It could be argued that there is nothing new about the mistreatment of children; children have been treated cruelly throughout history. Child abuse has emerged as a concern in the late twentieth century, when arguably things are better for children, not so much because of any real changes in behaviour towards children but because of changing patterns of political and moral controls in social life. (Meagher, T. 2001, Lecture 6) An obvious example of this, and one which has relevance to the lives of children in institutional care during the 1950s and 60s, is that corporal punishment was once considered a necessary and legitimate part of a child's education. (Raftery & O'Sullivan 1999:204) The argument put forward by many of the perpetrators of institutional child abuse was that physical punishment of children was commonplace during most of the twentieth century, with the strong implication that the children deserved it. However, although there were specific rules governing punishment in industrial and reformatory schools dating back as far as 1868, and up-dated by the Department of Education in 1933 and 1946, the scale and sustained nature of the brutality of the physical punishment in these institutions far exceeded these rules, even when judged within the context of the times. (Raftery & O'Sullivan 1999:205)
In order to understand fully the operation of industrial schools and reformatories in Ireland, it is necessary to know some of the history of these institutions. The Child Care System in Ireland evolved from various systems of aid to the poor. In the nineteenth century the oldest provisions for the social protection and care of children were found in enactments which dealt with poor relief and referred primarily to neglected and orphaned children. Voluntary institutions run by Religious Organisations and charitable persons provided in some measure for these children; these institutions received no state financial assistance and were not subject to inspection or supervision by any State authority. (Kennedy Report 1970:1) The Reformatory Schools Act in 1858 certified a number of existing voluntary institutions and homes as suitable mainly for the reception of youthful offenders committed by the courts, and provided for the inspection of these institutions and for grants from public funds for the maintenance of such children.
Shortly after the Reformatory School system was introduced, it was realised there was a need for a different type of school to cater especially for neglected, orphaned and abandoned children. The Industrial Schools were established in 1868 to meet this need. Religious Orders were requested to undertake this work, and if they were willing to do so and provided suitable premises, these were certified as fit for the reception of children in care. The number of children committed to Industrial Schools by the courts between 1868 and 1969 was in excess of 105,000. (Raftery & O'Sullivan 1999:20) The number of certified Industrial Schools reached a peak at the turn of the century, when there were seventy-one schools which cared for approximately 8,000 children. Since that time, various factors such as decline in population, improvements in living standards, improved social services, adoption and boarding-out have reduced the number of children being admitted to Industrial Schools. By the late nineteen-sixties the number of certified Industrial Schools was reduced to twenty-nine schools, certified for 3,750 children and actually catering for 2,000 children. (1970 Kennedy Report: 2) At various times throughout the twentieth century a number of both statutory and voluntary bodies argued for the development of non-institutional systems to deal with destitute children. However, the domination of the Catholic congregations in this area was such that no alternative system was allowed to develop. Partly because it reflected their own institutional structures, and also because of their inability to assert total control over anything outside of their own institutions, they were deeply suspicious of any other means of providing services. (Raftery & O'Sullivan 1999:19)
Details of children in Reformatory and Industrial Schools on 30th Sept 1969 (Kennedy Report 1970:2,3)
(Kennedy Report 1970:2,3)
CLICK TO SEE TABLE 1
The Kennedy Report also noted that The Children Act 1908 described Reformatories as Schools for the training of youthful offenders in which they were lodged, clothed and fed, as well as taught. They were designed to provide care and training, give classroom or vocational training and to exercise remedial influences upon children sent there by the courts. The Act also provided for the inspection of these institutions by the Inspector of Reformatory and Industrial Schools at least once a year. It was found, however, that no provision was made for the assessment of children before committal to these institutions; this was considered a grave drawback in the system. It recommended that there should be adequate staff, including a social worker, in all these institutions, fully trained and properly remunerated. Adequate educational staff and facilities should be provided, and the full services of the Health Authority should be available including the services of psychiatrists, psychologists, doctors and dentists. (Kennnedy Report 1970: 37,38)
