The God Squad: The Bestselling Story of One Child's Triumph Over Adversity

by Paddy Doyle

By the age of four, Paddy Doyle's mother had died of cancer, and father had commited suicide. He was detained in an industrial school for 11 years, where he was viciously assaulted and sexually abused by his religious custodians. After 3 years, he was taken to a hospital and left there, never to see his custodians again. So began his long round of hospitals, mainly in the company of old dying men, while doctors tried to diagnose his condition. This period of his life, culminating in brain surgery at the age of 10, left him permanently disabled. This title is the true story of a survivor, told with a lack of bitterness for one so shockingly and shamefully treated.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Ireland, Autobiography, Memoir, Abuse

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 22, 1989

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paddy Doyle’s start to life was challenging with his father committing suicide and mother’s death. He ended up as a nine year old in now Ireland’s notorious Industrial Schools. Where he endured sadistic nuns beatings and cruel punishment. He also was afflicted with a muscular dystrophy which doctors in the early 1960’s tried to cure through drugs and primitive brain surgery.

He lead a disruptive life at various hospitals surrounded by death and occasionally compassionate nurses and nuns. It’s an inspirational story in many ways that Doyle endured and went on to write funny laugh out loud books.

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a four-year-old boy, Paddy saw his father who had hanged himself from a tree, in despair at his wife's early death from cancer. Paddy was sent to an orphanage school run by nuns in Wexford. The nuns believed suicide was a crime and a grave sin, so when Paddy could not help talking about what he had seen, he was told he must be lying because people did not do that, and beaten unmercifully.

This was in 1955 and it took thirty years for Paddy to find out the truth about his origins, and to be reunited with some of his family. He had been in the industrial school for several years before he was even told that he had a younger sister in another school. The nuns who cared for many boys behaved not just harshly but with ignorance and cruelty. The best option most boys could see for themselves in later life was being a priest, as this was the main role they saw for men, and Paddy became an altar boy which helped him see kindness from people in the town. In Dickensian manner the boys all ate from a bowl and spoon, so years on Paddy had no idea how to use a knife and fork, or what rashers, sausage and eggs were.

A twisted gait of one foot worsened and at first young Paddy was beaten for it, then polio was mentioned by a doctor and he was sent to hospital in Wexford. He never saw the school again. He was made to stay in hospitals with old, dying men around him, who expected to die of operations and caused the boy continued terror that he would die in turn. This went on for years. The leg disimproved and he had several operations including brain surgery. No responsible adult was recorded on the charts permitting operations.

Paddy finally got to mix with other young people and attend schooling again, and while he required a wheelchair after a time he was able to marry and have children and live independently, and he is now a disability campaigner.

I remember this book being discussed when it first came out in 1988 and no real discussion of clerical abuse of position had taken place; the media did not quite know what to make of it. However it was discussed on shows for adults such as the Late Late Show and everyone became aware of what had been going on behind closed doors.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found Paddy's experiences as a young child so hateful that they were difficult to humanise, therefore difficult to want to feel anything other than distance from. As his story progressed and he interspersed his Narrative with present-day conjecture I found it easier to empathise with the young boy, rather than just feeling utter horror. A traumatic, moving account that everyone should share a common responsibility for to ensure it cannot happen again.

[Rosalind Minett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paddy Doyle writes this book in a restrained adult voice but with all the detail and perspective of the child who suffered. In light of recent revelations, it is sadly not too difficult to accept that such an outrageous misadventure kept occurring to this orphan. First terribly harmed and then placed in authority care, Paddy fared little better physically or emotionally. He did manage to form attachments only to have them broken. Nevertheless, this is not a misery memoir but a spirited tale of ultimate achievement despite the most awful hardships. The author is to be commended for his life as well as for his literary achievement. A very worthwhile read, as are his other works.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the story of a young boy who became an orphan when his mother died of cancer and his father committed suicide. His only recollection of his parents was recurring nightmarish thoughts of his father's hanging body. He went to an industrial school and was beaten, sexually molested, and emotionally abused by the nuns there. Later he developed some kind of problem with his legs – the book never really explains it – and is shuffled from one hospital to another. In the end, he becomes happy and is married with children. It was an inspiring book to read, because you know that there's a happy ending at the end, and that the author survived. I would've liked more detail about what his medical condition was, because it's never explained exactly what was causing his disability. Because he was a child, there seems to be a lot he didn't understand and, as a result, much is left out of the narrative. I wish the adult author had filled in some of the blanks. Although perhaps the author didn't do this because he wanted to write from the point of view of a child who was confused about what was happening to him, and therefore didn't really clue the reader as to what was going on either, to give them the sort of sense of helplessness the child has. If so, it seemed to work pretty well – but it still left me wanting more information.. Also, the book really skimmed over his teenage years – it went from the time he was still a child leaving the hospital until he was a grown man, married, and even only says if you think about that. It's as if the author decided, oh, this is getting too long – better just explain the next 20 years in one page, then jump to where I am now.
It just cuts off after he leaves the last hospital. I really wish I'd found out more about his time with children his own age, and his adjustments in fitting into society

[Karen Wickham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really what I was expecting. This book talks more about the author's medical condition and various operations than about the nuns who were responsible for him growing up.

