Smyllum nuns in £6 million land sale: Politicians back our campaign for memorial to orphans as we reveal Sisters’ plan to sell up

THE ORDER of nuns who ran the orphanage where more than 400 children died are trying to sell the land around it for £6m, we can reveal. Their plans to sell the acres around Smyllum Park for millions can be disclosed amid escalating demands for a memorial remembering the names and lives of the lost youngsters.
Our campaign to remember the children won all-party support after we revealed how at least 402 babies, toddlers and teenagers died while being looked after by the nuns – who belonged to an order called the Daughters of Charity, worth nearly £60m – in Lanark.

https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/smyllum-nuns-in-6-million-land-sale-politicians-back-our-campaign-for-memorial-to-orphans-as-we-reveal-sisters-plan-to-sell-up/ 

Woman says she was abused at “mass grave” orphanage run by nuns.

A woman has claimed she was abused at an orphanage run by nuns where the bodies of hundreds of children were “buried” in a mass grave. Theresa Tolmie-McGrane said she suffered mental, physical and sexual abuse at Smyllum Park Orphanage in Lanark in the 1970s. A BBC and Sunday
Post investigation found that at least 400 children from the institution are thought to be buried in an unmarked grave at the town’s St Mary’s Cemetery.
The orphanage, run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, was home to more than 10,000 children between opening in 1864 and closing in 1981.

http://www.scotsman.com/regions/glasgow-strathclyde/woman-says-she-was-abused-at-mass-grave-orphanage-run-by-nuns-1-4561677 

Woman claims priest abused her while at orphanage at centre of mass grave find

A woman has claimed she was abused at an orphanage run by nuns where the bodies of hundreds of children were “buried” in a mass grave.
Theresa Tolmie-McGrane told the BBC she suffered mental, physical and sexual abuse at Smyllum Park Orphanage in Lanark in the 1970s. A BBC and Sunday Post investigation found that at least 400 children from the institution are thought to be buried in an unmarked grave at the town’s St Mary’s Cemetery.

https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/news/scotland/woman-claims-priest-abused-her-while-at-orphanage-at-centre-of-mass-grave-find/ 

Police reviewing child abuse claims involving orphanage

Police Scotland are reviewing old cases involving a notorious orphanage, raising the possibility of prosecutions nearly 30 years after it closed, STV News has learned.
Allegations that children were physically and sexually abused at Smyllum Park, Lanark, first emerged in the 1990s, but it's thought no-one has ever been convicted of committing an offence against any of the thousands of children who lived within its walls.

https://stv.tv/news/west-central/1397847-police-scotland-reviewing-old-cases-involving-orphanage/ 

Nuns raped school Boy Christchurch New Zealand

A man, sexually abused as a child by a nun, kept his anguish secret for most of his life. Emily Spink talks to him about his quest for justice. 

In a ‘‘very rare’’ ruling, the Catholic Church has found a nun guilty of sexually abusing a child in her care, it has emerged.  Following an inquiry, the Catholic Church has ruled Mother Lucia guilty of historic sexual and physical abuse against a Christchurch schoolboy ‘‘on the balance of probabilities’’. The prioress died in 1997, aged 90.

https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/the-press/20170701/281496456301617 

No crime' over orphanage mass grave

Prosecutors said there was no evidence of crimes being committed at an orphanage where at least 400 children are thought to have been buried in an unmarked mass grave. A BBC and Sunday Post investigation discovered they were buried in the cemetery plot between 1864 and 1981.
They were children from the nearby Smyllum Park Orphanage in Lanark, run by an order of Catholic nuns. The Crown Office said it recognised the level of public concern. But it said there was currently no evidence of criminal activity.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-41242514# 

Bodies of 'hundreds' of children buried in mass grave at Scottish orphanage

Up to 400 children died at a Scottish orphanage run by nuns and were buried in a single unmarked grave, new research has revealed.

The Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, which ran the Smyllum Park orphanage in Lanarkshire, has previously acknowledged that 158 children were buried in compartments at a nearby cemetery. But there have long been suspicions that the real figure was far higher.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/10/bodies-hundreds-children-buried-mass-grave/amp/ 

Child trafficking: Scores missing from UK care homes

Trafficked children and unaccompanied child asylum seekers are going missing from UK care homes at "an alarmingly high rate", two charities have said.

