Chapter 4 — Circumstances of admission

Pathways to Industrial and Reformatory Schools

Witnesses who gave evidence were admitted both directly from their parents’ home to the Schools and also from various other residential settings, including: • Mother and Baby Homes. These were often either the place of birth or first residence for non-marital children. A number of witnesses reported that they remained in these homes with their mothers, for up to 3 years. • County Homes. These were also both places of birth and first residences. Some witnesses reported being with their mothers in county homes until they were up to five years old. • Foster Care. Provided for infants and young children in some circumstances prior to placement in an Industrial School. Before 1983 such arrangements were also known as ‘boarding out’ or ‘at nurse’. • Children’s Homes. These facilities admitted infants and young children. A number of witnesses reported being placed in Children’s Homes until they were transferred to an Industrial School.

Witnesses who were admitted to Schools from the above facilities were most often non-marital children, frequently referred to as ‘orphans’. The term orphan was used by witnesses in relation to their own circumstances and in reference to co-residents who had no contact with any family outside the institution. Witnesses generally believed that these residents had been in institutions all their lives and either had no known family or their parents had died. Many later learned that they had lived with their mothers for the first few years of their lives and/or had been initially reared by relatives prior to placement in out-of-home care. A number of those witnesses who identified themselves as orphans reported that frequently their mothers had, for various reasons, been unable to support them. The majority of these witnesses had known little or nothing about the circumstances of their admission to out-of-home care. This lack of information included not knowing where they had been born, who their mothers and their fathers were, whether they had siblings, why their parents were unable to care for them and who decided they would be admitted to the Industrial School system. In many instances information available to witnesses through Freedom of Information legislation and other sources in later years indicated that they were not in fact orphans. Witnesses described learning that their parents, particularly mothers, had made representations to the authorities to have them placed close to where they lived. Others reported that their parents had sought to have them released before the full term of their detention and also requested information about their children from whom they had been separated. Witnesses reported that most often these requests had not received a favourable response at the time. However, for a number of witnesses access to such information facilitated contact with family previously unknown to them.

Admissions to Industrial Schools were frequently by Court Order, applications for which could be made by Inspectors from the NSPCC/ISPCC and the Gardaí. Information provided to the Committee indicated that Inspectors from the Society applied for Court Orders on behalf of 120 male witnesses (29%) and 208 female witnesses (60%) who were admitted to Industrial Schools. Placements in voluntary Children’s Homes and foster care were reported to have been generally negotiated by individual arrangement between a child’s parent, guardian, public assistance boards, local authorities and Health Boards, and the operators of the respective services. Some of these placements were by Order of the Court following on application by the Health Board.

‘Boarding out’ and foster care arrangements were other options for the care of a child in circumstances where the parents were unable to provide the necessary care. Records provided to the Committee by witnesses suggest that access to these placements depended on various factors, including either the ability of the mother or her family to pay, the official involvement of State agencies and the availability of appropriate residential services.

In addition to reports of parental payment for foster care and other placements, the Committee heard evidence from many witnesses of the requirement for parents to contribute financially towards their children’s maintenance in Industrial Schools. Copies of correspondence, shown to the Committee by witnesses, between their parents and Department of Education officials, Gardaí and Resident Managers indicated that such payments were assiduously pursued by their officials. I was illegitimate ... I went into the orphanage ...(Industrial School).... My mother was unmarried, her mother had died in childbirth. My grandfather never saw me, my father didn’t want to know.... She was wandering the streets and there was this man a Mr ...X... he was sort of in charge, an overseer, of unmarried mothers, to keep an eye on them for the Government. He got her into the workhouse ... run by nuns and she worked scrubbing and cleaning ... the nuns told her she had to be punished for committing a mortal sin, they were the words from my mother to me. She was there from when she was 7 months pregnant until I was born.... She was kept in the workhouse, for 2 or 3 months. Then her sister went up one Sunday to see her, and took me and her out. She then went to work ... it was then I was left with ...(foster mother).... I was minded by ...(foster mother)... for the first 2 years ... and my mother paid that woman to mind me. It ...(the cost)... became too much for her I suppose and I went to ...named School... through the Courts. It was through Mr ...X ... I went into the orphanage ...(Industrial School).... I did not know I had gone through the Courts until I got the records, it said my mother was incapable of minding me and so I went into the orphanage.

The chart below is an outline of the general pathways into and through institutional care for most witnesses who gave evidence in relation to abuse in Industrial Schools. The representation of Court intervention on the Chart is intended to indicate that it was not a necessary prelude to admission to the Industrial Schools. It is important to note that children were also admitted to the Schools without recourse to the Courts. Figure 1: Outline of Pathways to Industrial Schools Source: Confidential Committee of CICA, 2009 *Court involvement – see Chapter 4.3 **Girls/Mixed Industrial Schools – Small number of girls Schools also admitted boys up to the age of 8-10 years, prior to transfer to senior boys Schools. There was no distinction between junior and senior Schools for girls as there was for boys. ***Some boys were discharged at this stage.

The Committee heard accounts of older children being looked after by relatives while younger siblings went into care. In other instances babies were kept at home either with parents or relatives while the other children were admitted to care. Five hundred and seventy (570) witnesses (72%), 327 male and 243 female, reported being admitted directly from parental and extended family homes to either an Industrial or Reformatory School. Ninety six (96) witnesses, 29 male and 67 female, reported being admitted to an Industrial School from mother and baby homes, county homes, hospitals and hostels where they were born and where many had spent some time with their mothers prior to their admission to Schools. Fifty three (53) witnesses, 22 male and 31 female, reported being admitted to Industrial Schools from foster care placements, including ‘boarding out’ and ‘at nurse’ arrangements. Thirty seven (37) witnesses, 23 male and 14 female, reported being admitted to Industrial Schools from Children’s Homes. Three (3) witnesses reported being admitted to an Industrial School from special needs schools. Thirty two (32) witnesses, nine male and 23 female, have been unable to determine where they were prior to their admission to an Industrial School.

