Personal Stories/Opinions
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Daire Keogh - A response to Father Flanagan posting.
Dear Mr Brennan,
Thanks for your note. Yes, my thesis has always been that Father Flanagan's
public criticism was not directed at the Industrial Schools, but rather
at the penal system, especially Reform Schools and Borstals.
If you look at the press reports for the summer of 1946 you will see that
Father Flanagan praised the Industrial Schools very publicly. Certainly,
he is very critical of the Industrial Schools in his private correspondence,
but the public were unaware of this. In this sense, there is a huge contradiction
between Flanagan's public utterances and his private condemnation. How
are we to explain this?
It is significant, too, that in the Dail report you cite, the questions
are directed at the Minister for Justice. If the focus was the Industrial
Schools, these questions would have been directed to the Minister for Education
who had responsibility for them.
You may be interested to know that since the publication of my article on
Father Flanagan in History Ireland I have been refused any further access
to the archive at Boys Town. This is a crude act of censorship.
Sincerely,
Daire Keogh
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