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Chapter 3 — Gateways

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Non-attendance at school

51

In the early 1950s, the number of children sent to the schools by boards of health increased for such reasons as the need to find somewhere to house children who would earlier have lived in county homes. Whatever the causes, a pattern developed in the late 1940s by which health authorities sought to put children in industrial schools, despite the preference of the Department of Health for boarding out (this tension between the two authorities is discussed in Eoin O’Sullivan’s chapter).

52

Accordingly, the health authorities encouraged existing industrial schools to apply to the Department of Health for the necessary certification to enable them to receive health authority referrals.

53

Equally, because of the falling numbers of residents being committed by the courts, schools were actively looking for children, and made the health authorities aware of this.

54

Little seems to have changed during the quarter of a century up to 1970, when the health boards were established, and they increasingly employed social workers to work with children in care and their families. The social workers saw it as their duty to try to avoid breaking up the family, unless there was no alternative. Where there was no alternative, then fostering was the preferred option.

Footnotes
  1. Section 44 of the Children Act, 1908 (as amended by section 6 of the Children Act, 1941) defines ‘child’ as one under the age of 15 (originally 14); and a ‘young person’ as one between the ages of 15 and 17 (originally 14 and 16). This is pursuant to section 57(1) of the Children Act, 1908 as amended by section 9 of the Children Act, 1941. The umbrella term ‘young offenders’ comprehends any offenders between the ages of seven and 21 years.
  2. Later re-enacted in section 10(1)(d) of the Children Act, 1941.
  3. The full wording of section 10(1)(e) of the 1941 Act was as follows:
  4. ‘Provided also that the Court shall not make an order that a child be sent to a certified industrial school on the grounds stated in paragraph (h) unless—
  5. (i) the child’s parents consent or his surviving parent or, in the case of an illegitimate child, his mother consents to such order being made, or
  6. (ii) the Court is satisfied that owing to mental incapacity or desertion on the part of the child’s parents or his surviving parent or, in the case of an illegitimate child, his mother, the consent of such parents or parent may be dispensed with, or
  7. (iii) one of the child’s parents consents to such order being made and the Court being satisfied that, owing to mental incapacity or desertion on the part of the other parent or to the fact that the other parent is undergoing imprisonment or penal servitude, the consent of that parent may be dispensed with’.
  8. Section 58(3) of the Children Act, 1908 as amended by section 10(2) of the Children Act, 1941.
  9. Section 57(2) of the Children Act, 1908 as amended by section 9(2) of the Children Act, 1941.
  10. Kennedy Report, p 1.
  11. See chapter on St Joseph’s, Kilkenny.
  12. Section 65(a) of the Children Act, 1908 as amended by section 11(1) of the Children Act, 1941.
  13. Section 65(a) of the Children Act, 1908.
  14. Section 58(3) of the Children Act, 1908.
  15. See sections 57 and 58(3) of the Children Act, 1908.
  16. Annual Figures for the JLO for 1968–2003 are given in O’Donnell, O’Sullivan and Healy (eds), Crime and Punishment in Ireland 1922 to 2003: A statistical Sourcebook (IPA, 2005), Table 5.3.
  17. What follows is a paraphrase of section 107 of the 1908 Act where the available sanctions are summarised. Section 107 states:
  18. ‘Where a child or young person charged with any offence is tried by any court, and the court is satisfied of his guilt, the court shall take into consideration the manner in which, under the provisions of this or any other Act enabling the court to deal with the case, the case should be dealt with, namely, whether—
  19. (a) by dismissing the charge; or
  20. (b) by discharging the offender on his entering into a recongizance; or
  21. (c) by so discharging the offender and placing him under the supervision of a probation officer; or
  22. (d) by committing the offender to the care of a relative or other fit person; or
  23. (e) by sending the offender to an industrial school; or
  24. (f) by sending the offender to a reformatory school; or
  25. (g) by ordering the offender to be whipped; or
  26. (h) by ordering the offender to pay a fine, damages, or costs; or
  27. (i) by ordering the parent or guardian of the offender to pay a fine, damages, or costs; or
  28. (j) by ordering the parent or guardian of the offender to give security for his good behaviour ...’.
  29. Section 17(4)(a) and (b) of the School Attendance Act, 1926.
  30. Section 17 of the School Attendance Act, 1926 states:
  31. ‘(1) Whenever a parent fails or neglects to cause his child to whom this Act applies to attend school in accordance with this Act and, so far as is known to the enforcing authority of the school attendance area in which the child resides, there is no reasonable excuse for such failure or neglect, such enforcing authority shall serve on such parent a warning in the prescribed form ...
  32. (2) If a parent does not comply with a warning duly served on him under this section, he shall, unless he satisfies the Court that he has used all reasonable efforts to cause the child to attend school in accordance with the Act, be guilty of an offence under this section ...
  33. (4) If in any proceedings against a parent under this section the parent satisfies the court that he has used all reasonable efforts to cause the child to whom the proceedings relate to attend school in accordance with this Act or the parent is convicted of a second or subsequent offence under this section in respect of the same child, the court if it thinks fit may—
  34. (a) order the child to be sent to a certified industrial school ...’.
  35. SI 105/1972: School Attendance Act, 1926 (Extension of Application) Order, 1972 raised the school leaving age from 14 to 15.
  36. Section 80 of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924.
  37. ‘Managers’ was the term used under the 1908 Act. This later became more commonly referred to as ‘resident manager’.
  38. Section 65(a) of the Children Act, 1908 as amended by section 11(1) of the Children Act, 1941.
  39. Originally (under the 1908 Act) this was three to five years. However, the 1941 Act reduced this period from two to four years. It also raised the upper age limit of committal to a reformatory from 16 to 17 years, and reduced the period of detention, after which managers could release on licence, from 18 to six months.
  40. In The Irish Press 27th June 1967, Joseph O’Malley gives the eventual average length of stay in Daingean Reformatory as about 15 months.
  41. Section 65(b) of the Children Act, 1908 states:
  42. ‘The detention order shall specify the time for which the youthful offender or child is to be detained in the school, being— ... in the case of a child sent to an industrial school, such time as to the court may seem proper for the teaching and training of the child, but not in any case extending beyond the time when the child will, in the opinion of the court, attain the age of sixteen years’.
  43. Section 69(1) of the Children Act, 1908 states:
  44. ‘The [Minister] may at any time order a youthful offender or a child to be discharged from a certified school, either absolutely or on such conditions as the [Minister] approves ...’.
  45. Section 5 of the Children (Amendment) Act, 1957, which superseded the 1908 Act provision, in the case of children committed under [section 58 of 1908 Act], stated:
  46. ‘(1) Where—
  47. (a) a child has been committed to an industrial school under section 58 of the Principal Act, and
  48. (b) an application is made to the Minister for Education by a parent or guardian for the release of the child, and
  49. (c) the Minister is satisfied that the circumstances which led to the making of the committal order have ceased and are not likely to recur if the child is released, and that the parent or guardian is able to support the child, the Minister shall order the discharge of the child.
  50. (2) The Minister may, if he so thinks proper, refer the application to the court.
  51. (3) If the Minister refuses the application, the parent or guardian may refer it to the court.
  52. (4) The court, if satisfied in regard to the matters referred to in paragraph (c) of subsection (1), shall have jurisdiction to order the discharge of the child.
  53. (5) A reference to the court under this section shall be made to the District Court in the District in which the committal order was made or, if the applicant resides in another District, in that District.
  54. (6) The order for the discharge of the child, whether made by the Minister or the court, shall operate to revoke the detention order.
  55. (7) (a) Where the District Court or, on appeal, the Circuit Court, orders the discharge of a child, the court may award costs and expenses to the successful applicant ...’.
  56. This provision was introduced in response to the Doyle case discussed at Appendix, para (iii).
  57. Doyle v Minister for Education. The case was decided in 1956 but not reported until 1989 at [1989] ILRM 277. The Supreme Court decided that, because of the wording of Article 42.1 of the Constitution, the right of parents to raise their children was inalienable and could not be transferred to the State, even with the consent of parents.
  58. Kennedy Report, p 6.
  59. Section 56 (2) of the Health Act, 1953 states that:
  60. ‘Where a health authority have sent a child to a school approved of by the Minister, the authority—
  61. (a) may at any time, with the consent of the Minister, remove the child from the school, and
  62. (b) shall remove the child from the school if and when required so to do by the Minister or by the managers of the school, or upon the school ceasing to be approved of by the Minister’.
  63. Section 55(1) of the Health Act, 1953.
  64. Section 55(1) and (2) of the Health Act, 1953.