Chapter 3 — Gateways

Non-attendance at school

Of equal importance with the numbers involved was the length of time for which each child was committed.

For reformatories, the ‘period of detention’ was laid down as not less than two, or more than four, years,19 or in any case not beyond the age of 19.20 In practice, the period of actual detention was usually about one year, provided that the offender’s behaviour and home circumstances were satisfactory.21

The position in regard to industrial schools was more complicated. As regards the children committed by the courts, the almost invariable practice was to commit until the age of 16. The legislation22 appeared to allow the court some discretion in committing children. Nevertheless, up to the 1960s in the thousands of cases which have been checked, in both the Dublin County Borough and provincial courts, the District Justice always made the order apply right up to the time when the child would be 16 years.

Given that committal was until 16 years, the length of time for which any child or young person was committed by a court depended on their age at the time of committal. It is significant that those children who were committed for being ‘needy’ were often committed at very tender years. Thus, they had to reside for many years in both a junior industrial school and senior industrial school.

The net result was striking. In the case of a reformatory school, an offender was sent away usually for about one year (which was in line with a normal criminal sanction). By contrast, for committal to an industrial school, the age of release was fixed at 16 years, and the length of the committal period varied depending on the age of the child at the date of committal. The justification offered for this anomaly was that committal was seen not as a punishment but as a period for which the child or young person needed protection (or education), until they were old enough to fend for themselves. In any case, the reality comes through in the following Dáil exchange: Deputy Dillon: “May I bespeak the good offices of the Minister with special reference to this category of children so that they will not be left permanently in industrial schools ...?”. J Lynch: “... the word ‘permanently’ might create a wrong impression. They would all be entitled to be released at 14 years of age. For the purposes of childhood, that is surely permanently”. (DD: vol 166, col 779)

These figures varied slightly from decade to decade; however, the average committal period for the period from 1951 to 1960 was: ‘needy’: 8.8 years school non-attendance: 4.2 years offences: 4.1 years.

Children were occasionally removed from school by their parents without the consent of the Minister for Education or the school. For example, some just failed to return from holidays; some parents removed their children from the jurisdiction; and some absconded.

However, more official removals could be made by the exercise of the Minister’s discretion to order early discharge, usually because there had been a change in family circumstances or where a parent made a complaint about abuse.

A parent or guardian of a child detained in an industrial school had the right to apply to the Minister for Education for the release of the child.23 The relevant legislation was, in the first place, section 69(3) of the 1908 Act, which gave the Minister discretion to release any child or young person committed. Following the constitutional challenge in the Doyle case,24 the law was amended by the Children (Amendment) Act, 1957 which made the exercise of this discretion mandatory where the circumstances that had given rise to the committal order had ceased and were not likely to recur; and, further, where the parents were able to support the child. This change did not apply to offenders or those committed for non-attendance at school.

This trend in favour of early discharge was intensified following the Kennedy Report in 1970, which stated: The whole aim of the Child Care system should be geared towards the prevention of family break-down and the problems consequent on it. The committal or admission of children to Residential Care should be considered only when there is no satisfactory alternative.25

One of the most influential of the persons consulted, though his authority did not always carry the day, was the Manager of the relevant school. Their counsel was usually against early discharge: no case of the school authorities taking the initiative to secure a release has been found in the documents. Leaving aside any financial disincentive, the Resident Manager would probably have considered that the best option for a child was staying in the School and would have been inherently unlikely to draw back and determine dispassionately that any child would be better off elsewhere.

The average percentage of applications for early discharge, as compared with the average percentage population in the schools, was 6.1%. Of these applications, an average of 72% succeeded. This was a fairly small number of applications, and may suggest that the system of early release was not well known.

Throughout the 1950s, the number of successful applications increased. This trend was in line with the general improvement in economic and social conditions in the country over the course of the decade. There were, however, notable exceptions: Artane and Letterfrack for boys, and Goldenbridge for girls, stand out in terms of the high percentage of refusals.

The figures for reformatories differ: St Conleth’s, Daingean, as the only reformatory school for boys, had, by its remit, different criteria in relation to the release and discharge of the children, not least because young offenders were committed by the courts for a relatively short period, compared to other categories of offender, so the vast majority of applications were turned down. Thus, there were relatively few applications, even compared to the population in the School. Furthermore, the success rate, at an average of 24%, was much lower than for industrial schools.

The process had to be initiated by the parents, who would often have been uninformed as to how to do this. What is missing is any reference to residents whose parents or guardians never applied for early discharge in the first place or who had no parents to apply. This meant that children without parents or guardians to apply had no chance of being released. The documents do not contain any reference to release being considered for such children. There was no official agency charged with the duty of reviewing each case, either periodically or where there were signs of a change in the child or in family circumstances. This was a serious and fundamental flaw in the system.