194 entries for Dr Anna McCabe

In Rathdrum in December 1947 a child of three was put in to a very hot bath and died a few days later from his injuries. Dr McCabe was sent to inquire and discovered that at the time the victim was in the care of a 14½-year-old laundry maid. The school was inadequately staffed, partly because the 14 nuns in the Rathdrum Convent were old and incapable. The next month Dr McCabe returned to see what improvements had been made and wrote the following internal report: I informed the Resident Manager that I did not consider she had sufficient staff at present and that she should employ at least two extra helpers immediately, one religious if possible and the other a capable woman with experience of children. She told me she accepted this suggestion and would try to meet my requirements. She then informed me that she expected a castigation since the school had been ‘in the news’ so often. I told her that the most recent episode amounted, in my opinion to criminal negligence... I then informed her that I had given her one last chance to remedy her deficiencies and that if the school had any further complaints, which on investigation proved to be true that I would ask for her removal. Also I informed her that I would like to see the Mother-General in Carysfort and ask her aid in insisting on this Resident Manager carrying out her duties properly. One facet of the resident manager I do not like is that she is inclined to be parsimonious and grasping about money and again on this occasion she said the grant was not adequate. I told her not to talk nonsense that schools catering for big boys 10-16 years could very well manage and that these boys eat far more than little boys and required more clothes! I consider it would be well to follow up my visit with a letter insisting on my suggestions being carried out and warning the resident manager that if she cannot cope with the situation she will have to be replaced.

In the early part of her career Dr McCabe was vociferous in her demands for improvements in diet and conditions in the schools and was quick to inform the Managers of her dissatisfaction. In a memo sent by Dr McCabe to the Department on 25th November 1944, it is clear that her reforms were often met with resistance from the schools and only instituted when Departmental pressure was applied: In the great majority of schools the children get a bare subsistence diet and nothing more. I have had abundant and convincing proof of this and have effected an improvement in conditions in some of the schools only after the strongest measures were used, e.g., Lenaboy and Passage West.

Dr McCabe advocated a strong response to Resident Managers who refused to implement recommendations: in striking contrast to the usual emollient words used by the Department, her correspondence with certain Resident Managers was often peppered with strong language and demands for improvements. One such letter to the reverend mother of Newtownforbes in 1940, in relation to unsanitary conditions and neglect of sick children, states: ‘I cannot find any excuse which would exonerate you and your staff.’ The inspector felt the best course of action was to hit the schools in their purses and threatened to reduce or remove state funding or certification if the Resident Managers did not comply Nevertheless, the Department considered it ‘impolitic’ to withdraw the certificates of suitability. However, Dr McCabe did succeed in having two Resident Managers removed from their positions as a direct result of her inspection reports.

Despite the 1946 circular stating that principals could draw on the advice of the Department’s Medical Inspector ’regarding any children who are specially troublesome of difficult to control’, there is no evidence that Dr McCabe offered advice on how the troublesome boys could have been treated differently. The standard forms completed by Dr McCabe and the other inspectors did not contain references to issues of discipline or punishment until Mr Granville, Child Care Advisor to the Department, noted that corporal punishment was still in use in the schools.

In the early part of her career, Dr McCabe was heavily critical of the schools, reporting findings very different from the relatively favourable conclusions in the Cussen Report just a few years earlier. She stated that she was ‘simply horrified at the conditions existing in the majority of the Schools’. However, her reports from the 1950s show a marked decline in detail with little of the critical commentary that had characterised the reports of the 1940s. While it is possible that improvements were made during her tenure, and that the schools were better resourced, it is also necessary to take into consideration the fact that from the late 1940s Dr McCabe was suffering from recurrent illness.

The Department of Education Inspections, both General and Medical, were carried out by Dr Anna McCabe, and she was consistently guarded in her assessment of the School. Food, clothing and accommodation were generally categorised as ‘fair’ or ‘satisfactory’ throughout the 1940s. She was particularly critical of the condition of the boys’ patched clothing and the habit of allowing the boys to go barefoot in the summer. This practice was recalled by a complainant to the Committee, who said that this caused cut and injured feet.

