"I am no stranger to trauma, conflict or tragedy and know and value the importance of being able to detach myself from `heavy' situations."
These words, from a job application made 2 1/2 years ago to the Society of St Vincent de Paul by Nora Wall, take on, in retrospect, a chilling air of truth. Less than 10 years previously, when she was known as Sister Dominic, she was able to stand in a room in a child care centre and hold a child down to be raped.
Another account, given to the Central Criminal Court, has her standing by a wall on a separate occasion, watching the rape of the same child.
Her co-accused, Pablo McCabe, gave the court another example of her detachment in "heavy" situations. He said Sister Dominic once told him he was "like St Augustine" when he told her of his sexual molestation of the girl. There is something cold, even bizarre about this reaction of a nun to an account of a sexual assault on a child in her care. "Only God knows what's really wrong," she is alleged to have replied when he told her he thought what he had done was wrong.
The events in the court were, in themselves, horrific - but there are aspects to what happened that make them, if such is possible, worse.
There was the extraordinary breach of trust involved. Sister Dominic was administrator of St Michael's, the residential childcare centre in Cappoquin, Co Waterford, where the rapes - and other sexual assaults by her on the girl - took place.
"As administrator, I had responsibility for three units catering for upwards to 30 children, 15-20 staff. I had responsibility for recruiting and training staff, accounting for and implementing the centre's budget drawn up with the SEHB (South Eastern Health Board)," she wrote in that job application.
To her fell the task of maintaining standards at the centre. It was to her that anybody with concerns about the centre would turn. Not only that, but she was closely involved with training the childcare workers of the future.
Students from the childcare course at Waterford Regional Technical College (now the Waterford Institute) came to St Michael's for lengthy placements. The institute says that along with managers of other childcare centres in the region she attended co-ordinating meetings in the college about the arrangements for placements. With students at the time spending three days a week in placements, her position was one of great trust and responsibility.
The abuse and rape of a child is an appalling act no matter who commits it - that it was committed by somebody in her position made it all the more reprehensible.
It is clear that Sister Dominic was very impressive - an unsettling thought for anybody concerned with combating institutional child abuse.
Like some abusers in Kilkenny (and a person in Madonna House who, if she did not abuse children grossly mistreated them), Sister Dominic was qualified in childcare.
So impressive was she that when she left Cappoquin in 1992, using the name Nora Wall, she got a glowing reference from an official in the South Eastern Health Board which described her in these terms:
"Applicant is of an extremely warm and caring personality with a natural flair for challenges. She is exceptionally kind and considerate with an outstanding character . . . Ms Wall is a professional child careworker whose abilities I have always found to be of the highest calibre."
The exact circumstances of her departure from Cappoquin are unclear and need to be clarified by the South Eastern Health Board and by the Mercy Order. It must be remembered that the children in the Cappoquin home were there because the South Eastern Health Board put them there.
What also now needs to be clarified is whether other children at Cappoquin were mistreated or abused by her. Before she was administrator she was a house parent at a children's home - possibly Cappoquin but this is not clear - and this would have brought her into close contact with children.
And her reach may have gone beyond the childcare centre itself. According to herself, her duties included "preparing teenagers for leaving care to return to their families or move on to independent living or employment - this involved lots of constant after care contact."
Other bodies, too, may now need to look to see whether anything untoward happened while Nora Wall was among them. They include a Romanian orphanage and a hostel in Dublin.
Shortly after her departure from Cappoquin, Nora Wall was appointed co-ordinator/supervisor on a North/South project at the Negru Voda orphanage in Romania. The project involved the Suffolk Action Team and FAS Waterford. Her work included, according to herself, "the supervision of participants while on the project and the general assessment of all on our return. While in Romania I also took an active part in the general work input in the orphanage."
Her work in Romania earned her another glowing reference, from the Belfast Action Team. "She has the experience, maturity, interpersonal skills and presentation to relate to a wide range of age groups and abilities . . . I would have no hesitation whatsoever should the occasion present itself in the future to have Nora as part of any of our programmes. She was quietly dedicated to the tasks in hand."
By 1996 she was in Dublin and working as a volunteer in the Regina Coeli hostel for women and children run by the Legion of Mary in Dublin. Some of those staying in the hostel she described as "very broken people, people with multiple problems on the brink of despair, some with suicidal tendencies, drug-related problems, ex-prisoners, ex-psychiatric patients, each one carrying the scars of their anxious years."
One person who met her from time to time in the Regina Coeli describes her as "cold, icy" but as somebody who had all the social services jargon. She was soon to move to a higher position: her letter of application, written in 1996, helped to get her a job as manager of the Back Lane hostel for men run by the Society of St Vincent de Paul at Christchurch in Dublin. It was a very impressive letter, backed by very impressive references.