From the many case histories outlined in Raftery and O'Sullivan's Suffer The Little Children, as well as the personal story of Paddy Doyle in The God Squad, it is evident that the reality of life in these institutions was far removed from an ideal situation. It is perhaps inevitable that there should be disparity between the official reports on these social problems, which struggle to identify the problem, define the issue and deal with it in a top-down approach; and the stories, both real and fictitious, which outline the system from the point of view of a child, a victim who can give an account of these institutions from the inside. These different perspectives helped in many ways to keep the problems hidden. The official reports were published, circulated and then to a large extent not implemented because of budgetary constraints, lack of political will and the influence of the church who sought to retain control of these institutions; and there was scant attention paid to any complaints particularly against the Religious orders, until the last two decades. The children who told their stories were either disbelieved, or, like Paddy Doyle, accused of seeking to bring about "the ruination of the church". (Doyle 2001:1)
Of the many recommendations of the Kennedy Report, perhaps the most telling was the demand for the immediate closure of both St. Conleth's Reformatory, Daingean and the Remand Home at Marlborough House, Glasnevin, Dublin. These were deemed to be inadequate, both in terms of accommodation and the lack of fully trained child care staff. (Kennedy Report:6) The Committee members were so perturbed about conditions at St. Conleth's that they requested the Minister for Education to take immediate specific steps to improve them, albeit in the short-term, until it could be closd permanently. It was closed four years after the publication of The Kennedy Report, in 1974. (Raftery & O'Sullivan 1999:400) The situation at Marlborough House was described as "deplorable and must be altered without delay", and the committee wanted it to be shut immediately, despite the fact that its replacement was not ready to be opened. (Raftery & O'Sullivan 1999:379) Despite these recommendations Marlborough House remained open for a further two years, until 1972. (Raftery & O'Sullivan 1999:240)
It was acknowledged that education is one of the most important formative influences on children, whether deprived or delinquent, and it was also emphasised that a system of after-care should be an integral part of the Child Care system. Continuous research in all areas pertaining to Child Care was recommended, in order to develop a system which would fully meet the needs of children in institutional care. (Kennedy Report:7) The Task Force on Child Care Services 1980 also emphasised the need for the intensive and specialised training of child care staff, and the necessity to provide after-care for children who had spent time in institutional care, and also family support services for the family as a whole.
Until recently,
a pervasive myth regarding child detention in Ireland was that the children
in these institutions, either Reformatories or Industrial Schools, were objects
of charity, dependent upon the the goodwill of their religious custodians for
all of their needs.
This misconception, perpetuated by the religious orders who ran the schools,
and believed by the people who went through the system as well as the general
population, was undoubtedly useful in that it served to explain the neglected
appearance of many of the children when they were seen outside of the schools.
The system, however, was entirely the responsibility of the State, established
by law, funded and regulated by the Department of Education. A grant was paid
to the religious order for every child committed by the courts to be detained
within the system.(Raftery & O'Sullivan 1999:11) Another misconception regarding
the children is that the vast majority of them were orphans. However, statistics
show that in fact many of the children in care were there because their parents
were poor or considered unable to cope. A relatively small number of children
in these schools were there because their mother was unmarried, or they had
minor criminal convictions. (Raftery & O'Sullivan 1999:13) A survey carried
out by the Kennedy Report found that in 1.5% of cases both parents were known
to be dead, 30% of the children had one parent dead, and in approximately 51%
of cases the schools did not know whether one or both parents were alive or
dead. (Kennedy Report 1970:9)
The cruelty
of a system which separated families who were living in poverty and locked away
children who were in need of care seems horrific in more enlightened times,
and the fact that this system was condoned by both church and state points to
the fact that it was a crucial element in maintaining social control of the
population. Table 2 on page 12 is a break-down of the reasons why children were
committed to care in the Industrial Schools, as stated in the annual reports
of the Department of Education. (Kennedy Report 1970:96)
Table 2(Kennedy Report 1970:96) Grounds of Committal for those committed to industrial schools by the Courts since 1949/70
From the 1950s onwards the three broad categories under which children were committed into care were: "lack of proper guardianship", "non-attendance at school", and "indictable offences". Approximately 80% of the children came under the first category, which was a catch-all heading for children of unmarried mothers not eligible for adoption, children who had lost one or both parents, and children whose parents were incapacitated through illness or due to poverty. (Raftery & O'Sullivan 1999:22) The term "lack of proper guardianship" was, indeed, the umbrella term which was used when author Paddy Doyle was committed into care in 1955. The small number of children who were committed because of non-attendance at school were clearly not guilty of any offence; rather it was the parents of the child who were guilty of a breach of the law.
