Chapter 8 — Letterfrack

Neglect

The Investigation Committee has divided the investigation into the provision of care for the boys in Letterfrack into two periods – pre and post 1954.

Letterfrack was not one of the biggest industrial schools but, even during the 1930s and 1940s, the numbers rarely fell below 150 boys and, until 1954, the number under detention was reasonably steady. However, it was smaller than many other institutions and this had implications for the level of funding available. Early Visitation Reports showed the constant struggle needed to make ends meet. Until the mid-1940s, the School incurred losses in each year of its operation. From 1943, things improved and, for the next 10 years, the School managed reasonably successfully.

From 1943 the Visitation Reports show that separate accounts were kept for the House and the School. The House accounts that dealt with the monastery and Brothers’ expenses showed that every Brother in Letterfrack received a salary from the industrial school income (ie mainly the capitation grants). For example, in 1943 when there were 10 Brothers resident in the monastery, £1,000 was paid by way of stipend in respect of Brothers’ services. The Brothers did not of course have to pay for accommodation or food out of their salary. The House made contributions to the Christian Brothers’ Building Fund during the 1940s – £500 in 1946, and £1,200 in 1948.

The financial position up to 1953 was summed up by a Visitor in 1953: Financially you are solvent but it is evident that there is not a whole lot of money to spare when one considers the need there is for expenditure.

It was not quite as bleak as that, however. In 1954/1955, there was a credit balance of £3,573 and, with the increased funding that had been made available since 1952, the outlook for the Institution was not too bad. Food, clothing and accommodation pre-1954

It is noteworthy that the most critical comments about food come from the Visitor and not from the Department Inspector. The Visitor often cited complaints made to him, as opposed to relying on what he witnessed being served. The Inspector could only judge on what she herself witnessed, as the Brothers would not have complained to her and the boys were not given an opportunity to do so. The one area of the Institution that one would expect to see improved for the purposes of an inspection was the food served on the day, and therefore a more complete picture can often be gleaned from the Congregation’s own Visitor. Serious concerns were expressed by these Visitors over the quantity and quality of food provided to the boys.

In 1939 the Congregation Visitor noted that the boys looked frail, under-nourished and pale. The Visitor commented on this fact to the Manager, but was told that the Department Inspector had examined the dietary scale and expressed herself satisfied with it. Later in the same year, the Disciplinarian, Br Leveret, wrote to the Provincial complaining, inter alia, about the fact that the boys were not getting enough bread, butter or milk. At this time, farm produce and tea, sugar, bacon, meal and wheat were being sold locally, and milk was being supplied to local people.

In 1940, the Provincial received a written complaint from a Christian Brother in Cabra to the effect that one of the boys there, a former resident of Letterfrack, had told him that there was never enough to eat in Letterfrack and that he used to be so hungry that he had resorted to eating turnips and vegetables from the field.

Later in the year, the farm Brother complained that the boys of the School were the ‘worst catered for of any of the five institutions’.

In 1941, the Visitor reported that many of the staff complained about the manner in which the food was served. They complained that the cabbage was cold, minced meat was served all the time, and the tea was served cold in unwashed cups. The Visitor accepted that this was all true but reported that the quantities served were reasonable. He further noted that the boys would not eat the cabbage because the kitchen Brother used the water trough, which was used for washing the cabbage, as a urinal. The Brother in question, Br Perryn, was a Domestic Brother and had been working in the kitchen in Letterfrack since the late 1920s. The Visitor described him as dirty, untidy and almost repulsive. The kitchen Brother was dismissed as a result of the discovery that he had been sexually abusing boys for many years.

The Visitor noted that there were 17 milch cows yielding only 14 gallons of milk per day. The boys got around seven gallons, the monastery around three, and three were sold to the village. In 1941, there were 160 boys in Letterfrack and nine Brothers, and yet the boys got barely more than double the allocation of milk for the Brothers, less than a third of a pint per day. Up to 50 of the boys were under nine years of age.

The Department Inspector does not seem to have engaged on the issue of food at all. She made no reference to the quantity of milk served, although this was an issue she raised in other schools. In 1943, she described the food as ‘an ample, well balanced and varied diet’.

In 1945 the Visitor remarked that the 10 Brothers in the monastery were catered for by two female cooks, whilst the boys, who numbered upwards of 165, were catered for by ‘an old man in the place of Br Lafayette who should be in the kitchen’ – Br Lafayette was ill for most of that year.

Practically all of the clothing worn by the boys was made in the tailor and knitting shops. In the 1940s and 1950s, the Department Inspector made frequent complaints about the quality of the boys’ clothing.

From 1943 until 1947, the clothing of the boys was described as fairly good but very patched and torn. She was told that boots were difficult to obtain and the boys wore wooden clogs attached to leather uppers. In 1948 the Inspector noted that the quality of the clothing was ‘fairly good’ but that it required a lot of improvement and that the Manager had promised to provide new coats. She did not inspect the School again until 1951. Any improvement in the clothing was not evident, as she again commented ‘a lot of the clothing is patched – I asked the Manager to provide new material for clothes’. Later that year, she found the ‘clothing had improved on the whole’. Clothing was described by the Inspector as ‘fairly good’ in the early 1950s, with no other comments.