Chapter 12 — Salthill

Neglect and emotional abuse

Although conditions improved in the mid-1970s, for the previous 40 years of its existence, Salthill did not deliver an adequate level of physical care to the children who were sent there. A picture of the Institution emerged from the Visitation Reports and the Department of Education reports for the period.

As in other Christian Brothers’ schools, both the children and the Community were supported out of the capitation grants. Very little information was available in the Visitation Reports but, in one year, the figures were set out in detail. In 1943, £1,600 was allocated to the nine Brothers in the School by way of stipend. In that same year, the three teaching Brothers received £214, or £71 each, by way of salary from the Department of Education.

The financial position depended on the number of children, and in 1960 the Visitor noted that, ‘As the numbers are being maintained the finances are satisfactory’.

In each of the succeeding years, stipends were paid into the House accounts, although no other breakdown of the figures was available. By the 1970s, the House account had a large credit balance in the bank, but this was accounted for, in part at least, by the sale of land.

In 1947, the Visitor observed that: ‘Apart from Government grants ..., rent, shops and farm contributed substantially to the funds’. Notwithstanding this, in 1951, the Visitor referred to the serious disadvantage caused by the lack of a farm. There was insufficient land attached to the Institution to allow it to be self-sufficient in terms of food.

During the relevant period, funding for the boys in Salthill was adequate to meet their basic needs.

The early Visitation Reports from the 1940s were very critical of the lack of hygiene in the School.

In 1938, the Visitor’s Report painted a rather dismal picture of life in the Institution. The Visitor noted that the workshops were very old and dilapidated. He advised that they be replaced immediately, as they presented a potential hazard.

He suggested that the chapel be heated during the months of rain, not only to preserve the timber but also as the children must be cold. Similarly, he noted that the recreation hall presented as drab, dark and cold, although ‘a few expressed the view that the breaths of the large number of boys made the room quite endurable’. He recommended that a good heating system would be desirable for maintenance purposes. An indication of how cold the School must have been was gleaned from the fact that the Brothers tended to wear their cloaks at all times up to the month of April. The boys did not possess cloaks.

The Visitor was critical of the overall cleanliness of the boys’ clothing and of the dormitories.

In 1939, Dr Anna McCabe30 conducted her first general inspection of Salthill. She noted that the School looked untidy, as did the children. Otherwise, she found the boys were healthy.

The following year, the Visitor remarked that, ‘this is the one of our institutions that has impressed me least’. The Institution gave a dirty, drab impression and ‘tidiness is not a feature of the place’.

The boys’ kitchen was renovated in 1942, as it was in a particularly offensive condition because of rats’ nests, a fact that was not commented on by the Department of Education Inspector.

Dr McCabe wrote to the Resident Manager, after her inspection in July 1942, complaining about: the unsatisfactory conditions in which I found the beds and bedding, dormitories and corridors, in the matter of general cleanliness, also the need for painting and plastering of some of the walls.

Br Vachel,31 the Manager, defended the condition of the Institution, and blamed Dr McCabe’s poor impression on the bad timing of her visit.