For today’s post, I will analyse the origins of reformatory schools in Ireland during the nineteenth century.
According to Coolahan (Irish Education: Its History and Structure, p.191), until the mid-nineteenth century in Ireland, the only provision for orphaned and neglected children was in workhouses and some religious organisations cared for young offenders. In 1858, the Reformatory Schools Act 1858 was introduced. This Act allowed for the certification of “existing voluntary institutions as reformatory schools suitable for “youthful offenders” that were over the age of twelve and committed by the courts” (Ibid: 191). O’ Mahony (Criminal Justice in Ireland, p.200) states that the first Irish reformatory school was founded in Dublin in 1859, while the first industrial school was established in 1869. Industrial schools were designed to care for abandoned, neglected and orphaned children. By 1870, the number of reformatory schools declined and some were reclassified as industrial schools (Ibid). Moreover, industrial schools were financed by capitation grants from the government and managed by religious orders. They were often operated on the same premises as Magdalan asylums and other institutions ran by the same order.
The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (section, 2.09) maintains that in 1882, about 70% of the children entered industrial schools were under the category of begging. Ferriter (The Transformation of Ireland, 1900-2000, p.49) states that between 1869 and 1913, 48,664 children were admitted to industrial schools. Under the Act, these types of institutions would be inspected on an annual basis and local authorities had the power to remove children from their homes. Under the 1908 Children Act, the institutions were required to provide practical training to enable children to enter the workforce upon their release. Domestic service was the most common type of training girls received in industrial schools while boys were taught how to farm and tailor clothing (Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, section 2.06).
Arnold and Laskey (Children of the Poor Clares: The Collusion between Church and state that Betrayed Thousands of Children in Ireland’s industrial schools, p.xx) argues that poverty and economic depressions were the main reasons for the detention of children in industrial schools at the start of the twentieth century. Due to the stigma associated with unmarried motherhood, many illegitimate children were sent to industrial schools as their mothers were deemed ‘unfit’ to care for them. O’ Sullivan et al (2012: 214) maintain that children committed to industrial homes included “children who have lost one or both parents”, parents that are unable” to care for them because of poverty, children of broken up families by “desertion or imprisonment of one parent” and children who have “no fixed abode”. The 1908 Act also ensured that children considered vulnerable to ‘bad’ influences, for example, children living with a thief of prostitute, were committed to industrial schools.
Separate industrial schools were operated for Catholic and non-Catholic children. After 1922, industrial schools and reformatory schools were managed by the State and religious orders. Charitable organisations such as St Vicenti de Paul and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children investigated cases and distributed financial aid to poor families. Rafferty and O’Sullivan l (Suffer the Little Children: The inside Story of Ireland’s industrial schools, p.11) argue that the industrial school system was based on myths which justified its existence, for example, there was a belief that only religious run industrial schools would care for orphaned children as “no one else would”. However, they were funded and inspected by the State. The Irish Free State asserted further control over Irish children when the 1937 Constitution stated that if the parents fail to provide religious, intellectual and physical education to their children, the State could intervene (Madden, Medicine, Ethics and Law in Ireland, p.480).
The full authority of industrial, schools was gradually transferred to religious orders after 1922. There was a large degree of shame and stigma associated with them as they were not distinguished from reformatory schools by Irish society. From the 1990s, allegations of child abuse within these institutions began to emerge. Documentaries and books, such as Mary Rafferty’s States of Fear, were aired which marred the perception of these institutions as stigmatising and punitive. On the 11th May 1999, the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, apologised ‘on behalf of the State and its citizens… to the victims of childhood abuse for our collective failure to intervene to detect, pain, to come to their rescue’. It was not until the introduction of 1991, that the 1908 legislation was replaced by the Child Care Act. Breathnach (Crime and Punishment in Twentieth Century Ireland: A Description of the Criminal Justice System, 1950-1980, p.142) states that ‘clerical culpability was never required by the clerically-run state’
Bibliography
Arnold, Mavis and, Heather, Laskey, Children of the Poor Clares: The Collusion between Church and state that Betrayed Thousands of Children in Ireland’s industrial schools, Trafford, Indiana, 2012.
Breathnach, Seamus, Crime and Punishment in Twentieth Century Ireland: A Description of the Criminal Justice System, 1950-1980, Universal Publishers, USA, 1981.
Children Act (1908), Available at www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga//Edw7/8/67//contents/enacted
Commission to inquire into Child Abuse (2009), Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, Volume 1-5. Available at www.childabusecommission.ie
Coolahan, John, Irish Education: Its History and Structure, Institute of Public Administration, Dublin, 1981.
Ferriter, Diarmaid, The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000, Profile Books, London, 2005.
Madden, Deirdre, Medicine, Ethics and Law in Ireland, Bloomsbury Professional, Dublin, 2011.
O’ Mahony, Paul, Criminal Justice In Ireland, Institute of Public Administration, Dublin, 2002.
O’ Sullivan, Eoin and, O’ Donnell, Ian, Coercive Confinement in Ireland: Patients, Prisoners and Penitents, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2012.
Rafferty, Mary and, O’ Sullivan, Eoin, Suffer the Little Children: The inside Story of Ireland’s industrial schools, Continuum, London, 1999.
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