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MANY CHILDREN HAVE positive stories from St Joseph’s School For Deaf Boys in Cabra, Dublin, from its 150-year history.
It was the chance for many to learn Irish Sign Language, allowing them to communicate and express themselves comfortably.
Others learned trades and were able to leave school and earn a living.
The school became known worldwide for its high standards of education – but it also has a murky history starting from the middle of last century.
“I didn’t know what to expect when I first arrived,” Larry Coogan recalls from his largely positive time at school between 1953 and 1958. He went on to become a master tailor.
He appears in a new RTÉ documentary, These Walls Could Talk by Garry Keane, which explores the history of the school, which was demolished in 2011. It is narrated by his daughter, performance artist Amanda Coogan.
“I wasn’t born deaf, and when I lost my hearing as a child it made me very lonely,” Larry said, “I was from down the country, and I could only communicate with my mother, my father, and my sister.”
“But suddenly I had all these people to communicate with at St Joseph’s. That was an incredibly feeling.”
For John Duggan, he was able to receive the training to work in a trade he loved.
“The Christian Brothers had a great influence on me, because of how they praised my work in class.”
“It was because of them that I picked carpentry as my career.”
If I hadn’t done woodwork, I probably would have been stacking shelves, or working on a production line in a factory. We would have been dependent on people.
We would have been like dogs, led about the place, being told what to do all the time, and that’s nothing something I would have wanted.
St Joseph’s changed dramatically in the 1950s, when oralism because widespread due to advances in electronics
This is where deaf students learn how to communicate using lipreading and mimicking mouth movements. Despite objections from Christian Brothers, the practice was introduced in Cabra.
When it gained more momentum in the 1970s, children began to be split depending on their hearing ability, even during sports.
Eddie Redmond, who attended the school during the time and who you might know as a news-signer for RTÉ, said it “encouraged” pupils to look down on each other based on their ability.
It was really sad, kinda like apartheid. We weren’t allowed mix, we weren’t allowed have tea together.
St Joseph’s has a more murky past than this; An entire chapter of the Ryan report was dedicated to the school.
The Commission of Inquiry found that physical and emotional abuse made the school a “a very frightening place”, and “said sexual activity was ignored or tolerated for some considerable time” until the Health Board eventually intervened.
The alleged abuse was carried out by a number of Christian Brothers but also lay people at the school between the 1950s and early 1990s. In later years, senior boys were also accused of abusing younger pupils.
Paul Keating, who has achieved success for Ireland at an international level for swimming, believes he could have gone much further if it wasn’t for the abuse he experienced.
He was abused by a lay member of staff, who would follow him into the dressing rooms when he went to practice his swimming.
“He used to come to my bed at around one or two in the morning. He would always have a torch and shine it on me when I was asleep. I was always thinking, what he’s going to do to me this week?”
“I would scream at nights, but everyone was deaf, so no one could hear me.”
Paul later revealed the abuse to older boys, who were later suspended for beating up the person. They told staff why it happened. Paul never saw the person again.
Noel Ball said he loved the school for the deaf, but his experience is overshadowed by the “horrible” abuse which started within a year of him starting at St Joseph’s.
The first time it happened, a Christian Brother took him up to a bedroom to read him a letter from his mother. There, he molested him.
St Joseph’s to me was like Auschwitz, it was like a prison camp. It was not a house a house of God, they were evil people.
“It was an awful experience, it ruined my life.”
Amanda Coogan makes it clear that this abuse must never be forgotten, but that the impact of the school on Ireland’s deaf community, educating thousands and providing opportunities that simply wouldn’t have been possible in Ireland at the time, must also be remembered.
These Walls Could Talk airs tonight on RTÉ One at 10.15pm. An Irish Sign Language version of the documentary will be available at the same time on the RTÉ Player at this link.
Originally published 6.03am
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Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always.
