Department attacked industrial school in 1940

Jim Morahan

The report was written in 1940, nearly five decades before the scandal of child abuse in religious institutions hit the headlines.

“I cannot find any excuse which would exonerate you and your staff from the verminous condition of several of the children’s heads,” Department of Education medical inspector Anna McCabe told Rev Mother Agnes Langan, who was in charge of the congregation’s institution at Newtownforbes, Co Longford.

In the letter, dated February 12, 1940, Ms McCabe expressed disappointment at “lack of supervision”

during her recent medical examination there. “Then I was not satisfied in finding so many of the girls in the infirmary suffering from bruises on their bodies.

“I wish particularly to draw attention to the latter, as under no circumstances can the department tolerate treatment of this nature and you being responsible for the care of these children will have some difficulty in avoiding censure,” said Ms McCabe.

She suggested the neglect of supervision and individual attention was the reason for the dirty condition of the children’s heads and the untreated abscesses she had discovered in a child in the infirmary.

If there was not a marked improvement when the school was next visited Ms McCabe said she would improvement when the school was next visited Ms McCabe said she would take the matter further.

In a letter dated October 13, 1943, the department said its medical inspector had found on her last visit the running of the school to be “satisfactory” and much improved.

But by July the following year the conduct of the school was deemed not satisfactory. There was a serious need for a general improvement in standard of cleanliness in every department.

After nearly a century in operation, the convent and its industrial school closed in 1969.

It is understood six individual complaints from former residents have been made against members of the Sisters of Mercy to the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse.

Sister Margaret Casey, provincial of the congregation’s western province, said yesterday the first the sisters knew of the department’s criticism in 1940 was when they got discovery of documents in November 2004.

She herself, who had attended primary and secondary school in Newtownforbes, said she was “uneasy” about some of the treatment meted out to the children there.

Up to 60% of the children in the all-girl industrial school were committed there through the Children’s Court in Dublin.

“The sisters in the industrial schools would not have had any knowledge of the background of the children being committed and regrettably little or no understanding of the needs of the children,” said Sr Casey.