Almost 600 children disappeared last year, with more than 200 still missing, ECPAT UK and Missing People said. The charities called on the UK government and local authorities to reform the child protection system.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-37982221# 

Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry: 'Widespread abuse' in children's homes

Children's homes run by some churches, charities and state institutions in Northern Ireland were the scene of widespread abuse and mistreatment of young residents, a report has found.

The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) studied allegations of abuse in 22 homes and other residential institutions between 1922 to 1995.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-38685157 

'I was abused by nuns for a decade'

Theresa Tolmie-McGrane says she was abused from the age of six at a Catholic-run orphanage in Lanark in the 1960s and 1970s.
She describes more than a decade of physical, sexual and mental abuse at Smyllum Park Orphanage. A BBC investigation has uncovered new evidence that more than 400 children who died at Smyllum are now thought to be buried in a mass grave in a nearby cemetery.

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-41229124/i-was-abused-by-nuns-for-a-decade 

Outrage at primary school's Stolen Generation play showing 'nuns abusing Aboriginal students'

A primary school in Sydney’s Northern Beaches is in hot water over a play that featured Year 6 students dressing up as nuns and abusing Aboriginal children.
Parents of students at Forestville Public School, including former Socceroos star Robbie Slater, were left horrified by the “Australia You’re Standing In It” production. While the school was full of praise for their play that depicted the “truth about our treatment of the Stolen Generation”, audience members said it was “bloody disgraceful” to push a political agenda on children.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/a/36741981/outrage-over-sydney-primary-schools-stolen-generation-play/?cmp=st 

Scottish child abuse inquiry hears apologies over 'deplorable' attacks

The first hearing in the Scottish child abuse inquiry has heard apologies from organisations which ran children's homes around the country.

More than 60 institutions, including several top private schools and church bodies, are being investigated. The inquiry, which is being chaired by Lady Smith, is looking in detail at historical abuse of children in residential care.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-40093270 

Bodies of 'hundreds' of children buried in mass grave at Scottish orphanage

p to 400 children died at a Scottish orphanage run by nuns and were buried in a single unmarked grave, new research has revealed.
The Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, which ran the Smyllum Park orphanage in Lanarkshire, has previously acknowledged that 158 children were buried in compartments at a nearby cemetery. But there have long been suspicions that the real figure was far higher.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/10/bodies-hundreds-children-buried-mass-grave/amp/ 

'I was hooded, held down and raped

IT WAS hot inside the hood. It covered eight-year-old Helen Holland’s face loosely down to her neck and she could feel the warmth of her own breath, hear the way it was fast and shallow with fear. Her heart was thumping. Sister Kevin was shouting that the devil was inside her. Holland was wicked and evil and brazen. 

And then, recalls Holland, Sister Kevin gripped her while a priest raped her. Holland is now 44 and has never before spoken publicly about the true nature of the sexual abuse she says she was subjected to in Nazareth House children’s home in Kilmarnock.

https://historicalabuseinachildrenshome.blogspot.co.nz/2017/08/i-was-hooded-held-down-and-raped.html

Regret' over Nazareth House abuse compensation

The former Scottish First Minister Lord McConnell has told of his regret that almost ten years on since he made a landmark apology to historic child abuse victims in Scotland, they have yet to see redress.
In an interview with BBC Scotland, Lord McConnell said there had been "absolutely no progress" on compensation for victims, and called on the government to "do the right thing".

https://historicalabuseinachildrenshome.blogspot.co.nz/2017/08/regret-over-nazareth-house-abuse.html 

Looking For Survivors Of Nazereth House Cardonald Glasgow

Hello i am Andy of Fresh Start Foundation See Below my wife is seeking people in Nazereth House Cardonald Glasgow From 1978 to 1982 and other years.
Tel 07484124473.
In Particular did any one meet Sister Gerrard a nun or Kay Adams employed as a civilian believed to be employed by Glasgow City Council  and was deputy Head of one of the Cottages These Stories and more see below our email are more than welcomed
My wife is now joanne peacher she was joanne thomson from the east end of glasgow aged now 48/49 in december.

https://historicalabuseinachildrenshome.blogspot.co.nz/2017/08/hello-i-am-andy-of-fresh-start.html 

Sisters discover their birth mother died after life in Magdalene Laundry and other institutions on RTE's Liveline

The daughter of a Magdalene Laundry victim, who first learned that her mother had died while listening to Joe Duffy's Liveline, has spoken of the heartbreak surrounding her mother's death.