@Darragh Mcnamara: Thr IRA were always unlucky. Their violence set the clock for a united Ireland back by generations. In the 1970’s they believed unity was just around the corner. They still believe it. Such is their delusion,
@Frank: Frank that incident brought the Torys to the table read up Peter Taylor which now we actually have Peace
@Frank: the torys back then were still trying to make the world england, these days they’re just trying to make england england .
@Darragh Mcnamara: are you attempting to suggest that provisional Ira bombed the government to bring them to the negotiation table? Really?
@Thom Hunter: after the hunger strikes there was never going to be negotiation with Thatcher, channels were only opened after the torys voted her out? If she had been killed, channels could gave been opened sooner?
@brian o’leary: so you don’t think it would have created an even bigger mess to be sorted out?
It is on record from men such as Darkie Hughes, that Sinn Fein allowed the ‘hunger strikers’ to die, in order to force Thatcher to concede to their demands. Like all good governments should do, she refused to deal with terrorists.
I obviously have a completely different view of that period of history, but whatever tilts your Mercury Switch I guess fella.
@Frank: Leo and Simon are delusional. Also, they both have jumped on the United Ireland train in the last few years.
@Darragh Mcnamara: The British government negotiated a power-sharing agreement in 1973, which was rejected by hardline unionists and republicans. The IRA wanted a united Ireland or nothing, and ended up getting nothing. All its killing and maiming was in vain.
@Brendan O’Brien: At that point in time there was nothing in it for Adams, Paisley or McGuinness. Later on they were guaranteed a job for life, as a MLA with pension.
@Thom Hunter: my point was, that while we can only surmise what would have happened if she had been killed we KNOW that peace through dealing with Sein Fein and The IRA only really started after she was gone?
Sein Fein didn’t allow the hunger strikers to die, it was their own family’s that had that power to intervene , which is what eventually happened to stop the strike . Maybe you ment encouraged? argue that if you want, but my understanding is that it was a prisoner lead protest, but I’m sure SF tried to use it to their advantage, like all good political parties should do.?
@brian o’leary: The British government met with IRA leaders including Adams in the early 1970s. If the IRA had been realistic and pragmatic, peace could have been achieved much sooner. But it only wanted the politically impossible (a united Ireland), and wouldn’t compromise.
@Brendan so there were peace negotiations before and after Thatcher, but none during here reign?
Wasn’t the Sunningdale compromise attempt brought down by a unionist strike and the British governments reluctance to use force them…. the unionists that is, not the Nationalists of course ?
@brian o’leary: force against them.
@Thom Hunter: Dublin and Monaghan bombings biggest death toll in the troubles caused by British state forces should read up on it you’d be amazed
@Brendan O’Brien: Dublin and Monaghan bombings by British state forces should read up on it you’d be amazed
@Frank: For fifty years the Irish government sat on it’s hands, while people in the north of Ireland were treated as second-class citizens in their own country because of their religion. That may have been a satisfactory situation for you, but it was not for the northern Catholics!
@Darragh Mcnamara: I have read about it, from many sources. Those bombs, hahaha wise up. We dealt with bombings on a DAILY basis. Few car bombs later and you want the world to stop.
This was an everyday experience for us. Carnage. Shameful stuff. Murdering civilians daily. F.o. with your terrorist sympathies fella.
@Frank: are you on crack
@Vincent Alexander: do you have any idea about what went on in the north?
Feckin southerners you are some joke
@Brendan O’Brien: Sunnindale was the same as what Scotland has today ,a complete waste of time
@Brendan O’Brien: incorrect,it asked for the Brit army to withdraw and for the human rights of Catholics to be respected.
@brian o’leary: you must be joking.
Thatcher a truly horrible person.
@Paddy Ryan: and therefore must be murdered? Alternatively, vote her out or drop her from the party. And the IRA, and later SF. horrible people. But should they be murdered?
@Paddy Ryan: Yeah, she was so horrible she won three elections with ease. She’s probably the greatest politician ever and was as tough as they come. Even some of the IRA boys said they would have loved her on their side.
