had was for punishing runaways or persistent offenders. You could hear screams coming from there when they beat up boys. I saw a lot of children get severely beaten up in there. The night staff were perverts who loved hitting the boys on their bottoms. I never got sexually abused just beaten up quite a lot. I think that sexual abuse claims carry more weight these days. Still violence against kids is bad and you do carry the scars throughout your life. Liverpool council are so insensitive to this issue it really is quite criminal. They completely ignore any allegations. So what is to be the future for child care in the city when they won?t apologize for their murky past?

[wsteve55]

Paddy,
I'm sure the city council are very sensitive to these type of allegations, as any one proven,will cost them dear! This sort of thing will,I'm afraid,always be around.

[Paddy]

Chat shows in the eighties and nineties brought matters like this into the public domain. However sex abuse became more sensationalist sidelining violence against children. It also led to false allegations being made. Some people picked up large sums of money jumping on the bandwagon. David Jones the Cardiff manager was dragged up before the courts on fabricated charges. The thing about sex abuse allegation when they come from promiscuous people they can be very hard to fight off. You have to remember the homes had a lot seriously disturbed kids in them. What Liverpool council need to do is to apologize to the victims of brutal assaults as a child they took me into care on the basis that they would protect me. My Mum and Dad never beat me up I was beaten up by care workers. Yet the present council has slammed the door in the faces of the victims and so too has the Catholic Church. Going back to the school at Woolton Vale I do believe the teacher was prosecuted eventually.

[wsteve55]

Chat shows in the eighties and nineties brought matters like this into the public domain. However sex abuse became more sensationalist sidelining violence against children. It also led to false allegations being made. Some people picked up large sums of money jumping on the bandwagon. David Jones the Cardiff manager was dragged up before the courts on fabricated charges. The thing about sex abuse allegation when they come from promiscuous people they can be very hard to fight off. You have to remember the homes had a lot seriously disturbed kids in them. What Liverpool council need to do is to apologize to the victims of brutal assaults as a child they took me into care on the basis that they would protect me. My Mum and Dad never beat me up I was beaten up by care workers. Yet the present council has slammed the door in the faces of the victims and so too has the Catholic Church. Going back to the school at Woolton Vale I do believe the teacher was prosecuted eventually.

I couldn't say on here, what I was going to do, to several people,who supposedly, were meant to care for me,and my sisters, when I grew up,but.......the feeling gradually faded, when I realised they would either be quite old,or dead!! You've got to move on.