4,228 entries for Historical Context
BackKennedy30 showed the distribution of children in the schools with relatively few below the age of six and observed that the figures seemed to suggest that a large number of pre-school children were accommodated in homes and institutions other than Industrial Schools.
Historically, by the 1850s, the majority of orphanages had been taken over by local religious congregations. Their funding came from relations of the children in the orphanages or other private sources such as endowments or charity sermons. In addition, boarding out was phased out and the orphanages became exclusively institutional. A number of these orphanages were certified as Industrial Schools under the Industrial Schools Act 1868. However a majority remained outside the State-subsidised scheme of institutional child welfare and a very few new orphanages were established in the twentieth century. These institutions were officially referred to as ‘voluntary homes’ because they were not State funded. In popular jargon, they remained ‘orphanages’.31 but in many cases the residents were not orphans but simply children whose families were in crisis of one sort or another.
There was no State control, monitoring or supervision of such voluntary homes32 and consequently no central source of information about them.33 Children were admitted on a voluntary basis. The homes were not certified to receive children committed through the courts. They had considerably more freedom of administration and organisation than did the certified schools and could exercise more flexibility in admission and discharge. They were thought of broadly as institutions for the middle classes34 and this was often indicated in their advertising.
The average length of a resident’s stay in an orphanage was shorter than that in an Industrial School.
Thirteen of these Homes were run by religious Orders, the others by committees or private individuals. Two were for short-stay children. The Tuairim Report35 found: The Homes’ relative independence makes it possible for the private Homes to develop in different ways from the certified schools. Many of them have evolved a ‘family’ system, and in most children have fewer restrictions on their freedom than children in certified schools. These are some of the quotations from responses to our questionnaires: ‘As far as feasible, I try to make it as much like a home as can be. There is a minimum of regimentation and the boys have much the same freedom as boys who live at home with their parents’. ‘We try to have our Home as like an ordinary Home as possible’. Our own impression of the Homes we visited endorse these statements ... Only one of these Homes does not send at least some boys to an outside school for tuition. Boys, in particular seemed to have greater educational opportunities than those in certified schools. The manager maintains close personal contact with the surviving parents or guardians of the children and very frequently the parents contribute something towards the child’s maintenance. By paying something the parents feel their responsibility and fulfil their duty to the best of their ability.
The Kennedy Committee36 has the following information.
| Number of voluntary homes contacted | Number replying | Numbers in various age groups | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-2 Years | 2-14 Years |
14-18 Years |
Total | ||
| 24 | 20 | 66 | 571 | 365 | 992 |
The last Protestant Industrial School closed in 1917 so the only institution to which a child could be committed was Marlborough House. Children who came before the courts were usually entrusted, through the local Gardaí, to the care of the local clergyman or minister of religion concerned and he assumed responsibility for having them placed in the care of a suitable family, school or home.37
In regard to children who were not committed by the courts but needed to be in care, many of the Protestant homes situated in the State were closed or amalgamated. Although the numbers of children for which the remaining homes had to provide was greatly reduced, so, were the sources of their finance. Sometimes, the closing of a home or sale of a redundant building resulted in the creation of a fund which was applied for the support of children in the remaining homes or in ordinary boarding schools. Money from these and other charities was used to assist needy parents to keep their children at home, each diocese having its Protestant Orphan Society, which made such grants. Dr Barnardo’s Homes also provide grants for Protestant orphans living in Ireland. Another relevant factor is that there was a waiting list of would–be adopters.
The size of the schools’ population reflected the fluctuations in economic conditions. After independence, in 1924 the total population of all the Industrial Schools and Reformatories was 5,192. This figure remained steady in the 1920s and 30s. Then it rose to a peak of 6,979 in 1946-47. After the high point of the 1940s, the population declined gradually in the 1950s and more steeply in the 1960s and 70s.
The reasons for the reduction from the peak in the 1940s included the introduction of children allowances in 1944, the Adoption Act 1952 and the rising tide of the economy from the mid/late 1950s that lifted all boats. In addition, from the 1950s on and quickening in the 1960s, the courts displayed a greater reluctance to send children away for long periods and when they did do so it was only for shorter terms.
While the numbers committed by the courts fell in the 1960s, there was an increase in those placed by local authorities. A possible explanation is that there is an irreducible minimum number of children in the community who require alternative care to that of their own families and that this number was gradually increasing because of a growing population, particularly in the larger urban centres.
