Chapter 10 — Carriglea

Sexual abuse

The Visitation Reports of 1943 and 1945 referred to sexual activity amongst boys, and the latter report revealed that such activity was ‘rife’. In an institution where over 70% of the boys were under 12 years of age, this was a serious problem.

There was an absence of recreational activity for the boys, who were left to spend their time outside school hours ‘lolling about the yard’, which had been identified as a problem as far back as the late 1930s.

The staff did not provide the ‘constant vigilance’ identified by the Christian Brothers as being necessary to counter sexual activity between boys when it became a major problem in the mid-1940s.

The Investigation Committee heard evidence from two complainants alleging sexual abuse. One complaint related to sexual abuse by a Brother, and the other related to sexual abuse by an older boy.

A complainant, who was resident in the School in the early 1950s, alleged that he was sexually abused on two occasions by Br Vic, one of the Brothers who had been sent into the School in 1946 to restore order and discipline. The alleged abuse took place at night, when the Brother would take the boy out of his bed and bring him to a room downstairs. He made the complainant perform oral sex. When asked by counsel whether he was in a position to resist, he stated, ‘No, you were never in a position to resist, they owned you body and soul once you were inside them walls’.

The complainant confided in a priest and, somehow, the allegation made its way back to Br Vic, who punished the boy for telling the priest. While the sexual abuse never occurred again, the boy lived in permanent fear of it recurring: ‘It wasn’t the fact that it didn’t happen again, it was the fear that it might. And when you live with that fear it is worse really than the act itself’.

The second complaint was made by a former resident who was present in Carriglea from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s. He was 10 years old when he was sent to Carriglea, and the abuse, which involved masturbation, began shortly after he arrived there. He alleged that he was sexually abused on three or four occasions by an older boy aged approximately 15 years. When the perpetrator left the School, the abuse stopped. The witness stated, ‘I just kept it quiet. When you are institutionalised you don’t tell anybody, you keep it quiet’. It was significant that the alleged abuse occurred during a time when Visitation Reports indicated that immoral practices had been stamped out in the School.

1.The documentary evidence revealed that Carriglea had a serious problem with sexual activity among the boys for most of the 1940s, some of which was predatory and abusive, involving older boys with younger boys. 2.The Christian Brothers failed in their duty to protect the children in their care in Carriglea. 3.Although a strict regime of supervision was introduced in 1946, it was unlikely that the habits and practices of the previous decade would >be >easily eradicated. 4.A Brother was transferred to Carriglea from Artane in 1944 about whom concern had been expressed because of his ‘particular friendship’ with a boy in Artane. Such a transfer was ill-judged and dangerous.

Emotional abuse and neglect

Carriglea, with up to 260 pupils, was a large industrial school but was allowed to deteriorate to an alarming extent until strong management was put in place in 1945, nine years before its eventual closure. From 1936 until 1945, successive Resident Managers were put in place who were unable to run the Institution properly. This failure of management led to an anarchic and lawless situation, where the boys were effectively out of control. Such an institution offered no protection to younger or weaker boys, and even the Visitation Reports acknowledged that sexual abuse amongst the boys was rife.

The large number of very young children who had been detained in the School had been effectively left in the charge of one or two Brothers. The emotional deprivations of such a situation need hardly be elaborated upon. Boys as young as six years of age were put into a situation of lawlessness and anarchy caused by management incompetence.

Two main sources of information provide a contemporary account of the general conditions prevailing in Carriglea during the relevant period.

The first source of contemporary records was the General and Medical Inspection Reports of the Department of Education, dating from 1939 until the closure of the School. There were, however, a number of gaps for some years in these records.

The second source of contemporary records was the Visitation Reports of the Christian Brothers. The Visitation Reports furnished to the Investigation Committee dated from 1936 until the closure of the School in 1954. The House annals, which were usually another source of information concerning the everyday activities of the Christian Brothers’ schools, were not properly kept in Carriglea. The information provided was sparse and incomplete. Food, clothing and accommodation

As a large institution with a good working farm, the Mazars report22 would indicate that Carriglea was adequately funded by the State until its closure in 1954.

The Department of Education Inspections, both General and Medical, were carried out by Dr Anna McCabe, and she was consistently guarded in her assessment of the School. Food, clothing and accommodation were generally categorised as ‘fair’ or ‘satisfactory’ throughout the 1940s. She was particularly critical of the condition of the boys’ patched clothing and the habit of allowing the boys to go barefoot in the summer. This practice was recalled by a complainant to the Committee, who said that this caused cut and injured feet.