10,992 entries for Inspections - State
BackThe 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.<br><table><colgroup><col></col><col></col><col></col><col></col></colgroup><thead><tr><th><strong>School</strong></th>
 <th><strong>Accommodation Limit</strong></th>
 <th><strong>Order</strong></th>
 <th><strong>Date closed**</strong></th>
 </tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Senior boys Schools</strong></td>
 <td></td>
 <td></td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Artane, Dublin</td>
 <td>830</td>
 <td>Christian Brothers</td>
 <td>1969-70</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Baltimore, County Cork</td>
 <td>170</td>
 <td>Order of Charity</td>
 <td>1950</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Greenmount, County Cork</td>
 <td>235</td>
 <td>Presentation Brothers</td>
 <td>1959</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Upton, County Cork</td>
 <td>300</td>
 <td>Rosminians</td>
 <td>1967</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Killybegs, County Donegal</td>
 <td>144</td>
 <td>Order of Charity</td>
 <td>1950</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Carriglea, County Dublin</td>
 <td>260</td>
 <td>Christian Brothers</td>
 <td>1954</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Letterfrack, County Galway</td>
 <td>190</td>
 <td>Christian Brothers</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Salthill, County Galway</td>
 <td>208</td>
 <td>Christian Brothers</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Tralee, County Kerry</td>
 <td>150</td>
 <td>Christian Brothers</td>
 <td>1970</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Glin, County Limerick</td>
 <td>214</td>
 <td>Christian Brothers</td>
 <td>1967</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Clonmel, County Tipperary</td>
 <td>200</td>
 <td>Rosminians</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td></td>
 <td></td>
 <td></td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td><strong>Junior boys Schools</strong></td>
 <td></td>
 <td></td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Passage West, County Cork</td>
 <td>80</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>St Patrick’s, Kilkenny</td>
 <td>186</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td>1967</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Drogheda, County Louth</td>
 <td>150</td>
 <td>Sisters of Charity of St V de P</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Cappoquin, County Waterford</td>
 <td>75</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Rathdrum, County Wicklow *</td>
 <td>100</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td></td>
 <td></td>
 <td></td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td><strong>Girls Schools</strong></td>
 <td></td>
 <td></td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Cavan</td>
 <td>100</td>
 <td>Poor Clares</td>
 <td>1967</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Ennis, County Clare</td>
 <td>110</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td>1964</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Clonakilty, County Cork</td>
 <td>180</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td>1965</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Cobh, County Cork</td>
 <td>60</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Kinsale, County Cork</td>
 <td>180</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Mallow, County Cork</td>
 <td>80</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>St Finbarr’s, Cork</td>
 <td>200</td>
 <td>Good Shepherd Sisters</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Booterstown, County Dublin</td>
 <td>96</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Goldenbridge, County Dublin*</td>
 <td>150</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Lakelands, Sandymount, Dublin *</td>
 <td>110</td>
 <td>Sisters of Charity</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>High Park, Dublin</td>
 <td>100</td>
 <td>Charity of Refuge</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Ballinasloe, County Galway</td>
 <td>100</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td>1968</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Clifden, County Galway*</td>
 <td>120</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Lenaboy, County Galway*</td>
 <td>88</td>
 <td></td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Loughrea, County Galway</td>
 <td>100</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td>1967</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Tralee, County Kerry*</td>
 <td>85</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>St Joseph’s Kilkenny*</td>
 <td>126</td>
 <td>Sisters of Charity</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>St George’s Limerick</td>
 <td>170</td>
 <td>Good Shepherd Sisters</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>St Vincent’s, Limerick</td>
 <td>180</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Newtownforbes, County Longford</td>
 <td>240</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td>1970</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Dundalk, County Louth</td>
 <td>100</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Westport, County Mayo</td>
 <td>117</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Monaghan (moved to Bundoran, County Donegal in 1958)</td>
 <td>140</td>
 <td>St Louis Sisters</td>
 <td>1966</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Ballaghadereen, County Roscommon </td>
 <td>90</td>
 <td>Sisters of Charity</td>
 <td>1969</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Birr, County Offaly</td>
 <td>100</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td>1963</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Summerhill, Athlone</td>
 <td>200</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td>1964</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Benada Abbey, Ballymote, County Sligo</td>
 <td>106</td>
 <td>Sisters of Charity</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Sligo</td>
 <td>200</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td>1958</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Cashel, County Tipperary</td>
 <td>125</td>
 <td>Presentation Sisters</td>
 <td>1969</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Dundrum, County Tipperary</td>
 <td>80</td>
 <td>Presentation Sisters</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Templemore, County Tipperary</td>
 <td>70</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td>1965</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Waterford</td>
 <td>200</td>
 <td>Good Shepherd Sisters</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Moate, County Westmeath *</td>
 <td>74</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>New Ross, County Wexford</td>
 <td>100</td>
 <td>Good Shepherd Sisters</td>
 <td>1968</td>
 </tr><tr><td>Wexford</td>
 <td>146</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td></td>
 <td></td>
 <td></td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td><strong>Mixed Schools</strong></td>
 <td></td>
 <td></td>
 <td></td>
 </tr><tr><td>Killarney, County Kerry *</td>
 <td>138</td>
 <td>Sisters of Mercy</td>
 <td></td>
 </tr></tbody></table>
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.