| School | Accommodation Limit | Order | Date closed** |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior boys Schools | |||
| Artane, Dublin | 830 | Christian Brothers | 1969-70 |
| Baltimore, County Cork | 170 | Order of Charity | 1950 |
| Greenmount, County Cork | 235 | Presentation Brothers | 1959 |
| Upton, County Cork | 300 | Rosminians | 1967 |
| Killybegs, County Donegal | 144 | Order of Charity | 1950 |
| Carriglea, County Dublin | 260 | Christian Brothers | 1954 |
| Letterfrack, County Galway | 190 | Christian Brothers | |
| Salthill, County Galway | 208 | Christian Brothers | |
| Tralee, County Kerry | 150 | Christian Brothers | 1970 |
| Glin, County Limerick | 214 | Christian Brothers | 1967 |
| Clonmel, County Tipperary | 200 | Rosminians | |
| Junior boys Schools | |||
| Passage West, County Cork | 80 | Sisters of Mercy | |
| St Patrick’s, Kilkenny | 186 | Sisters of Mercy | 1967 |
| Drogheda, County Louth | 150 | Sisters of Charity of St V de P | |
| Cappoquin, County Waterford | 75 | Sisters of Mercy | |
| Rathdrum, County Wicklow * | 100 | Sisters of Mercy | |
| Girls Schools | |||
| Cavan | 100 | Poor Clares | 1967 |
| Ennis, County Clare | 110 | Sisters of Mercy | 1964 |
| Clonakilty, County Cork | 180 | Sisters of Mercy | 1965 |
| Cobh, County Cork | 60 | Sisters of Mercy | |
| Kinsale, County Cork | 180 | Sisters of Mercy | |
| Mallow, County Cork | 80 | Sisters of Mercy | |
| St Finbarr’s, Cork | 200 | Good Shepherd Sisters | |
| Booterstown, County Dublin | 96 | Sisters of Mercy | |
| Goldenbridge, County Dublin* | 150 | Sisters of Mercy | |
| Lakelands, Sandymount, Dublin * | 110 | Sisters of Charity | |
| High Park, Dublin | 100 | Charity of Refuge | |
| Ballinasloe, County Galway | 100 | Sisters of Mercy | 1968 |
| Clifden, County Galway* | 120 | Sisters of Mercy | |
| Lenaboy, County Galway* | 88 | ||
| Loughrea, County Galway | 100 | Sisters of Mercy | 1967 |
| Tralee, County Kerry* | 85 | Sisters of Mercy | |
| St Joseph’s Kilkenny* | 126 | Sisters of Charity | |
| St George’s Limerick | 170 | Good Shepherd Sisters | |
| St Vincent’s, Limerick | 180 | Sisters of Mercy | |
| Newtownforbes, County Longford | 240 | Sisters of Mercy | 1970 |
| Dundalk, County Louth | 100 | Sisters of Mercy | |
| Westport, County Mayo | 117 | Sisters of Mercy | |
| Monaghan (moved to Bundoran, County Donegal in 1958) | 140 | St Louis Sisters | 1966 |
| Ballaghadereen, County Roscommon | 90 | Sisters of Charity | 1969 |
| Birr, County Offaly | 100 | Sisters of Mercy | 1963 |
| Summerhill, Athlone | 200 | Sisters of Mercy | 1964 |
| Benada Abbey, Ballymote, County Sligo | 106 | Sisters of Charity | |
| Sligo | 200 | Sisters of Mercy | 1958 |
| Cashel, County Tipperary | 125 | Presentation Sisters | 1969 |
| Dundrum, County Tipperary | 80 | Presentation Sisters | |
| Templemore, County Tipperary | 70 | Sisters of Mercy | 1965 |
| Waterford | 200 | Good Shepherd Sisters | |
| Moate, County Westmeath * | 74 | Sisters of Mercy | |
| New Ross, County Wexford | 100 | Good Shepherd Sisters | 1968 |
| Wexford | 146 | Sisters of Mercy | |
| Mixed Schools | |||
| Killarney, County Kerry * | 138 | Sisters of Mercy |
At independence, there were four Reformatories in the Irish Free State and one in Northern Ireland. However by 1927, the number had fallen to two. St Joseph’s Reformatory in Limerick was for girls and was run by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. The other was St Conleth’s for Boys at Daingean, Offaly, run by the Oblates. During the years 1934-41, Daingean was temporarily closed and the residents transferred back to Glencree, which had been Daingean’s predecessor. In 1974, Daingean closed, to be replaced by Scoil Ard Mhuire in Lusk,39 which was initially run by the Oblates but later transferred to the direct administration of the Department of Education.
In 1944, a second Reformatory for girls was established, St Anne’s School Kilmacud, County Dublin, conducted by the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge.
In 1949, there were 212 boys in Daingean, 31 girls in St Joseph’s, Limerick and 13 in St Anne’s, Kilmacud. In 1967, there were 124 boys in Daingean and a total of 18 girls in St Joseph’s, Limerick and St Anne’s, Kilmacud.
The category of Industrial School covered a very wide range of institutions, from the equivalent of orphanages run by nuns to usually larger institutions, which took young offenders. In the case of a girl, a resident would usually remain in the same school until released at 16. But junior and senior boys had separate schools. If a boy had been put into a school below the age of 10, he would at that age be transferred from junior to a senior school.40 A number of senior boys Industrial Schools in effect acted as Reformatories. There was no Reformatory for those under 12. Almost all male offenders in this age group were sent to Letterfrack Industrial School, County Galway.