People who were sexually abused at school suffered “horrific” long-term impacts to their relationships, health and careers, according to a scoping inquiry published on Tuesday.
The Government’s scoping inquiry detailed 2,400 allegations of child sexual abuse at 308 schools run by 42 religious orders.
Of the 884 abusers, around half are dead, according to the report.
It also highlighted a high number of allegations at 17 special schools: 590 allegations relating to 190 alleged abusers.
The scoping inquiry mostly covers allegations from the 1950s through to the 1980s and mostly involves men aged in their 50s, 60s, and 70s.
Education Minister Norma Foley said that as the survivors are older, they have been able to detail the effect the abuse had on them and how it led to a “premature end of their childhood”.
The report highlights how abuse at school affected survivors’ trust and left them feeling that due to the power of the Catholic Church, there was no one they could tell, including their parents.
“It damaged survivors relationships with their family and even their own children,” Ms Foley said.
“Some survivors were unable to visit their parents’ graves because their abuser was buried nearby in a plot in the same graveyard. Some survivors said they left Ireland specifically to get away from memories of sexual abuse.”
Survivors said that as adults, the abuse they suffered led to mental health issues such as anxiety or depression, addiction issues, and damage to their sense of community.
One person told the inquiry: “It happened in the ’60s, but really, it’s happened every day since. You live with it every day. I try to move on, but it hits me in the face.”
Some survivors reported that they were taken to offices or residential rooms on pretexts such as for discussions, sex education, confession or medical examinations where, on some occasions, they would be shown sex education material or pornography.
Some reported that confession was used to manipulate and molest them and to elicit information.
The report stated: “A small number of participants from a handful of schools reported that they were drugged into immobility or unconsciousness prior to sexual abuse or had heard that this had happened to others.”
One survivor told the inquiry: “When you’re in it you don’t realise that it’s not normal.
“You don’t realise that your norm is not the norm.”
The report stated: “Participants described several forms of abuse, including groping, digital penetration, oral, anal and vaginal rape.
“Some participants reported incidences of multiple children being sexually abused at the same time.
“In many cases participants reported that they had experienced ongoing sexual abuse of different forms. Some reported being sexually abused by more than one person.”
The report goes on to record the impact on the school life on many of the victims.
One said: “My childhood ended as fast as it began.
“The physical, but emotional, mental pain of the first rape is as real today as then. I withdrew into myself, I became emotionally empty.
“I was screaming on the inside with anger and fear, but no one could hear or see me.”
Another said: “You believe that there’s something wrong with you, something dirty about you.”
The report said: “The effect of sexual abuse on childhood mental health was described by participants as devastating.
“Participants described how, as children, they experienced stress, anxiety, depression and PTSD, with some relating how they were prescribed medication or hospitalised because of these conditions at very young ages.”
It added: “In some instances, as children or teenagers, participants attempted suicide.
“Some also spoke of schoolmates whom they believed to have died by suicide as teenagers or young adults, and whom participants believe were sexually abused.”
The report goes on to detail the impact on survivors of child sexual assault in adulthood.
One survivor said: “My feeling now is sadness.
“What would my life have been if these things didn’t happen to me as a child or a young adult?”
The report stated: “A minority of participants said that they had left Ireland specifically to get away from memories of sexual abuse.
“They described how the association between Ireland and the abuse meant that they lost their chance to live in the country they had grown up in.”
A number of survivors of abuse spoke about the challenge of getting through the day.
One said: “I can’t wait till I die, I’m not suicidal, but I can’t wait till this is over.”
Many described failed intimate relationships or marriage breakdowns, and some said that as a result of the sexual abuse, they decided not to have children.
“I was never going to have children, because of this. I realised at a very early age that I could never, ever live thinking this could happen to a child of mine. I would be terrified every day of the week,” one person said.
For survivors who did have children, they said the abuse affected their parenting, with some describing constant worry and being overprotective.
Some described lost career opportunities and some said they chose to be self-employed due to difficulties with figures in authority.
“I put his face onto every authority figure in my life,” the scoping inquiry was told by one person.
Others described becoming alienated from religion to the extent that some avoided going to their parent’s funeral or other family event because they could not face entering a church.
One person said he experiences PTSD symptoms around churches to this day: “I start to vomit when I smell incense or the smell of a church. Even just going for a funeral or a wedding, I’m on edge and just want to get out of there.”
Another person said: “When my mother died… I never saw her in her coffin. I didn’t go into the funeral home because I couldn’t bear to hear priests prattling their nonsense over her. Her dead body was theirs, not mine.”
