School’s discipline ‘not over the top’

NO records have been found to show the forms of punishment young offenders received for breaching discipline at Daingean reformatory school in Co Offaly, the Child Abuse Commission heard yesterday.

Father Tom Murphy, representing the Oblate community that ran the institution until its closure in 1973, said he felt discipline was not "unduly punitive". It was strict and firm but not over the top. Until 1984, the Oblates also ran Scoil Árd, a remand home for boys, at Lusk, north Co Dublin.

He agreed the atmosphere in St Conleth's, Daingean, was like a pressure cooker, a small staff of brothers with no special skills dealing with a big population. Up to 200 boys were housed there during the 1950s and between 100 to 200 the following decade. Difficult boys, aged 12-18 years, were committed to Dangean by the courts.