At their maximum, in 1898, there were 61 Industrial Schools caring for approximately 7,500 children in the 26 county areas. By 1922, there were 53 Industrial Schools. During the 1920s High Park (previously a Reformatory) was receritified as an Industrial School and the girls’ Schools at Roscommon and Tipperary were closed. Thus, by the time of the Cussen Report, there were 52 schools in operation certified for 6,400 children.
For much of the period under review, there were 11 senior boys’ Industrial Schools, five junior boys’, 35 girls’ and one mixed for girls and junior boys. Two senior boys Schools were closed for particular reasons in 1950. 41 Later on, with the fall in numbers of residents, in the 1950s, two senior boys’ (Carriglea, 1954; Greenmount, 1959) and one girls’ School (Sligo, 1958) closed.
In the 1960s there was a steady stream of closures and by September 1969,42 there had been a sharp drop to 31 schools. The remaining Schools numbered: senior boys – five; junior boys – three; girls’ schools – 23. The remaining Schools were certified for more than 4,000 (1969-70) children but were actually catering for 1,700. Artane, by far the largest school, closed in 1969. Its numbers had fallen from 700 in the early 1950s to 300 as late as 1968.
After the closure of the last School under Protestant management in 1917, all the Schools were owned and run by Catholic religious Orders, apart from two Catholic Schools that were run by the local clergy and which closed in 1950. One of the consequences of the lack of positive control by the Department is that the Orders that carried out the work of running Schools were usually self-selected. This did not always make for an appropriate match. Kennedy43 remarks gently ‘some of the Orders in charge of Industrial Schools and Reformatories are engaged in other work which is of more direct concern to them and which comes more into the public eye’. Likewise a Departmental memo of 30th September 1963 noted that: The Good Shepherd’s are not a teaching order and by vocation are better fit to look after underprivileged children than the Sisters of Mercy where, perhaps the Industrial School Section could be the poor relation in a foundation catering for Secondary, Primary and Domestic Economy training.44
The largest male Order involved in Industrial Schools (as also in regard to general primary or secondary education) was the Christian Brothers who operated schools for senior boys (10 to 16 year olds) at Artane, Salthill, Letterfrack, Glin, Tralee and Carriglea. Two others were run by the Rosminians (Clonmel, Upton) and one by the Presentation Brothers (Greenmount).
The Sisters of Mercy ran two-thirds of all Schools consistently accommodating about 60 percent of girls and 40 percent of all residents. As of 1950, they ran 22 of the girls’ schools, three of the junior boys’ schools and the mixed school for girls and junior boys in Killarney (which was the only mixed school before 1954) The remaining girls’ Schools were conducted by the following Orders: Poor Clares (one); Sisters of the Good Shepherd (four); Sisters of Charity (four); Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge (one); Sisters of Saint Louis (one); and Sisters of the Presentation Order (two).
The Sisters of Mercy also ran four of the junior boys schools and the fifth was run by the (Irish) Sisters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul.
The only School formally categorised as a ‘Mixed School’ (as far back at least as the Cussen Report: para 18) was St Joseph’s, Killarney, which had accommodation limits of 98 and 50 for girls and boys respectively. However, in the 1950s, because they were short of residents, a few of the girls’ Schools started to take in junior boys. Commencing with Goldenbridge in 1954, eight Girls’ Schools became what the annual reports describe as ‘Girls Industrial Schools certified for the reception of a limited number of boys of tender years’. In practice, this seems to have meant that they had accommodation limits for boys up to about 10-15 percent of the figures for girls.
The aggregate Schools’ population, from all sources (courts, health authorities, voluntary committals) during the entire 1936-70 period, contained 47 percent boys and 53 percent girls (though, in the case of Dublin County Borough this imbalance was reversed, with 56 percent boys for the period 1939-59). The following Table gives the figures for particular years:<br><table><colgroup><col></col><col></col><col></col><col></col><col></col><col></col></colgroup><thead><tr><th></th>
 <th><strong>1937*</strong></th>
 <th><strong>1939</strong></th>
 <th><strong>1950</strong></th>
 <th><strong>1960</strong></th>
 <th><strong>1970</strong></th>
 </tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Boys Schools, Total</strong></td>
 <td>2,733 (45%)</td>
 <td>2,786 (45%)</td>
 <td>2,819 (47%)</td>
 <td>1,709 (45%)</td>
 <td>534 (43%)</td>
 </tr><tr><td><strong>Girls Schools, Total</strong></td>
 <td>3,341 (55%)</td>
 <td>3,440 (55%)</td>
 <td>3,165 (53%)</td>
 <td>2,105 (55%)</td>
 <td>722 (57%)</td>
 </tr></tbody></table>