The numbers of children committed to these schools for criminal offences were small, and all were either under the age of twelve or it was not their first offence. They were not, in any modern sense of the term, criminals. Like Patrick McCabe's Francie, who was initially committed to a Reformatory, the "house of a hundred windows", for delinquency, no account was taken of their circumstances. Equally, the need for after-care and supervision which would help rehabilitate the child and prevent a possible descent into a life of crime was not met. While aftercare for children should ideally be an integral part of the child care system, it was found that in practice there was no structure and no personnel to do this work. (Kennedy Report:60) The many recommendations of the Kennedy Report included the appointment of an aftercare agent, contact with placement officers and employers, and the provision of suitable accommodation in order to help bridge the gap between institutional care and ordinary life.
The Kennedy Report acknowledged that whereas all children need love, care and security if they are to develop into full and mature people, children in institutions have for the most part been deprived of this attention. They recommended that all those engaged in the field of Child and Family Care must have, as their fundamental approach to the work they are undertaking, the understanding that the children whose care is their responsibility, be given love, affection and security.
The vivid personal testimonies of the many children whose case histories are outlined in Suffer the Little Children, by Raftery and O'Sullivan, provide clear evidence that not only were the children deprived of love and security, but in many cases they were sexually abused. However, it is important to acknowledge that, despite the recent increase in the investigations of child sex abuse in institutional care, statistics indicate that most child abuse has taken place within families. (Raftery & O'Sullivan 1999:255) A number of cases which have received wide publicity are testament to this. Most notable were the Kilkenny incest case which was the subject of a report presented to the Minister for Health in May 1993; the McColgan case (which became known as the West of Ireland Farmer Case), which involved the physical and sexual abuse of four of the six McColgan children by their father and was the subject of an official investigation in 1994; and the Interim Report of the Joint Committee on the Family 1996 which dealt with the inquiry into the death, due to malnourishment and abuse, of Kelly, a west of Ireland schoolgirl.
It is, however,
hardly surprising that given the public pronouncements by the Catholic Church
over the decades on matters of sexuality, there is now such a focus on members
of their own clergy and congregations for sexually molesting children. (Raftery
& O'Sullivan 1999:255) It is claimed that it is only in the past twenty
years that professionals are fully aware of the fixated nature of much abuse,
and have developed guidelines to respond to the issue. However, there is evidence
that Archbishop McQuaid of Dublin was contacted in 1960 by the Gardaí
who had discovered pornographic photographs which were being developed in England
for a priest who was then chaplain to Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children
in Dublin. Archbishop McQuaid interviewed the priest, Fr Paul McGennis, and
"arranged for him to have treatment which was considered successful at the time".
(Raftery & O'Sullivan 1999:256) It is evident from this that not only was
the Archbishop aware of the abuse, but had developed a mechanisn for dealing
with it. Fr. McGennis was convicted in 1997 for sexually young girls in the
1960's while they were patients in Crumlin Hospital. In relation to sex abuse
of children in institutional care, it is now evident that this was widespread,
constant and spanned many decades. Gardaí have investigated allegations
of abuse in almost all of the Industrial Schools for boys over the age of ten
in the country. The largest child sex abuse investigation ever undertaken by
the Gardaí is in relation to Artane Industrial School, which was closed
in 1969. This investigation is ongoing, and three hundred statements from former
inmates alleging sexual and physical abuse against up to one hundred current,
former and deceased Christian Brothers have been made. (Raftery & O'Sullivan
1999:254)
The Kennedy Report, a long and comprehensive document, was deeply critical of
the operation of the Industrial Schools and Reformatories. The committee visited
all of these institutions, many of them several times, and dealt with a total
of fifty-six oral and written submissions. It described the industrial school
system as being "far from satisfactory.........haphazard and amateurish". (Kennedy
Report 1970:13) It commented on the lack of awareness of the needs of the child
in care and lamented the lack of training of staff. It considered the approach
taken to the children was "institutional" and "depersonalised" and left them
ill-prepared for adult life in the outside world. The report condemned as ineffective
the system of inspection of these schools by the Department of Education and
also criticised the financial provisions made by the state towards the running
of the schools. (Raftery & O'Sullivan 1999:379) Against this backdrop of
criticism the committee put on record their opinion that the primary aim of
the child care system should be geared towards the prevention of family breakdown
and the problems consequent on it.
