Children taken from siblings at 11, nun says
A NUN told an inquiry it was painful to see youngsters at a Catholic children’s home being separated from siblings at a certain age.
The witness said the practice at Nazareth House in Cardonald, Glasgow, in the 1970s was “not easy to do” but stopped short of branding it cruel.
The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry is examining a string of historical allegations of abuse at four homes run by the Sisters of Nazareth.
The probe, sitting in Edinburgh, heard yesterday that boys living at the Cardonald institution would be moved to another of the congregation’s homes in Aberdeen at 11.
“That was the norm in those days,” said the sister, who cannot be named and worked at Cardonald in the 1960s and 1970s.
Senior counsel to the inquiry, Colin Macaula, y QC, put it to the witness that the practice could have meant siblings being separated. She replied: “It was painful but it was beyond my control.”
The inquiry continues.