Chapter 10 — Carriglea

Emotional abuse and neglect

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.

Dr McCabe’s first report was in 1939 when she criticised the general condition of parts of the School which she found ‘were none too clean’. ‘The food appeared to me to be rather below standard’. Her comments were forwarded to the Resident Manager, Br Rene, by the Department of Education and evoked a nine-page letter of protest from him. His letter painted a picture of relentless overwork and exhaustion, but failed to acknowledge the impact of such a system on the boys in his care. He sat down to write the letter late at night: ... At this hour all sensible people – including our fair medical inspector – have put several hours restful leisure over them. Not so this unfortunate however, as it is only now that I find time to sit down to write my “observations” on this extract from her report. I roused the boys this morning at 6.30 . I bade them farewell when lights were lowered half an hour ago and all the day between ... has been cram-full of tiring, wearying, slavish work ... And now as a reward for the unfortunate folly of accepting this dreadful responsibility I have to set out to convince you that black is white – that our school is not all as bad as painted.

Br Rene then proceeded to defend the way he was running the School. He said that he prioritised literary studies over everything else and that domestic ‘charges’ suffered as a result. He defended this by saying that a shiny dormitory floor achieved at the cost of the boys’ schooling or leisure time would not be appreciated by them. He pointed to the success the School had achieved in open examinations that year for the Post Office, and to one pupil who was applying for a University scholarship: then proceeded to defend the way he was running the School. He said that he prioritised literary studies over everything else and that domestic ‘charges’ suffered as a result. He defended this by saying that a shiny dormitory floor achieved at the cost of the boys’ schooling or leisure time would not be appreciated by them. He pointed to the success the School had achieved in open examinations that year for the Post Office, and to one pupil who was applying for a University scholarship: It has meant grave financial embarrassment for me, but I am still – like a few Managers in other schools – living in hopes of the Minister’s many promises to us being fulfilled. So far his only contribution that I am aware of is the worry and trouble in hand at the moment.

He appended menus of food served in the School, adding, ‘I wish to know if it meets with your approval’.

Br Rene’s stress in coping with life in Carriglea was outlined earlier in this chapter and much of it could be attributed to the poor management systems in the school. The fact that Br Rene was obviously operating under severe strain was unfair on him, but it was equally unfair on the children who depended on him for their care. The blame must be borne by the Christian Brothers’ Provincialate, who allowed an impossible situation to develop and who failed to address it until it had reached crisis proportions.

The witnesses who gave evidence to the Investigation Committee said that the food was inadequate and that they were hungry in Carriglea.

One witness, who had been resident in Carriglea from the mid-1940s to the early 1950s, complained of hunger, saying that he was ‘starving’ when in the School. He detailed the type and quality of food that he received. For breakfast, he stated that they got a quarter of a loaf of bread, which amounted to two slices, together with dripping or margarine. This was also the staple diet in the evening. This witness also spoke about the dinners consisting of black potatoes with meat and cabbage. He informed the Committee that they received an egg at Easter only.

This witness recounted how the boys ate the pig swill. The left-over food from the Brothers’ kitchen was put into a bucket, which was brought down to the pigs for them to eat. One of the boys was entrusted with the task of bringing the swill bucket down to the pigs, and the other boys would intercept him on his journey and ‘dive on the bucket’. He recalled that ‘there would be rice in it and tea leaves in and you would put your hand in and take two handfuls out and eat the thing there’.

Another witness who was resident in Carriglea in the early 1950s spoke of the food as being ‘absolutely horrible’. This witness recalled only receiving three meals a day, and not four as stated in the Visitation Reports. His description of the food served was very similar to the above witness. He also complained of not receiving enough food during his time in Carriglea and, consequently, having to resort to the pig swill to supplement his diet.

A third witness also complained of not receiving enough food in Carriglea during the period of his residence from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s. He recalled that breakfast consisted of a loaf of bread known as ‘Boland’s loaf’, divided between four boys, together with hot dripping. He recounted to the Committee the manner in which the loaf of bread was divided between the four boys: On our table sometimes if you had four fellows you had to spin a knife and whoever the knife pointed at he cut the bread up and if I didn’t like you I would only give you a quarter of it but it worked vice versa so that’s the way we worked it.