The depiction of Carriglea in the early 1940s was of a very run-down and dilapidated place. The main issues centred on the deterioration of the l buildings of the Institution itself, the lack of cleanliness and hygiene, both of the School and the boys, and the poor-quality clothing of the children. From the various reports, there was a divergence of views on the issue of clothing. Throughout the 1940s, the Department of Education Inspector, Dr Anna McCabe, commented on the fact that the boys were in patched clothing, whereas the Visitation Reports only referred to this on one occasion. Despite its being wartime, the care of the boys was praised by the Visitors throughout the 1940s, although Dr McCabe only rated the food, clothing and accommodation as ‘fair’ or ‘satisfactory’. The only direct criticism with regard to food was in 1946, when Dr McCabe felt that the children were not receiving adequate supplies of milk and butter.

The final inspection of the School by Dr McCabe took place in January 1954, as the school closed in June of that year. On her last visit to the School, Dr McCabe spoke highly of the new Resident Manager and, in particular, of the improvements he had made. She commented that he had spent £2,000 on these. She noted that additional indoor games had been introduced, electric lights were added to the dormitories, and all mattresses and beds were restored and re-sprung. Food, diet and sanitation were found to be very good. Again, whilst noting that the clothing had improved, Dr McCabe was of the opinion that more needed to be done in that area.

For much of the review period, Carriglea was a dilapidated and run-down institution, with poor sanitary conditions and a lack of hygiene and cleanliness, both of the boys themselves and the premises. The boys were not properly clothed and went barefoot during the summer, despite the availability of adequate funds. The improvements noted by Dr McCabe took place within months of the Institution closing as an industrial school and reopening as a juniorate. The boys in care did not enjoy the benefit of these improvements.

In December 1946, Dr McCabe visited the School and recorded that the premises were clean and in good condition and that the children were well cared for and happy.

Dr McCabe remarked, in Medical Inspection Reports completed during the 1950s, that she was satisfied with improvements to the boys’ diet. During an inspection in February 1954, she noted many improvements in the School. A new boiler had been installed, the dormitories painted, a carpenter’s shop added, new equipment introduced to the kitchen, and new blankets and bedspreads acquired for the beds. The Visitation Report in May 1954 was not quite so positive. The Report noted that the boys’ play hall was small and ‘somewhat depressing’, but the Superior asserted that the boys had plenty to amuse themselves with during the frequent rainy periods. The Visitor found the shower facilities rather primitive, although the Superior assured him that improvements had been made. He was glad to see that the boys had new boots and sandals ‘so that there was none of the heavy clattering of boots that is such an undesirable feature of some of our industrial schools’.

The Submissions made by the Congregation on issues of neglect of the boys in Glin drew attention first to the General Inspection Reports of the Department of Education, which it stated were generally very favourable. It said that the process of inspection as carried out by Dr Anna McCabe was thorough and had good follow-up. At the end of each inspection, Dr McCabe made recommendations orally to the Manager of the School, which were then followed up by a letter from the Department, formally listing the recommendations. The process came to a close with a letter of confirmation from the Manager that the required alterations and improvements had been made. The Congregation contend that the Resident Manager responded promptly to the Department’s requirements, following both General Inspection Reports and Medical Inspection Reports. The reality, however, is that the Department Inspections were a good deal less effective than the Congregation’s description would suggest.

In 1939, Dr Anna McCabe30 conducted her first general inspection of Salthill. She noted that the School looked untidy, as did the children. Otherwise, she found the boys were healthy.

Dr McCabe wrote to the Resident Manager, after her inspection in July 1942, complaining about: the unsatisfactory conditions in which I found the beds and bedding, dormitories and corridors, in the matter of general cleanliness, also the need for painting and plastering of some of the walls.

Dr McCabe conducted a General Inspection of the School in June 1944 and, once again, noted the tattered and patched state of the children’s clothing and footwear. The Resident Manager complained about the difficulty in obtaining supplies and the prohibitive cost of material. He criticised the practice under which children were discharged into the care of their parents after spending only a short time in the Institution. This had a destabilising effect on the other children. He also regarded it as unfair that the Brothers fit these children out with new clothes, only for them to leave a short time later. Dr McCabe also noted that the premises were badly in need of repair.