That said, it is astounding the ignorance with which he was treated. As if he was a malingerer rather than having a genuine need for medical attention.

[Mojca Rudolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pisateljeva zgodba o izgubljenem otroštvu. Kot sirota brez staršev pristane v katoliški ustanovi, ki jo vodijo nune, zgodba pa se dogaja na Irskem. Kasneje si ga, ker ima zdravstvene težave, podajajo po bolnišnicah. Pisatelj nikogar ne obtožuje, a njegovo otroštvo res ni otroštvo, je skupek dogajanj, ki se ne bi smela dogajati otrokom. Pretresljivo.

[Tailsmo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Depressing, as expected, but blasé about what happened to him, as if he accepted his mistreatment. There was no anger. It read like a case study.

I don't usually read these types of books. I read 'A Child Called It' years ago, found most of it unbelievable, and have not read another one since. I am highly concerned about both publishers making money off of other people's misery and why anyone would want to read about abuse. I also don't understand why parents would allow their children to be the model for the covers of such books.

I was persuaded to read this by a friend whose opinions I value. I will go back to not reading these types of books again now, and not being persuaded by other people's opinions. It seems I was right after all.

[Siobhan O' Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this story is tragic in it's own right and highlights the ignorance of the nuns and the doctors in Ireland at the time. I can't stop feeling that Mr. Doyle is a complainer, it feels repetitive and whinny... some of the details so trivial that I can't understand why he harps on about it let alone remember it, it's not the story that feels repetitive but the writing style i think.

In saying that what do I know of the memories of a man that went through something so terrible that one wouldn't wish it on their worst enemy.

[chucklesthescot · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was another hard-hitting memoir about the cruel treatment dealt out to children by the Nuns in Ireland. It is a tough, dark, depressing read and I felt as if I was being attacked by a Dementor when reading it as all the happiness in my life was draining out of me page by page. It is a real horror story but was too dark and draining for me to complete it. These books about the Nuns are soul-destroying and it takes a determined reader to plough through them.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having been exposed to similar treatments from the Catholic Nuns in my own upbringing around the same time period, I find this an accurate account of life for the Irish poor in Eire. Thankfully, I didn't become a hospital's 'lab rat'. However, it did bring to the surface a number of repressed emotions.

[Camilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book many years ago and met him at a book signing in Rathmines in Dublin around the same time, early 1990s I think. It was an honour to meet him. He is a true survivor having been subjected to such evil as a child by those nuns who acted in the name of God while doing so. His was one of the first public cases of this nature in Ireland I remember.

[Val · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't usually read this type of autobiography but this one is different. Well written. Sad that these things happened but amazing that Paddy and his personality and intelligence survived. Read it and let it affect you.

[Abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

The bloody Catholic Church! Makes me so angry. Story of an orphan with a disability making it through growing up in terrible conditions. For a true story at times there was little detail, for example about his actual condition, and then integration into society as an adult and out of care homes.

[Kay]

OMG... this is just disgraceful !

[Nova · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sad story; but I am glad we have come a long way in brain surgery since the 1950's.

[Lee Harding · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a gritty book that I was unable to put down and highlights the mistreatment of those in the 'care' of the state

[Nina · Rating 3 out of 5]

A touching true-life story of an orphaned boy living in misery in a factory school run by sadistic nuns, until he is shipped from hospital to hospital for years.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gripping read but how could people treat a child so dreadfully?

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

It reminded me of One flew over the cuckoos nest.
It is based on a true story of a young male who suffered at the hands of the church. Despite the horrific procedures he endured he bears no malice.

[John Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

May contain spoilers?

Autobiographical. Paddy was orphaned around the age of five and traumatised by his father’s suicide by hanging. He was then incarcerated in a hellish institution run by sadistic nuns, well-practised in the art of double-standards. (What would JC Himself make of these Sisters of Mercy?!) An increasing physical disability led to his hospitalisation for several years. Here he was experimented on, probably for the best of reasons, at a time when his illness, Muscular Dystrophy, was largely unrecognised. A hint of brighter skies ahead - as we near the end of the book.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Horrifying!
What happens when you put sexually frustrated, religious fanatics in charge of the childhood development of often traumatised, orphaned children... yet this was normal practice across Ireland (in fact, the whole of Europe and the Americas).
Generations of emotionally and psychologically scarred individuals, horrifically "cared for" (abused) in the name of God.

[Sasha Wolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fascinating and at times horrifying autobiographical account of an institutionalised childhood in the Irish Republic of the 1950s. It is rich in detail until Doyle comes to his early teenage years, but after that, for some reason he gives only a very clinical summary. As a result, the book is very anti-climactic, which robbed it of emotional impact for me.

[Katharine Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking and beautiful

[Abie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eye-opening and shocking to hear how growing up in institutions can be.

[Dominik Golob · Rating 5 out of 5]

364

[Ruth Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting read on a disabled man’s experience of abuse in the care of the catholic church

[Dolores · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this book more than once. It is on of my favorites of all time.

[Megan Parsons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, very sad