Chapter 15 — Daingean

Neglect

The new building had become the promised land that made tolerable the overcrowded, dirty and squalid conditions that were the reality of life in Daingean, where neither boys nor Brothers had the simple material comforts needed in a residential school. Other documents revealed an even worse picture. The Dormitories Source: Martin Reynolds

On 7th July 1948, the Resident Manager wrote in desperation to the Inspector of Industrial Schools, when he learned that the second half of the ‘New Dormitory and Ablution Room’ was to be deferred. He pleaded: This decision is so upsetting to our work for the boys here, that I would venture to ask that our case be re-considered. (1) When we moved from Glencree to Daingean in 1940, our present Dormitories were only approved by the Department Medical Inspector as a purely temporary arrangement. The buildings where our boys sleep were never meant for dormitories. They are overcrowded, and badly ventilated.

The West Wing, he pointed out, was nearing completion, but the drainage scheme was for both wings and could not be constructed for only one. This led to his second point: (2) I would point out, also, that the temporary ablution room (where all the boys wash at present) is very unsafe. The walls are leaning outwards at more than six inches from the perpendicular. The Board of Works Architect ... will confirm that this ablution room is definitely unsafe and should be demolished as soon as possible.

The boys were accommodated in what was always the Brothers’ sleeping quarters, and the Brothers were badly accommodated in different parts of the building. Nobody, in short, was properly accommodated in Daingean.

On receipt of this letter, a flurry of correspondence ensued between the Department of Education and the Department of Finance and, in June 1949, the Department of Finance sanctioned the building of the East Wing on the condition that the Department of Education were willing ‘to defer some other building project involving approximately the like amount’ of money (£26,500) which they would have been seeking in the 1950/1951 Estimates.

The building of the East Wing created a new problem, as explained in a Department of Education memorandum of 10th April 1953. It stated: As regards the new Recreation ground; this has become necessary because the new wings have taken up a big part of the space formerly available to the boys and has left the present recreation ground inadequate and unsuitable from the point of view of supervision. The old bootshop cuts right across the ground now available and makes it impossible to supervise these boys. One portion of this remaining ground is several feet below the other portion ...

Furthermore, in a letter of October 1953 to the Resident Manager, the Inspector, Mr Ó Síochfhradha, criticised the state of the laundry. He said: the Department is not satisfied that a change of shirts every second week and a change of sheets every six weeks is sufficient for the cleanliness and hygiene of the boys. They should have a change of shirt every week and sheets should be changed at least every three weeks. The boys should also have special night attire, either pyjamas or night shirts.

He added, ‘The school laundry is far from being sufficient to meet the needs of the school’. The remodelling of this laundry was first proposed in April 1940, over 13 years previously.

The condition of the building is further considered in connection with the factors leading to the closure of the School. It is clear from these accounts that the state of the building, from its opening in 1940 to the middle of the 1950s, was far from adequate. The boys were crowded together in the dormitories, and it became impossible to supervise them effectively. The implications of this, on the behaviour of the boys in Daingean, was quite apparent from the documentary evidence and the evidence heard at the hearings.

When the Kennedy Report was published in 1970, one of its major recommendations as regards Daingean was the following: We find the present Reformatory system completely inadequate. St. Conleth’s Reformatory, Daingean, should be closed at the earliest possible opportunity and replaced by modern Special Schools conducted by trained staff.

Chapter 6, paragraph 6.29 of the Report outlined the factors that had led to this recommendation. It is quoted here in full: St Conleth’s, Daingean 6.29 This Reformatory is housed in a 200 year old former military barracks. An additional wing was built in the post-war period but the building is basically old and completely unsuitable for the purpose for which it is being used. The kitchen and refectory are situated in what were formally the stables and are depressing and decayed. On inspection, the toilets were dirty and insanitary. The showers were corroded through lack of use and the hot water system was so inadequate that the boys seldom if ever washed in hot water. When it was first inspected the boys were ill-dressed and dirty and there was a general air of neglect about the place. To be fair, the Committee would point out again that the capitation rate paid was completely inadequate. The Committee members were so perturbed about conditions at St. Conleth’s that they sent a request to the Minister for Education asking that immediate specific steps be taken to ameliorate conditions there. It is understood that certain of these recommendations are in hand. These, however, are only short-term measures. We feel strongly that no alterations can bring St. Conleth’s into line with modern thought on Reformatories. In the first place it is much too institutional in lay-out, secondly it is badly situated, being 40 miles from Dublin in a spot which is poorly served by transport. Most of the children in St. Conleth’s come from Dublin and, as suggested elsewhere in this chapter, a reformatory would be much more effective if sited close to a large centre of population where the ancillary services required would be available. The Oblate Fathers, who are in charge of St. Conleth’s, have themselves recommended such a move. It is recommended that St. Conleth’s be closed at the earliest possible moment.

It is of interest to note that Kennedy’s opinion, that ‘a reformatory would be much more effective if sited close to a large centre of population where the ancillary services required would be available’, actually repeated a recommendation made in the Cussen Report, published in 1936. That Report had recommended, ‘Whenever practicable, and at the discretion of the Justice, children should be sent to Industrial Schools as near as possible to their homes’.

When Daingean was being considered as an alternative to Glencree, in 1939, this recommendation was ignored. It was then argued that: the distance would have the advantage of preventing undesirable visits (from boys’ former companions) which were taking place at present at Glencree; parents would not mind travelling by bus to Daingean occasionally; and that a system of permits might be arranged, which would possibly entitle them to reduced bus fares.

Neither Kennedy nor Cussen would have shared this opinion.

A few of the documents written by some of the members of the Kennedy Committee have survived, and they remain the best objective account of the conditions at Daingean at the time. The most important document is the letter sent by the Committee to the Department of Education, which is mentioned within the report itself. It contained some of the most trenchant criticisms ever made about a school. There were five main problems that needed to be addressed immediately: 1. The building was grubby, with open drains and dirty yards disturbingly near the kitchen. 2. The building was cold with an inadequate heating system. 3. The boys were unwashed with ingrained dirt on their bodies, and were seemingly verminous. 4. Their clothing was extremely ill-fitting, oddly matched, old, dirty and rather tattered. 5. The beds had discoloured bed linen and threadbare blankets.