A sad story of a family torn apart by the death of their father, and the financial inability of their mom to care for them, they spent years in an orphanage. The boys were sent to one orphanage with the brothers and the girls to an orphanage with the nuns. They were abused physically and mentally in these orphanages.

Such a horrific story, I really struggled with this book. What a horrible experience and I’m glad the author shared her story, to let the world know what she went through.

In Vow of Silence, Suzanne Walsh writes about the heartbreaking atrocities she and her siblings faced in orphanages in Dublin. After her father dies, her mother is forced to seek temporary work in England, and Suzanne, her 2 brothers, and 3 sisters are sent to orphanages. The boys and girls are separated, and the author doesn’t provide much detail on her brothers’ experiences. However, she provides a plethora of details on the miserable conditions and experiences that her sisters and she endured as well as the life lasting effects of those stays.

The conditions described are awful. I commend the author for opening up and sharing her horrendous experiences with us.

There is a good amount of repetition in the book, including multiple passages that appear a couple of times and seem almost verbatim. This detracted from the overall strength of the book for me, and, thus, I rated it 3 stars instead of 4.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

A truly horrific memoir.

Suzanne was just a wee girl when her Daddy died, leaving her mother in dire financial straits. The only way she could make ends meet was to place her children into the care of the nuns, allowing her to earn money across the water and hopefully be able to all be reunited one day. The loving, caring image which the nuns cultivated publicly was completely different to what they were like when they were left alone with the children. This is Suzanne’s story.

I don’t read stories of abuse; it’s just something I don’t do. However, the tales of the Magdalene Laundries has always niggled at me, so I found it very hard to turn down the offer of a review copy of this book. For anyone with the smallest piece of compassion in their soul – which, as a mother and grandmother I like to think I possess – will cringe in horror at the way these children were maltreated. I have the greatest respect for Suzanne Walsh for speaking out and making sure she wrote this book, and for her daughter Melissa for ensuring it was published. My heart broke for these children and the harsh environment they found themselves a part of, and for their Mother who trusted other women to care for her children little knowing what they were being subjected to. I won’t say I enjoyed this one, but I am glad I read it; these are the things we should all know about. 4.5*.

My thanks to Mel Sambells for my copy of this novel; this is – as always – my honest, original and unbiased review.

Vow of Silence
Suzanne Walsh

Release date: 16 Sep 2021

This is the author's heartbreaking story of her four years in a church-run orphanage in Dublin. She tried to "shield her younger sisters from the terror of these hateful women of God".

"We three felt so alone, totally bewildered and lost. Entering an alien world expecting to be cared for, we were instead to be abused and exploited by the representatives of the Catholic Church. Their doctrine of love for their fellow men didn't extend to the pitiful little souls in their care, as we were very soon to discover. Our crime, and that of most of the other children in the institution, was that we were fatherless and vulnerable - in other words: perfect victims."

Description:
"Suzanne Walsh's childhood became the ‘stuff of nightmares’ after her father passed away and her mother, unable to get a job in Ireland, had to seek work in London. So ‘Mammy’ was forced into the heartbreaking decision to put Suzanne and her five siblings into church-run orphanages in Dublin while she worked away. It was just meant to be temporary. Her life soon became a daily struggle to avoid beatings with canes and rosary beads. Suzanne and the other children worked from dawn until midnight, living on disgusting scraps of food, while the nuns dined on fresh fruit, meat and cakes that the ‘orphans’ had cooked for them. Suzanne tried her best to shield her younger sisters from the terror of these hateful ‘women of God’. But it was only the beginning of their troubles… Eventually, their mother returned from London, after four years, with enough money to take her children out and the family was reunited. However, too scared to speak out, the children vowed to take the horrors they had experienced at the orphanages to their graves. What really happened behind those church doors? This is Suzanne's heartbreaking and touching story."

Review:
Siblings, Dublin, death, starvation, Catholic Church, nuns, orphanages, tragic, horrific, traumatic, unbelievable, emotional, criminal

Well written and easily readable. I wanted to know more about the family after leaving the orphanage. Also what happened to the orphanages and the nuns - hopefully, they got what they deserved. I was sad to read that the author died a few years ago, this book was published posthumously.