Fundamentally,
the Kennedy Report sounded the death knell for the institutional model of child
care which had remained remarkably resilient in the state for one hundred years.
(Raftery & O'Sullivan 1999:379) In all, the committee made thirteen major
recommendations, the first of which was that "the committal or admission of
children to residential care should be considered only when there is no satisfactory
alternative". (Kennedy Report 1970:6) All of the recommendations were designed
to structure a modern child care system, complete with fully-trained staff,
special educational supports, adequate after-care provisions and a proper system
of inspection. (Raftery & O'Sullivan 1999:379)
Evidence suggests that the Kennedy Commission was viewed with some hostility
by the Department of Education from the beginning. Many files have mysteriously
disappeared from the Department's archive, and referring to the situation in
1999 the Minister for Health Michael Martin said in Dail Eireann that the "behaviour
of many managers and officials has been described to me as at best silently
obstructive". (Raftery & O'Sullivan 1999:380)
The publication
of the Kennedy Report, which was the culmination of almost five years of research,
was greeted with considerable publicity and wide approval, although neither
the State nor the Catholic Church shared the enthusiasm for change. It is perhaps
significant that the report was never debated in the Dail; the only parliamentary
debate on the issues took place in the Seanad, three years after the publication
of the report. Two of the key recommendations of the Kennedy Report still have
not been implemented, over thirty years after its publication. The first of
these related to the raising of the age of criminal responsibility from seven
to twelve and the second related to the inspection of residential homes for
children. Had this crucial issue been addressed it would undoubtedly have prevented
some of the child abuse in residential homes in the past thirty years. (Raftery
& O'Sullivan 1999:389) While the 1999 Children Bill allows Health Boards
to establish special care units for children who are deemed to require secure
care or protection, it makes no provision for a system of inspection for these
units, no visiting committees, no annual reports on their operation, and no
complaints procedures. Given the vulnerability of these children, and what is
now known about past abuses, this omission seems inexplicable and it leaves
open the potential for the future abuse of children in the care of the state.
(Raftery & O'Sullivan 1999:390)
The Task Force on Child Care Services 1980 which was published ten years
after the Kennedy Report, had a wider remit and proposed a new system of child
care, based on how society should respond to the question of deprived children;
fundamentally different to the system existing at that time. It was proposed
that a new minister should be designated, along with a new government department
and new executive agencies, with specific responsibility for children. The establishment
of Child Care Authorities - CCA's - which would have the machinery for policy-making,
planning and standard setting at the level of their central management was suggested.
An outline of this proposed system is illustrated in diagram 1 below: (Task
Force 1980:380)
The primary function of the Task Force on Child Care Services was to make recommendations on the extension and improvement of services for deprived children, to prepare a new Children's Bill, and to make recommendations on the administrative reforms which might be necessary to give effect to these proposals. However, consensus was not reached among the members of the committee, a fact which reflects the complexity of the issues involved. It was understood that on the basis of their diverse recommendations, the Department of Health was to prepare the heads of a Children's Bill and submit it to the committee. It was acknowledged that other countries had also experienced the difficulty of endeavouring to design a child care system which would resolve the problems of vulnerable children and their families. (Task Force on Child Care Services 1980:31) Although there is no doubt that many of the recommendations of The Task Force have been implemented, notably the increase in availability of short-term foster care, and the professional training and expertise of staff, there is still an acute shortage of suitable places for children, particularly those with behavioural or psychological problems.