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Column We must stop claiming that 'we never knew' about child abuse at Catholic institutions

It’s a common refrain that widespread abuse was only exposed in recent decades – but the real story is very different, writes Fin Dwyer.

This article was originally published 26 October 2012

OVER THE PAST two decades the issue of child abuse has dominated the Irish political agenda. Harrowing as the various reports have been Irish society has yet to deal with one of the most challenging and complex aspects of the abuse; how much did wider society in Ireland know?

A frequent response to this question has been that the vast majority of people never knew about child abuse until the 1990s. This does not hold up to scrutiny. Historians such as Diarmaid Ferriter have have pointed out that evidence in newspapers, court reports and government files indicate many people on all levels of society had varying degrees of knowledge of the abuse of children.

As early as 1931 the Cumann na nGaedheal government had conclusive evidence of widespread child abuse in Irish society when they received ‘The Carrigan Report’, findings of a committee that examined ‘Criminal Law Amendment Acts and Juvenile Prostitution’.

The then Garda commissioner Eoin O’Duffy had testified to the committee that there had been over four hundred reported cases of abuse of girls under the age of 18 between 1924 and 1929 including an “alarming… number of cases of interference with girls under 16 and with children under 11 years of age”. O Duffy estimated that these reflected at most 15 per cent of the actual crimes being committed.

Tarnished image

In what became an all too frequent response in Ireland those in authority were unwilling to act when presented with the findings of the Carrigan Report. Ireland’s nationalist leaders had long argued that the country’s ills had been caused by the British presence on the island. The publishing of such a report after nearly a decade of Independence would directly contradict this. It would also tarnish Ireland’s image as a Catholic country.

Many also struggled to believe the testimony of children, something that the reporting of child abuse was dependent on.

In this context the report was treated with hostility. The Department of Justice memo on the report in 1931 called it ‘practically without value’. Through 1932, two successive government cabinets, a secret Dáil committee representing all parties and the Standing Committee Of Irish Bishops viewed the report. Disturbingly the report was suppressed and none of these people who had seen its shocking details raised the disturbing findings in public.

All agreed that the best way to deal with the report was through as little public debate as possible on issues surrounding sexual immorality. Perhaps most worryingly they even failed to call for further examination into O’Duffy’s statistics or further monitoring of abuse cases.

Black and blue

Despite the Carrigan Report’s suppression, evidence of the abuse of children surfaced in public from time to time. Between 1924 and 1960 Irish circuit courts heard 1,500 cases regarding sexual offences of which 81 per cent were regarding victims seventeen or younger. As well as the discussion these cases must have provoked in local communities, many were also reported in the press. Even though the term paedophilia would not be commonly used until the 1990s, references to terms such as ‘indecent assault against a young girl’ left the reader with a fairly clear idea of the nature, if not the detail, of the crime.

While the Carrigan Report and court prosecutions dealt with abuse in wider society, abuse in church run institutions was not completely unknown either. For example in 1935, 15-year-old John Byrne was killed in Artane Industrial School. He had been beaten by a teacher which was reported in The Irish Times. Although the coroner reported that the boy had died of disease, the Communist Party newspaper The Workers Voice interviewed the boy’s father who said his son’s body “was black and blue”. The Communist Party called for a public inquiry as early as May, 1935.

Mary Raftery and Eoin O Sullivan have pointed that knowledge of the regimes of abuse in Irish industrial schools was also held in communities adjacent to these institutions. Communities close to the Christian Brothers School in Salthill, Co Galway frequently heard the screams of children at night as did those living beside a similar institution in Daingean, Co Offaly.

In the summer of 1946 the issue of institutional abuse was widely debated in the Irish papers when Fr Edward Flanagan, a native of Roscommon and well known US priest visited Ireland. He had earned widespread fame through his progressive institution Boystown which was the subject of a 1938 Oscar winning film. As he travelled across Ireland Flanagan was critical of the regime of physical abuse he witnessed in some of Ireland’s institutions.

Disgrace

He directly attacked youth prisons in public saying “your institutions are not all noble, particularly your borstals which are a disgrace.” When addressing a crowd at a public meeting in Cork he encouraged people to help children “by keeping your children away from these institutions”.

When Flanagan returned to the US his criticism was reported in the American press and a prolonged debate on the issue continued in Ireland through the late summer and autumn of 1946. Nothing was done as the government denied the charges. Similar criticism was widely reported in 1963 when eight girls who had escaped an institution in Bundoran had their heads shaved when they were caught and returned to the institution run by the Sisters of St. Louis. The story was covered in the British newspaper The People under the headline “Orphanage horror”.

Rather than provoke protest, the phrase ‘Bundoran haircut’ entered popular parlance in the north-west to threaten misbehaving children – reflecting the uncaring attitudes pervasive in Irish society toward children in these institutions, who were for the main working class children and the children of single mothers. For those concerned taking action against abuse was not easy. When people did complain they were ignored by politicians and department officials who time and again believed the church who denied allegations.

