His mother died of cancer in 1955. His father commited suicide shortly thereafter. Paddy Doyle was sentenced to an Irish district court to be detained in an industrial school for 11 years. He was four years old. This title is a testament of the institutionalized Ireland of only 25 years ago, as seen through the bewildered eyes of a child. During his detention, Paddy was viciously assaulted and sexually abused by his religious custodians, and within three years his experiences began to result in physical manifestations of trauma. He was taken one night to hospital and left there, never to see his custodians again.