Internal reports refer to brother as ‘menace’

A RELIGIOUS brother was described as a “menace” and a “danger” in the internal reports of a Cork industrial school, but no documents survive to reveal the nature of his behaviour or if steps were taken to address it.

The unnamed “Brother X”, since deceased, was assigned to St Joseph’s Industrial School in Greenmount, Cork, which operated until 1959.

Yesterday, the Child Abuse Commission heard that records held by the Presentation Order to which he belonged were incomplete.

Some paperwork remained which referred to Brother X as having “denied all charges” and insisting that the only people who ever visited his room were his brother and an electrician who fixed the heating.

But Br Denis Minehane, who represented the order at yesterday’s hearing, said he believed the references were nothing more sinister than the man’s general misbehaviour, which included prowling the kitchens for food at night, being indiscreet and frequently leaving the grounds without permission.

“He was a maverick and he was referred to in various visitation books as a menace and as irresponsible and I think all those things are accurate but there was never any allegation against him,” said Br Minehane.

“Later in life, it was found he was a pretty chronic diabetic.”

Commission chairman Sean Ryan told the hearing he was not convinced.

“Being described as a ‘menace’ hardly means raiding the fridge,” he said.

Yesterday’s sitting was the first public hearing on St Joseph’s, Greenmount, 20 former pupils of which have complained to the commission about their treatment there, seven giving personal evidence during the private sessions.

The commission heard that various records for the school were incomplete. There was no ‘punishment book’ listing disciplinary measures taken against boys, although it was a rule that such a record be kept.

There were also discrepancies between the infirmary records and general school diaries, with hospitalisations mentioned in the latter excluded from the former.

Most seriously, however, there were no records revealing the details of a 1955 inquiry at the school in which pupils and staff were interviewed by clergy from outside the school, or of a case in 1956 when gardaí were brought in.

Br Minehane said one brother had left the school of his own volition after the 1955 inquiry while another underwent a change of position, but said the matter had been kept quiet. “No one talked about it,” he said.

Br Minehane, who was principal of Birr Community School from 1961 to 1997, lived at St Joseph’s for only five months in 1953 while he was training as a teacher at another school and his only duties during that time were confined to occasional yard supervision.

He said he was never personally aware of beatings or excessive discipline but he accepted that reports supplied by the order to the Department of Education from 1940 onwards stating that corporal punishment was “all but completely abolished” were inaccurate.

“By today’s standards, there certainly was [unwarranted physical punishment]. Especially in the period in the 1940s, there was excessive corporal punishment,” he said.