One of the Derry children’s care homes under investigation following allegations of sexual and physical abuse has been described as a “hell hole” by one former resident.
Termonbacca.
The former resident was giving evidence at the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) – being held in Banbridge in Co Down and chaired by retired High Court judge Sir Anthony Hart – which is investigating abuse claims against children’s residential institutions from 1922 to 1995.
The inquiry is currently focusing on claims against two homes run by the Sisters of Nazareth in Derry – Nazareth House Children’s Home in Bishop Street and St Joseph’s Home, Termonbacca at Southway ajdacent to the city’s Creggan estate.
A former resident of Termonbacca, the first witness to give evidence at the inquiry, likened the home to a concentration camp, describing it as a “hell hole.”
Describing treatment by nuns as “bordering on the psychotic,” the witness – now aged 63 – said nuns thumped and kicked children who were forced to clean floors in “a chain” with their arms linked and rags under both feet.
A second witness told how he thought he was “going to die” as a result of being beaten by by older boys.
He thanked the inquiry for reuniting him with his siblings who he had not seen in 40 years.
The Derry homes are among a total of 13 residential institutions currently under investigation by the inquiry.
Some of them were run by state authorities, others by voluntary organisations and the remainder were operated by the Catholic Church.
To date, 434 people have contacted the inquiry to allege they were abused as childrenn in residential institutions from 1922 to 1995.
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