As a society, Ireland needs to address this fact that many knew of the abuse of children, and ask why they did not or could not act. This will involve looking at the historic role of the Catholic Church in shaping ideas around morality and sex which made discussion of sexual abuse very difficult. Likewise we must look at the role played by the highly authoritarian and conservative governments of the state who were more concerned about the country’s image than children suffering abuse.

Fin Dwyer is a historian, blogger and archaeologist. Find out more at IrishHistoryPodcast.ie, or on Facebook.

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    Mute Karin Ahlers
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    Mar 5th 2022, 8:39 AM

    When I first met Pat Ingolsby, I fidn’t know any thing else about him, except he is a poet who self-publishes. It was around 2000 on the beach on Howth. My son introduced us and bought me my 1. book of him. I was immediatly hooked by his unique, down to earth and at times funny view of life. Many books followed over the years, all with beautifully written dedications. Some of them have gone as presents to friends in Germany as a way to explain my love of Irish peole to them. Pat said once to me, I have more of his books then himself. He surely influenced my way of looking at Dublin and its people, and it became a big part of how I’m feeling to live here.
    Unfortunately I didn’t get a ticket for this documentary, I can only hope that TV will send it some day soon.

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    Mute Brian Dunne
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    Mar 5th 2022, 8:06 AM

    Used to really enjoy Pat Ingoldsby on the telly when i was a child

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    Mute Padraic McDonagh
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    Mar 5th 2022, 11:17 AM

    @Brian Dunne: mine too. I think we only had RTE so a little bit of Pats chat brought calm after listening to Boscos shenanigans!

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    Mute Charles McCarthy
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    Mar 5th 2022, 11:50 AM

    @Padraic McDonagh: Was it known as pat’s “chat” or pat’s “hat”?

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    Mute Terry Fagan VO
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    Mar 5th 2022, 2:09 PM

    @Charles McCarthy: Pat’s Chat and Pat’s Hat were two different programmes.

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    Mute Noel Donohue
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    Mar 5th 2022, 8:19 AM

    Seen him on telly also on Westmoreland street a lovely man and above all an original no airs or graces.

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    Mute Pat O'Leary
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    Mar 5th 2022, 9:39 AM

    Anyone remember Spindle The Spider on Pat’s Chat? Used to come down from the ceiling.

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    Mute Harry the Cat
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    Mar 5th 2022, 10:49 AM

    @Pat O’Leary: Yes, Spindle had delicate knees!

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    Mute Padraic McDonagh
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    Mar 5th 2022, 6:19 PM

    @Pat O’Leary: Flashback! As soon as I ready our comment I could see him again in my minds eye.

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    Mute Sean Ryan
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    Mar 5th 2022, 8:43 AM

    Looking forward to seeing this. Pat is a gentleman, always has time for other people, and has a wonderfully heartfelt talent.

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    Mute Thomas McDonnell
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    Mar 5th 2022, 10:17 AM

    My sister and I were starstruck when we met him on a bus when we were around fouryears old. Pats chat was the best kids show at the time. we must have had his head wrecked yapping away to him for the duration of the journey but he never let it show. When it was time to get off we asked him for an autograph but he had no pen. He asked my mother could he have our address and a week later a signed photo arrived. An absolute gentleman and such a kind soul. He just kind of disappeared for a while. Was great to see him years later selling his poetry on the street. Such a talented man. And he still loved the chat!

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    Mute O Swetenham
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    Mar 5th 2022, 9:30 AM

    A gentleman and a real character. He used to sell his books at a spot on (if I remember correctly) Westmoreland street .I remember chatting to him when I was a teenager and buying a book of poetry called ‘Poems So Fresh and So New, Yahoo’. Shall definitely check out this documentary.

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    Mute Sean Treacy
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    Mar 5th 2022, 12:19 PM

    @O Swetenham: I bought that same book off him. It’s one of my all time favourites

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    Mute Marcus Massey
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    Mar 5th 2022, 10:53 AM

    Mr Ingoldsby lived in Firhouse for a while when I was a kid. Always stopped and told us a story of we asked for one. An absolute gent of the highest order.

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    Mute Lucy Legacy
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    Mar 5th 2022, 10:25 AM

    I met him once with my kids and we chatted. Had my kids in stitches about him living inside the Telly. A real gem of a man.

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    Mute Anthony John Cotter
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    Mar 5th 2022, 11:44 AM

    An amazing man with an abundance of talent, looking forward to seeing the documentary.

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    Mute Fon_Ellard
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    Mar 5th 2022, 11:56 AM

    I knew him from Pat’s Hat (or Pat’s Chat?) as a child and saw him selling his books of poetry near College Green several years ago and bought a few of them (they’re great by the way) and had a short conversation with him, what a lovely man and very funny.

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    Mute Justin Healy
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    Mar 5th 2022, 2:25 PM

    Pat is a Dublin and Irish legend. The people’s poet.
    I’ve spent many an afternoon chatting to him about the everyday and often the bizarre. He has a boundless imagination. Can’t wait to see this doc and hopefully see Pat again.

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    Mute Laurence Cavanagh
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    Mar 5th 2022, 7:34 PM

    The man is a National Treasure.God bless you Pat.

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