Copyright irishmirror
Survivors of institutional abuse are weak and struggling with their mental health as today marks their sixth day of hunger striking outside Leinster House . Six survivors have been sleeping rough since last Sunday and haven’t eaten in six days as they call for long-promised state support. Maurice O’Connell, 57, said they will not stop until Education Minister Helen McEntee , who holds responsibility for survivors’ redress schemes, meets them. They are calling for a HAA medical card for all survivors of industrial and reformatory schools and a full contributory state pension in recognition of the forced labour carried out as children while under the care of the State. Mr O’Connell said the group is also calling for a State apology for Boarded Out survivors. Between 1920 and 1970, some children under state care were boarded out to families in farms, where survivors were subject to strenuous manual labour, and some were abused. Speaking to the Irish Mirror, Mr O’Connell said: “We are weak, the mental health is starting to get to us, we are getting triggered from the trauma because when people come up to us we have to explain the story over and over again.” The Kerry man says he experienced abuse, neglect and rape from the age of five while under the state’s protection in Pembroke Alms Industrial School. He was also boarded out as a farm boy, and struggled throughout his life without a proper education as a child and teenager. Mr O’Connell continued: “When we were in industrial schools we were farmed out to farmers to do work without pay from the age of 10 to 16/17 years of age. We were used as slave labourers for farmers. “The girls were sent out as Au Pairs for free to look after their kids, and a lot of the girls and boys were sexually abused and beaten. I suppose the abuse started from a very early age. You know, beatings and starvation and mental torture, and they used to have a room off one of the dormitories that the priests were there. “I was raped by one of them. If you wet the bed, you had to carry the mattress down the stairs, and you'd sleep in the hallway all night with the wet sheet, no blanket. It was systematic beatings, systematic salvation, as well as mental abuse.” The other survivors on hunger strike include Mary Donovan, 57, Miriam Moriarty Owens, 68 and Mary Dunlevy Green, 73. Mother and Baby home survivors Sheila O’Byrne and Mary Smith are also taking part in the strike for support. Ms O’Donovan was also at Pembroke Alms Industrial School from 1969 to 1986 and was boarded out during school breaks as a nanny, where she endured years of sexual molestation and abuse. She has recently been diagnosed with chronic PTSD, moderate anxiety disorder and panic attacks. The Kerry woman said: “They didn't care where they beat us. They beat us with straps. They beat us with sticks. We were left standing on marble flooring without slippers for years, and we were washing floors on our knees, the water spilling and soaking into our skin. “I have got nothing to lose. I've lost everything. My entire immediate family are gone, and I want to do it in their memory, and I want to do it for other survivors, for myself, to fight for what we should be entitled to. We're not asking for very much.” Mr O’Connell said most of the group struggle financially and mentally and need more support. He continued: “Most of us have been on disability for most of our lives so we are only entitled to the state pension. Because of the abuse and torture that the State and church put us through, this is why we are looking for the contributory state pension. “We are really struggling, most of us are in debt, we struggle with finances and mental health. Everybody has their own struggles but it was the state and church that caused our problems.” A spokesperson for the Department of Education said: "The Department is very conscious of the enormous trauma which has been experienced by all survivors of abuse. "The Minister has been in touch with the survivors and has indicated her willingness to meet the group. She has also reiterated her concerns for their physical and mental health as a result of their decision and asked them to reconsider it." For more of the latest breaking news from the Irish Mirror check out our homepage by clicking here .