@Alan: Like Suddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden
@Alan: did I say she must be murdered, no. She was a truly awful person, look how she treated the coal miners, she cared absolutely nothing about the British people. If people stood up to her they were crushed. A bully
@Paddy Ryan: the IRA were truly horrible people.
@Alan Kennedy: like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.
@Paddy Ryan: the IRA were truly awful people, and so were the NUM. They were bullies.
6 months previously in March 1984 a British State agent attempted to assassinate Gerry Adams in Belfast by shooting him 3 times.
@Matt Rogers: Gerry was never in the Ra sure. What is your point?
@Matt Rogers: Can you stop! Have you not noticed it’s anti IRA/Sinn Fein on the Journal, you’re not allowed speak the truth of the troubles being started previously by a blood thirsty, land grabbing empire, the IRA are the only ones who did anything bad in the eyes of our west Brit masters, nobody else!!
@Thom Hunter: He was trying to stop the war! Brits didn’t like that!
@Matt Rogers: John Gregg was a loyalist paramilitary, not a brit agent.
@Alan Kennedy: Catch yourself on. Fecking clown week or something here?
Horrible war replaces talk and the Russian bombs that are still killing in Ukraine now only on the inside pages. Random missiles raining on Israel for years ignored by white collar UN and media. Reaction to long term violence is even more violent rage response.
@thomas molloy: Them stones never land thanks to the American iron dome!
@thomas molloy:
Find it insane that people like you exist.
Those “random missiles” have done a lot of damage eh , wonder why oh why these countries have an issue with Poor little Israel. Funny that you try and swing it that Ukraine AND Israel are the oppressed in those situations. Insane is actually too soft a word
@Alan Kennedy: And the bomb did not get “Let them die Thatcher”. Israel defending itself but living in fear?
RIP Maggie, you’ll never walk again
Alone
@Finian McG: a silly comment as Liverpool hated her.
Very close to whacking thatcher but wasn’t meant to be.
@Buster Lawless: in a way, it is a shame they missed. There would have been absolutely no hiding place for the terrorist filth if they had have murdered, not ‘whacked’ her. No amount of hiding behind the public would have saved them. So yes, it is indeed a shame they missed her. Could have had a few more ‘patriot dead’ to commemorate.
@Buster Lawless: like they say the devil looks after his own.
@Thom Hunter: no it isnt a shame they missed. Murder is always wrong. Just like invading other peoples lands and treating the natives like dogs#*t is wrong
@Thom Hunter: a bigger bomb was required although it was only the blast trajectory that saved her bacon.
@Fergus Peter Smyth: born and bred in Belfast mate. Never invaded anyone. Ever. What is your point?
@Buster Lawless: hopefully they use the right size. When it’s your turn.
Shameless
@Thom Hunter: not you obviously.
Your ancestors though. Again not your fault, but historic actions have consequences to the present day
@Fergus Peter Smyth: OK Mr ‘Smyth’
You sound like you are of Irish decent right enough. From what part of the island did the Smyths originate?
We came home after the plantations, I will assume that is what you mean. My maternal line are Shannon’s mate. Probably more Irish than your familial line sunshine.
So please take your attempt at some sort of racial supremacy and put it where the sun will never shine (not under the stairs btw).
Smyth. Irish. Hahahahahahahaha
@Thom Hunter: Northern Ireland would’ve ended up like Gaza.
@Alan Ely: that would explain why the IRA were never eliminated.
Did you hear about Norman Tebbit? – A hotel fell on his head.
You can’t kill a bad egg!
@Alan Kennedy: hence why you couldn’t kill off the IRA!
A UK friend of mine read that book and said it was the best book they ever read.
Read that book, would highly recommend.
@Alan Kennedy: Iron Dome is an Israeli invention.
@Andrew Harrington: It was jointly developed with US companies also.
@Andrew Harrington: The illogical pro Hamas murderers in Ireland is an extension of anti U.S. phenomenon
@thomas molloy: The illogical pro IOF murderers stance in Ireland is an extension of a Pro US, Pro war phenomenon. Scxmbag
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