Chapter 10 — Carriglea

Emotional abuse and neglect

In 1936, some boys from Carriglea were given the opportunity of attending the Christian Brothers’ secondary school in Dun Laoghaire. This came about shortly after the Cussen Report, when the Resident Manager of Carriglea approached the secondary school with a view to having his boys admitted.

The request was initially turned down but, upon the intervention of the Brother Provincial, the ‘experiment’ went ahead.

In 1936, the Visitation Report noted that: Two boys of the Institution have this year undertaken Secondary work at the Dun Laoghaire Schools and were found sufficiently advanced to join the Third Year of the Intermediate Certificate Course.

In 1937, the number of boys from Carriglea attending the secondary school had increased to five. Three of them were in first year and two in second year and were preparing to sit the Intermediate Certificate examination. The Visitation Report for 1937 commented that these two boys were sitting the examination ‘after 2 years preparation, and are considered the 2 best in the class’.

The Visitation Report for 1938 also recorded that five boys were attending the secondary school, with three of them in first year and two of them in the class preparing for the Intermediate Certificate examination.

By 1939, the practice of sending boys to the secondary school was discontinued. According to the Christian Brothers in their Opening Statement, it was terminated on the basis that the host school found the practice unsatisfactory. No further explanation was provided as to the basis for this dissatisfaction, which was inconsistent with the fact that, in 1937, the two Carriglea boys who were sitting the Intermediate Certificate examination were considered the best in the class. The Visitation Report for 1939 shed no further light and merely recorded the discontinuation of this practice, ‘The practice of sending a few of the more talented boys to the secondary school in Dun Laoghaire has been discontinued’.

In a report compiled by Br Donal Blake cfc for the Christian Brothers in February 2001, he referred to this and provided the following quote from the annals of the secondary school: In August 1936 an application was made by the Superior of Carriglea Industrial School to allow some of the senior boys of the School to join our Intermediate Classes. For obvious reasons, the application was turned down, but the Provincial over-ruled the decision. The experiment was very unsatisfactory and was the cause of a great deal of trouble and annoyance in the School, so much so that in August 1939 applications for admission had to be refused.

When questioned on the reason for the discontinuation of sending boys to the secondary school, Br Seamus Nolan who gave evidence at the Phase III public hearing, stated: We have not got any reason for it. There are suggestions that the social gap was a bit much for the school to take, because they withdrew. I think it was at that time that an alternative method of doing something for them after primary school, in a school sense, opened up the possibility of the post office exams. That’s the boy messengers that in the long term could lead to permanent, pensionable employment.

In fact, the Post Office examinations had operated side by side with the secondary school placements and were not introduced as an alternative to them.

Another scheme in which the School became involved was the provision of secondary technical education onsite. This appears to have arisen out of a proposal by the Department, which was, according to the agenda for the meeting of Christian Brothers Managers dated 23rd April 1949, ‘to have the instruction in the upper classes in Industrial Schools given a technical bias by the inclusion of Woodwork and Drawing’. It is not clear when the scheme was implemented in the School, but the minutes of the Christian Brothers’ Resident Managers’ meeting held on 12th January recorded that boys in Carriglea were at that time being prepared for the ‘Junior Tech. Examinations’. The teaching staff was supplied by the Vocational Education Committee, and the Resident Manager was supplying ‘everything else’.

One witness, who had been in the School from the mid-1940s to the early 1950s, recounted in evidence that he could read and write when he left Carriglea and that he did the Primary Certificate. He conceded that the education he received ‘was passable’. In fact, he went further and added, ‘In actual fact, I was a little above, when I went over to the army a few years later I was kind of more educated than, like my English counterparts ...’

Another witness recalled being in class from 9.30 in the morning until 2.30 in the afternoon. He learnt classical poems, which he did not consider very beneficial, ‘I learnt some very classical poems, for what good they did me, I could quote them now if you want me to’.

Another witness stated that he did not get a good education. However, he admitted that he was a bit behind educationally when he first arrived in Carriglea and, as a result, he never went beyond second class and so did not do his Primary Certificate.

The national school education provided at Carriglea appears to have been of a comparatively high standard. The initiative of preparing boys for the Post Office examination was a useful practical measure to take advantage of an employment opportunity. If this was School policy, the Superior and management are to be commended. If it was the enterprise of a particular Brother, which appears to be more likely, it shows what could be achieved by one motivated teacher by way of practical assistance. The practice continued when a lay teacher took on the task in succession to the original Brother. It is regrettable that the practice of sending brighter boys to the Christian Brothers’ secondary school was discontinued. It greatly enhanced the chances of securing employment and was in accordance with the recommendations of the Cussen Report. The school failed those pupils who could have taken advantage of further academic education.

Unlike Artane, there were only two trades available in Carriglea: boot-making and tailoring. In addition, there was an extensive farm and, latterly, a band. The practice, as with all industrial schools, was that from the age of 14, boys who had finished their formal education were put to learn a trade that would enable them to gain employment upon their discharge from the School. These boys were also given literary and religious classes for an hour and a half each day.