10,992 entries for State Inspections

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.

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:

	1937*	1939	1950	1960	1970
Boys Schools, Total	2,733 (45%)	2,786 (45%)	2,819 (47%)	1,709 (45%)	534 (43%)
Girls Schools, Total	3,341 (55%)	3,440 (55%)	3,165 (53%)	2,105 (55%)	722 (57%)