I, too, was abused by Catholic school nuns during the first and second grades. Nothing like what Walsh describes in this book but enough that I'll never forget. I also often wonder about my grandmother, who as a child during the 1920s-1930s, spent many years in a Catholic orphanage. She never spoke about those years.

I was gifted this advance copy by NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

This is wild. It’s almost hard to imagine places like this exist. I definitely appreciate the research that went into this and the exploration of such a dark topic.

An honest and heartbreaking account of a loving Irish family separated by events beyond their control. Walsh writes about her youth with her loving family, especially her dear father, who has leukemia, leaving his wife and six children. Walsh's mother is forced to place her children in orphanages in Dublin, Ireland, and moves to London to find work to support her family. Walsh tells what she, her sisters, and brothers go through as they do their best to survive the conditions of hunger, malnutrition, beatings, and humiliation by the nuns.

Somewhat repetitive at times, Walsh begins her story recounting her disdain and naming the nuns who were particularly brutal to the children in their care. She feels concerned and anguished when she thinks of how those children fared as adults after being traumatized in the orphanages. Walsh's accounts of her four years subjected to the ill-treatment of the nuns are historical and eye-opening. A sad piece of Irish history.

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Have faith in yourself

A sad story of a family torn apart by the death of their father, and the financial inability of their mom to care for them, they spent years in an orphanage. The boys were sent to one orphanage with the brothers and the girls to an orphanage with the nuns. They were abused physically and mentally in these orphanages.

I had to admire their love for each other, and how they not only looked out for each other, but helped look after the other orphans that needed help. They became very good at surviving.

Because of the abuse and malnutrition they suffered under their care in the orphanage they suffered many problems later in life. It was sad that in a religious institution they were treated so badly. No child should ever be treated as these children were.

I enjoyed reading their story and the ending was good. I would recommend this book.

Thanks to Suzanne Walsh, Ad Lib Publishers and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy of the book for my honest review.

With so much focus on child sexual abuse, it is easy to forget the equally damaging role the Catholic Church played in the exploitation and abuse of children that wasn't explicitly sexual. Suzanne Walsh's memoir, Vow of Silence, goes some way to explaining the short and long term impacts of enduring this abuse through four years of being institutionalised.

The Walsh family children were placed into Catholic Church-run, single gender orphanages in 1950s Ireland following the slow death of their father. While their Mother was still alive, necessity forced her to travel to London to seek employment: "Like most Irish people at that time, she thought they were the kind and caring people they portrayed themselves as to the public." Walsh contrasts life before and during her time in the orphanage across the course of this memoir, showing how it shaped her opinions and faith: "God obviously didn't hear me and didn't know or care what his representatives on earth got up to." While this contrast is often painful, it's worth noting that some victims and survivors of the Catholic Church never had an opportunity to know other ways of being, coming to orphanages as babes-in-arms, making them ripe for the Church convincing them in later life that they have a "vocation"

There is quite a lot of commentary on the commodification of children by the Catholic Church, as "slave labourers", with Walsh noting that when they reached an age "when the Church would no longer receive payment from the government for them" they were discarded "because they had served their purpose and were of no further use to the Church." The children were also not protected by labour laws, so conditions could be unsafe (if there even is such a thing as a safe children's workplace). As Walsh points out, this dual purpose of taking on orphans to use as labourers was often quite blatant: "the stated purpose of this order of nuns was to 'train' children in the arts of domestic service, which turned out to be a euphemism for exploitation."

The impacts of abuse and malnutrition eating the "cheapest food available to the nuns" to maximise their profits had long term health impacts for Walsh and her siblings, both in short term impacts like tuberculosis, and longer term ones. The nuns also monetised the orphan's plight to receive free food, without passing it on to the donor's intended audience: "I'm sure the shop thought they were handing over the cakes for the 'poor children' in the orphanage and had no idea that they were ending up on the nuns' dining table every night instead."