One hundred and two (102) male witnesses (25%) were initially admitted to junior Schools as young children and transferred to a senior School at between eight and 10 years of age.

Reasons for admission

Social circumstances, including combinations of poverty, illness, neglect, parental death, non-marital birth and unemployment were reported as significant factors in the admission of all 791 witnesses to the School system. Two hundred and forty one (241) witnesses (30%), 119 male and 122 female, reported parental alcohol abuse, poverty, unemployment, family violence and lack of care and control at home as contributory factors in their admission to a School.

Two hundred and twenty nine (229) witnesses (29%), 88 male and 141 female, identified themselves as non-marital children, who as a consequence of the circumstances of their birth were generally in some form of institutional care for most of their childhood.

One hundred and forty (140) witnesses (18%), 75 male and 65 female, reported the death of one or both parents as a significant factor in their admission to a School. Of those, the mother’s death preceded admission in 82 instances and father’s death preceded admission in 49 instances. Death of both parents was reported as a reason for admission in nine instances. The main known causes of death reported by male and female witnesses were tuberculosis, mother’s death in childbirth, cancer and heart disease. My father died, my mother had 8 of us. She went to the parish priest, she was friendly with him, and he said “put them into an orphanage until you get yourself sorted out in your new home”. So she went to the Court, she was looking for a pound, that’s all she wanted, a pound a week. But they threw her out of Court and put us into Schools, all except the youngest of us.

One hundred and eleven (111) witnesses (14%), 107 male and four female, reported that their conviction for criminal offences was the major factor leading to their admission to a School.2 The nature of the offences mainly involved theft of food, fuel, bicycles, clothing or money. There were eight reports from male witnesses of admission as a result of charges for more serious offences such as ‘breaking and entering’ and ‘attacks on the person’.

Sixty seven (67) witnesses, 38 male and 29 female, reported parental abandonment as a factor in the circumstances leading to their admission. Fifty one (51) of these reports referred to fathers leaving the family home, sometimes to seek work in the UK or USA, at other times leaving the family home in the context of domestic violence, alcohol abuse or illness. Witnesses reported the remaining parent, usually the child’s mother, was unable to manage alone and by a variety of means children were placed in institutional care. Sixteen (16) witnesses reported that their mother left the family home, in circumstances similar to those reported above and with similar consequences. I didn’t deserve the life they gave me, I was and am branded a criminal by the Courts and I did nothing wrong, all because the ...X... County Council wouldn’t spend a few lousy pounds repairing our house and because they would rather give money to the ...named religious order... to look after us than give my mother some help after he ...(father)... left so that we could stay together as a family....

Fifty six (56) witnesses were admitted to institutional care as a result of a Court Order under the School Attendance Acts. Non-attendance at school was reported by a number of witnesses to be the result of difficult circumstances at home, including poverty, neglect and domestic violence. Parental alcohol abuse was a frequent feature of these reports. Eleven (11) male witnesses reported being absent from school specifically because of learning difficulties and/or severe treatment at school.

Fifty four (54) witnesses, 19 male and 35 female, reported chronic illness and hospitalisation of a parent as the main contributing factor in their admission. Twenty six (26) witnesses reported that their mothers were in psychiatric hospitals and five others reported that their fathers had psychiatric illnesses. Ten (10) witnesses reported that one of their parents had tuberculosis and the remaining parent was unable to cope alone, resulting in the more dependant children being admitted to an Industrial School. Other witnesses reported that both parents had tuberculosis. Mum had TB, my father couldn’t look after us ... he was an alcoholic. I was put in by Court Order ...(with consent of parents).... My sisters joined me, except my eldest sister, she stayed with my Nan.... I have no recollection because I was only 18 months ...(old)... going there. Basically from what my sister told me I know it was 3 or 4 months after me that they came in. All my mam’s family had died of TB, she was the only one that survived, basically she was on her own. I saw my father once, I remember him coming up one Christmas. I didn’t know I had brothers until ...(later years).... • Seven of us went into institutions. The baby she ...(mother)... kept and an older sister as well. The house was examined, it was in very poor circumstance. I have a letter from the sergeant ...displayed copy of correspondence and garda report.... My father had a disability. I remember it ...(admission)... distinctly. I was going in ... I was sitting on my mother’s lap, she left me and she didn’t come back and get me. ... She didn’t visit until I was 5, I didn’t recognise her as my mother. • They brought us to the Court. I remember my father screaming ...distressed... he was a good father. I remember him playing with us, he was a good man, he’d play with me and my sister, he did not want us to go. I remember the love my parents had for me, they were poor and my mother was another religion. Thirty two (32) witnesses, 21 male and 11 female, reported being admitted to a School following family disruption through parental separation, cohabitation or as a result of extra marital relationships. Twenty seven (27) witnesses, 10 male and 17 female, reported that their parents, 20 fathers and seven mothers either were or had also been in prison. Five (5) witnesses, two male and three female, reported being admitted to a School because of familial sexual abuse. Sixty five (65) witnesses, 57 male and eight female, stated that they have not been able to determine the circumstances of their admission to institutional care.