Samantha Long and her twin sister Etta were adopted when they were infants, and began searching for their mother,Margaret Bullen, in 1993 when they were twenty one

http://www.independent.ie/life/family/family-features/sisters-discover-their-birth-mother-died-after-life-in-magdalene-laundry-and-other-institutions-on-rtes-liveline-35854148.html 

Nuns forced care children to eat their own vomit, abuse inquiry told

At dinner time when I could not eat the food, the nuns used to push my head back, hold my nose then force the food down my throat. I would bring it all up again over the table so they then would put it on my plate and start the same thing over and over again. While they did the same to the girl beside me and when she vomited her food up, they would scrape her food up with mine then put it all onto my plate, and force her food down my throat as well.

I would vomit it up and still they would keep pushing my head back and holding my nose and spooning the horrid food into my mouth. They would grab my hair and pull my head back and keep pulling my hair. At tea time the food that I left would be still on my plate in my place for me to eat for tea. The same thing would happen again and again, they forced me to eat my own vomit. The nuns knew that while they were holding my nose and forcing the food down my throat, that I could not breathe, I would be coughing, choking and bringing up the food while they were still forcing more food down me. It still makes me shake and quiver still now, thinking of the horror of those mealtimes.
The reason we couldn't eat the food, or vomited it up, was because it had maggots in with the meat, the sago and semolina had weevils, the cabbage had butterfly eggs, and the bread and dripping had a half an inch of cold fat all around it. They dipped the bread in the hot fat the night before. That's what we had every morning. We would choke on it as it was going down, and it would make us vomit.
In My New Book... By Ann Thompson

 ==================================

SOME children at residential homes run by Catholic nuns were made to eat their own vomit, a lawyer said.

Those who wet their beds were forced to put soiled sheets on their heads by members of a harsh regime which was devoid of love, a public inquiry into child abuse at residential homes was told.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/nuns-forced-care-children-to-eat-their-own-vomit-abuse-inquiry-told-29954872.html

New Magdalene research presents complex picture

Recent research in Dublin, Caen, Angers and Rome, has put into the public domain new information on the Magdalene laundries of St Mary’s High Park and Sean MacDermott Street in Dublin, both run by the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity.

Some of the findings expand on facts already well-known from the McAleese inquiry into the role of the state vis à vis these institutions, such as the presence of former industrial school girls in Magdalene laundries. But others might give the reader pause for thought, and beyond these case studies alone.

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/new-magdalene-research-presents-complex-picture-1.3172682#.WYAs14Gqaag.facebook 

Calls For Further Redress For Survivors Of Institutional Abuse

Following a review of Ireland’s compliance with the UN Convention on Torture and Other Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Ireland is complimented for its progress on ending the incarceration of children in adult prisons, and the Citizens Assembly, but it’s sharply critical of other issues.
The UN Committee against Torture or UNCAT says Ireland should undertake a thorough impartial investigation into Magdalene Laundries that has the power to compel witnesses and ensure punishment of those responsible.

http://www.clare.fm/news/calls-redress-survivors-institutional-abuse/ 

It's distortion of history' - locals call for statue dedicated to Sisters of Mercy to be removed

A statue erected in Ennis in 2011 has now sparked heavy debate among locals. The statue is dedicated to the Sisters of Mercy and is located near the site of a former industrial school.

However, in the wake of the Ryan Report many locals think the statue should be removed. Local Brian McMahon told RTÉ’s Liveline the statue which depicts a nun, mother and baby is a "distortion of history".

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/its-distortion-of-history-locals-call-for-statue-dedicated-to-sisters-of-mercy-to-be-removed-36039387.html