The Sisters of Mercy have called for an independent inquiry into the "serious and destructive events" which occurred at their home in Cappoquin, culminating in rape. In a statement which represents a sea change in how it responds to revelations of abuse, the Order said: "We believe that such an inquiry should be independent of those, including ourselves, who were responsible for and had duties to the children at St Michael's."
The order said it had "no knowledge or suspicion of sexual abuse" when, in 1990, it removed Nora Wall from her post as the home's resident manager.
She was removed "because of serious management problems at the home and grave concerns about her fitness for the position of manager," Sister Coirle McCarthy, of the Provincial Leadership Team in the Southern Province of the Order, said yesterday.
In a reference which he wrote two years after her removal for mismanagement, a senior social worker with the SEHB, Mr Pat Conaty, gave Nora Wall the highest possible rating for organisational and administrative skills and for good judgment. The reference was written a year before the SEHB first became aware of allegations of physical and emotional abuse at the centre. It heard of the allegations when it was contacted by Sister Dominic's successor in 1993. An investigation "found it difficult to establish firm, detailed, usable evidence of abuse."
The allegation which led to the conviction of Nora Wall and Paul "Pablo" McCabe for raping a child in the late 1980s arose in 1997.
The board says that on each occasion it interviewed children who had been in the home in Nora Wall's time and were still there, as well as former residents who were in contact with it or with the home. On no occasion did any further allegations emerge.
Two routine inspections of the home since 1995 have left the board "satisfied that the residential unit is now being managed effectively through implementation of statutory regulations, with the proper care of the children being the principal focus of activity."
"A jury has found that serious and destructive events occurred at St Michael's," the Order said yesterday. "We need and call for an independent inquiry, at an appropriate time, into the events which led to today's judgment."
The SEHB yesterday again encouraged people who may have suffered institutional abuse to contact the Faoiseamh helpline, a counselling service funded by the Congregation of Religious of Ireland, at 1800 33 12 34.