884 entries for Government Department

Although the Department of Education addressed this incident in its Phase III Submission, it did not clarify the nature of the investigation that resulted in the exoneration of the Brother.

A translation of a Department of Education memorandum to the Secretary, Office of National Education, stated that Br Ansel ‘controls with authority but without being harsh. He succeeds in exercising a kind discipline in the school’.

The regulations and guidelines issued by the Department of Education and the Christian Brothers for the protection of boys in the care of these institutions were not followed. Punishment was not just inflicted on the hands, but was inflicted all over the body, including the bare bottom and even the feet.

As was confirmed by one complainant, the situation improved in the mid-1950s with the appointment of a new Brother to the kitchens, Br Lafayette, and the Visitors and Department of Education Inspector were generally satisfied with the quantity of food provided.27 As the Committee has seen in other institutions, the Inspector who visited industrial schools in the 1940s and 1950s was not slow to criticise the diet if she felt that the food was inadequate. Similarly, the Visitation Reports have also commented on inadequate food when they found standards were low. For example, the 1953 Visitation Report recorded complaints by Br Kalle and Br Montaine that the boys were not getting enough to eat. The Resident Manager denied this was so.

The state of the boys’ clothing varied greatly between 1940 and 1970. The poor quality of clothing was criticised by the Department of Education Inspector throughout most of the 1940s.29

The Department Inspector recorded in 1939 that a lot of improvements and redecoration were being done in the school and that it was in a ‘progressing state and promises to be very satisfactory’. The dormitories and refectory had been painted, and both appeared clean and well kept. She also recorded that the Resident Manager appeared to be ‘very capable and progressive’.

During the 1940s, the reports of both the Department of Education Inspector and the Visitors found things largely satisfactory. Apart from the completion of a chapel in the early 1940s, no major construction work was carried out in Tralee, although renovations and maintenance were carried out from time to time. One Visitor described the basic premises, which had been constructed in 1859, as ‘naturally dark and cheerless’. The main building was a typical Victorian institutional structure.

The Department of Education Inspector, Dr C. E. Lysaght, who inspected the School in March 1966, found that the dormitories ‘gave an impression of the bleakness of an old style institution’. He also referred to a ‘general drabness’ and went on to state: I have reservations however that increased money made available would solve all problems here and bring it up to the standard of the schools operated by nuns which I have seen so far.

The Department of Education inspections almost invariably referred to the health of the boys in positive terms. Only on one occasion, in 1944, did the Inspector comment on the fact that ‘In this school numbers of children much below average height and weight for age. Many of the children under weight’. In spite of this observation, the Inspector also noted that the children were medically well cared for. Eighteen months later, the Inspector noted that the ‘Boys look healthy and have put on weight regularly’ and that the children were medically ‘well cared’. Throughout the period, the Inspector described the boys as being ‘well cared’ or ‘very well cared’ and her description of their health varied from ‘satisfactory’ to ‘excellent’. The documentation also refers to the doctor attending regularly and as required. However, two complainants made allegations of the failure to treat them medically for specific conditions, and one in particular said that he had only seen a doctor once during his six years in Tralee. Neither of these complainants was in Tralee in the 1950s when conditions appear to have improved.

Only two Department of Education reports were available to the Committee. In 1942, the level of education in most subjects was stated to be pitched at a lower standard than the official standard. In 1952, the school was reported to be ‘satisfactory’.

Because Br Marceau was not trained, he was not subject to normal Department of Education Inspections, and therefore there was no control or supervision exercised by the Department over his activities.

Two further complainants were ambivalent about the education they received, although in both cases it would appear to have been reasonably good. The first of these was in Tralee in the 1940s and he recalled that he passed the Primary Certificate. He thought that the whole class had sat it, but learned that only two boys in his class had done so. He believed that he could have received help during the exam from the Brother who supervised during the exam. The Department of Education Primary Certificate results for the relevant year confirm that only two boys in Tralee sat the examination that year. Three years later, 12 boys sat the examination, and two passed.

In July 1943, the Resident Manager wrote to the Secretary of the Department of Education, asking that the boys in the primary school should be allowed to attend classes in woodwork and manual training in the local technical college as part of their school week. An hour and a half or two hours a week was proposed. This proposal was accepted by the Department of Education, but was not implemented because of staff changes in Tralee and, accordingly, the scheme was abandoned.

In January 1950, the Resident Manager notified the Department of Education of his intention to set up a class in Manual Instruction – Woodwork. Correspondence ensued regarding the syllabus, qualification of the teachers, etc. Approval was granted and the class started in September 1950. The Inspector’s reports on Manual Instruction in primary schools for 1951, 1952 and 1953 reported the instruction to be excellent.

He said that they badly needed training when they had the mix of boys from Upton, Glin and Tralee. He was never given any direction in relation to the type of discipline he could administer to the boys, either by the Department of Education or the Christian Brothers. In their Final Submissions, the Christian Brothers said that a review of the entire transcript of this respondent’s evidence indicated that these comments were not intended as a criticism of the Congregation but were, with the benefit of hindsight, expressing regret that specialist training was not provided for persons in his position at that time.