Chapter 2 — Upton

Neglect and emotional abuse

When Dr McCabe visited the School on 27th October 1947 she found ‘altogether there is a great improvement in this school’ which was due in no small measure to the arrival of the Dominican nuns. She declared that ‘the advent of the Nuns has made a great difference to the school’. In particular, she felt that the nuns had brought about much improvement on the domestic side of the house. In 1948, she noted the same improvements, again because of the nuns. In her report dated 22nd October 1948, Dr McCabe detailed that the corridors and dormitories had been repainted and the premises were clean and ‘well kept’.

There are no Inspection Reports for the years 1949, 1950 and 1951. The next available Inspection Report is dated 21st May 1952. On that occasion, Dr McCabe again praised the nuns for bringing about ‘great changes’ in the dormitories and kitchens, and found that the School was altogether ‘much improved’ and the painting of the entire house was being undertaken at the time. Dr McCabe made similar comments when she visited on 17th December 1954. She remarked that the ‘school continues to improve’, particularly in the area of clothing and food.

From 1947 to 1954, Dr McCabe consistently remarked on the great positive changes which had taken place at the School by the arrival of the Dominican nuns in 1946. The precise changes cannot be gleaned from her reports. However, by 1955 the nuns had to leave Upton due to staff shortages in the Dominican houses. Dr McCabe lamented the departure of the nuns in her Inspection Report of 11th November 1955 where she stated: School has improved – Unfortunately now that the Nuns have departed I wonder if this happy state of affairs will continue.

Despite the departure of the nuns, the School conditions had not deteriorated, as was evidenced by Dr McCabe in her General Inspection Report of 29th November 1956. She still considered that the School had ‘much improved’ and there was a ‘Nice Spirit’ prevailing.

Dr McCabe’s Inspection Reports from 1958 to 1964 repeatedly record her anticipation of conditions improving in the School. Throughout those years, she consistently stated that ‘improvements have been made’ and ‘continue to be made’, but very little information was provided as to the exact nature of these ‘improvements’ except to say that they were occurring ‘slowly’. In 1958, Dr McCabe remarked in her report that the Resident Manager ‘is investigating the central heating’. It took another four years before central heating was installed in the School. During those years, Dr McCabe consistently described the School as ‘well run’ and the boys ‘well cared’.

In 1961, with the appointment of a new Resident Manager, Fr Eduardo, Dr McCabe was positively hopeful that he would bring about greater improvements, which up to that time had been occurring slowly. She wrote, ‘Now with Fr Eduardo in charge I expect to see great works’.

Dr McCabe’s last inspection was carried out on 12th May 1964. On that occasion, the Resident Manager, Fr Eduardo, came in for particular praise by her: Fr Eduardo deserves the greatest praise for the work he has done since his appointment. He has redecorated all the school inside and outside and its appearance is much better and brighter. Great improvements everywhere.

Every area of the School on that occasion was referred to as being ‘very good’, including the food and diet of the boys, which had been an ongoing issue for the Medical Inspector for a number of years. Even the clothing on that occasion was described as ‘much better’.

Her view, however, was contradicted by the Lord Mayor of Cork, who visited Upton in January 1965 with a number of students. His report gave a very different account of life at the School. Each week, a number of students from Cork visited Upton ‘to help brighten the lives of the boys’. On one of these visits, the Lord Mayor was invited to join them, which he did on 26th January 1965. Whilst there, he admitted to taking ‘an unofficial tour of the buildings’ and he arrived in the dining room while the boys were preparing for tea. The scene that greeted him ‘came as quite a shock’. He went so far as to say that: The conditions I saw would not be tolerated in a workhouse of by-gone days.

The conditions in the dining room, which came as such a shock to the Lord Mayor, were the battered tin plates and cups from which the boys ate and drank, the dirty tables stacked high with piles of bread, and the lack of knives and forks. One Brother and a woman did the entire cooking for 130 boys.

He was also critical of the boys’ dormitories, where he found ‘some eighty beds all closely packed together’. Apart from the lack of privacy, he found that the pillows were hard ‘as if made of straw’ and there ‘didn’t appear to be any sheets’. He commented: It is bad enough to see delinquents subjected to these conditions but orphans who are there through no fault of their own should surely deserve more humane treatment.

The only positive remark he had to make was in respect of the recreational facilities, but felt that ‘surely essentials should come first’. He concluded from what he saw that: It is hard to visualise any of these lads adapting themselves to conditions in the outside world after their years in Upton.

This report reached the Department of Education and it prompted them to dispatch a senior officer, Mr McDevitt, to inspect the School on 4th and 5th March 1965.

In his report following his inspection, Mr McDevitt ‘found the school generally very much improved’. He commented on each of the complaints raised by the Lord Mayor. First, he reported that each boy received a fork and spoon, but confirmed there was a shortage of knives, with only 30 in existence, which resulted in two knives being supplied to each table of eight boys. He noted that the Brother in charge of the kitchen complained of the shortage of knives. Secondly, he disagreed that the boys used tin cups, stating that the tableware was aluminium, which had been purchased in the interests of hygiene, as the Department of Health had issued a warning on the dangers of eating from chipped or cracked delph. Previously, according to the report, delph cups were used in the School. He did, however, concede that, owing to constant wear and tear, the aluminium plates and cups had become battered and needed to be replaced. Thirdly, he reported that the dining hall was adequately heated, that tablecloths were not used in any industrial school, and the tables were newly topped with formica. Fourthly, he found that the kitchen was adequate, with first-class equipment, but it was supervised by a Brother who ‘has had a nervous breakdown and seems rather neurotic’.

Mr McDevitt was of the view that the dormitories were ‘highly satisfactory’. He added that there were two sheets to every bed and a blanket underneath, and that the pillows were stuffed with either feathers or fibre. He concluded that the School ‘has improved immensely’. In support of this conclusion, he cited figures provided to him by the Brothers that £32,000 had been spent: on renovating the toilets, play hall and T.V. room; on the central heating; and in extending the dormitories and shower rooms.