Chapter 15 — Daingean

Neglect

By her next visit in April 1942, she found some improvement but listed very many faults: Still much can be done - Floor of refectory needs repair. Recommended for immediate action. Dormitories overcrowded – but only as a temporary measure till new Building established. Drew manager’s attention to sheets and bedclothes which could be cleaner. Lavatory Annexe ... general cleanliness is not good – drew manager’s attention to this. Clothing to be improved ... suggested lumber jackets. Farm boys very untidy looking, especially about legs – suggested small gaiters ... to be worn to keep ends of trousers dry. Suggested rubber aprons to be worn by boys in the laundry because of wet conditions their clothes were in. Manager hopes that new building will soon be started.

Over a year later, in July 1943, she visited again. There was no sign of the promised new building but she remained optimistic. She wrote: At present, as a purely temporary arrangement, the dormitories are over-crowded - Recreation Hall is a condemned building – this must be till the new Building is erected. Sheets on beds unsatisfactory – not clean – clothing for everyday wear could be improved. The Manager has been only too eager to carry out any recommendations previously made by me - i.e. new floor in refectory – lumber. I suggest that some impetus should be given to the starting of the New Building – The dormitories are very overcrowded and the no. of boys is yearly increasing. Classrooms are small and the recreation and wash-house are just makeshift.

Three years later, in May 1946, there was more concern than optimism about the promised building. ‘The Manager’, wrote Dr McCabe, ‘is very keen to get on with the New Building and he has asked me if possible to get at B/W35 and ask them to expedite matters ... I am most anxious for the new buildings to be started as soon as possible’.

It was in November that year that the new building began to be built. She wrote, ‘It will be most welcome when completed’. By 1948, the new sanitary annexe had been added, but still she was writing, ‘... at present dormitory accommodation is not sufficient. All this will be improved with New Building’.

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.