Like Walsh and her siblings, who became "disillusioned and cynical", you will likely end this book with a very cynical view of the Catholic Church, if you didn't already have one from their systemic child sexual abuse. The only upside is Walsh and her siblings never had desire "to set foot in a church again" despite being plagued by the "Catholic guilt and fear of everlasting damnation" they were indoctrinated in.

Important topic aside, as a book, it's a bit crudely written in places, with some annoying repetition that I suspect came from writing the chapters as standalone pieces in different time periods, that should have been picked up by an editor.

Emotional and moving account.

This was a good, quick read. It has fairly brief chapters which moves it along nicely.

It's the 1950s, and Suzy and her family live in Ireland. This is a balanced account, as the author first talks of her lovely childhood memories. Then very hard circumstances are to hit the family. Their mammy has no alternative but to look for work in London, to make some money so the family could be together again. For the time being, she leaves them to be looked after at an orphanage. Suzy was only 10 at the time.

This is the second book of this type I have read, and I find it shocking that nuns; people who you would suppose to be pure and good, would treat children so terribly.

An emotional, tragic story, well told.

What a gut wrenching, very emotional read. Suzanne and her siblings had a good childhood. Until their entire world shattered with the passing of their dad. Her mammy, which is the best she could do with 6 kids. But them in an orphanage, where unbeknownst to her they were several abused. Some years later she’s saved enough to move her kids away. These poor babies having to keep secret the pain they each with through.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is a heartbreaking story. This poor family went through a lot, the worst of it being the 4 years these children were in the care of orphanages. Through no fault of their own, after losing their father, their mother had a lot on her plate and no choice but to place them in these orphanages which she went to London for work. Mom was just sure these nuns would take very good care of her children. Unfortunately, there is a lot of hypocrisy in the world of religion and these children ended up suffering from abuse and neglect. For these 6 children to keep quiet about it so as to not put more worry on their mother, is such a tough thing to imagine.

Suzanne Walsh is a genius story teller. The book was an effortless, emotional journey through the Walsh’s family history; I thoroughly enjoyed it and read it all in a day.
The Walsh’s live in a working class suburb near Dublin, Ireland in the early 1950’s. The six close siblings are living a idyllic childhood until tragedy strikes and their beloved father dies. Their Mother does everything she can to keep the family together but nobody wants to employ a single mother of six, so has to leave the children in the care of the Catholic Church’s orphanages whilst she goes to find work in London. The neglect and abuse they suffered at the hands of the nuns is horrifying. The fact that so many of these children had no family made them perfect victims for the sadistic abusers as well as free labour for the church.
The book will send you on a rollercoaster of emotions but it’s definitely a ride worth taking.

A heartbreaking story of child abuse at the hands of people the children had been in the care of by a mother very much down on her luck.
Suzanne and her 5 siblings went into the ' care ' of a Catholic orphanage , and as we have sadly learnt from the media this often , too often , does not lead into having a good childhood.
This a touching , sad and horrific account of the terrible life she endured whilst there..
Due to the subject of the story I don't think you can say you enjoyed it , but I can say it was an insight into the life of a child that should never be allowed to happen again .
I wish you well Suzanne.




Suzanne Walsh was a survivor.

She suffered five heart attacks and made it through open heart surgery. But even that pales in comparison to the horrors she faced as a young girl.

Her childhood became the ‘stuff of nightmares’ after her father passed away and her mother, unable to get a job in Ireland, had to seek work in London. So ‘Mammy’ was forced into the heartbreaking decision to put Suzanne and her five siblings into church-run orphanages in Dublin while she worked away. It was just meant to be temporary.

Her life soon became a daily struggle to avoid beatings with canes and rosary beads. Suzanne and the other children worked from dawn until midnight, living on disgusting scraps of food, while the nuns dined on fresh fruit, meat and cakes that the ‘orphans’ had cooked for them. Suzanne tried her best to shield her younger sisters from the terror of these hateful ‘women of God’. But it was only the beginning of their troubles…

Eventually, their mother returned from London, after four years, with enough money to take her children out and the family was reunited. However, too scared to speak out, the children vowed to take the horrors they had experienced at the orphanages to their graves.

What really happened behind those church doors? This is Suzanne's heartbreaking and touching story.