Personal Stories/Opinions
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In reply to letter to Irish Times dated 08/03/04 by T P
Walsh. Having been an inmate of these institutions
(2) and then looking back at the Infrastructure in
place on the scale it was it seems to me that Ireland
through neglect missed out on what would have been the
best Education System in the world for underprivileged
children had the state only kept in check the violence
and abuse allowed to manifest itself and then to take
hold for decades. Anyone who attended these
institutions would only have to look around them (as I
did) to see that the potential for excellence in all
manner of interests was nothing short of magnificent,
but like a poison, the minority nasty ladies and
gentlemen - Nuns and Brothers etc were allowed to
destroy what would have been the Saviour of many a
wretched poor soul, transforming the same into a
valuable member of Irish Society and in
himself/herself proud to have been saved by the
Industrial School System. Instead Ireland is now
having to admit that it failed thousands of innocent
people who's only crime was poverty, hunger and
abandonment at such a young age. I can tell you all
now that I consider the Industrial School System a
great tragedy for not only the children abused but for
Ireland as a whole.
One only had to be in Artane, and many were who could
testify to the vastness of the place and in hindsight
see the potential it might have had if the abuses not
been allowed to destroy the little good these places
did. Does anyone ever remember the Actor and Singer
"Burl Ives" giving a concert at Artane? I well
remember it and enjoyed it immensely, I sometimes
wonder what would have happened had he witnessed
anything nasty while he was at Artane, but of course
great care would have been taken to ensure that
nothing happened while he was there, that was why it
took so many years for the truth to surface about
these places.
Yes these Schools were indeed a heaven-sent
opportunity back in the days when the idea first
surfaced and should have been the Saviour of many a
young soul, but through ignorance and or incompetence
by the powers that be, the minority were permitted to
vent their own frustrations on the young for years
undetected.
As a victim of this very treatment myself I believe I
am well placed to voice an opinion as to the value of
the concept of the Industrial School and I say it was
nothing short of brilliant at the outset but allowed
to grow a very bad tumor which just festered and
destroyed the whole.
So for me it is most definitely hats off to the
original founders and shame on the minority who
destroyed a concept Ireland would (in hindsight) have
been proud of today.
Martin, England
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