Dublin Opinion

Posted in Irish Labour History | 16 Comments

16 Responses to “DEATH IN ARTANE, 1935”

1. on 17 Sep 2012 at 12:07 pm1Eugene

   Thanks for posting the above. The odd occasion when putting the archives into boxes we came across great pieces of working class journalism. Working men and women speaking and writing in their own voice. Not filtered through some middle class go between. Maybe we should start to put some of the materials from the past in the current Socialist Voice. I suppose unless the working class writes its own history their struggles and values, hopes and desires, their dignity will always be distorted.

   They took a very brave stand when the catholic church was at the peak of its power and influence and the reign of terror on the children of the poor. Those activists also bore the brunt of the attacks from the state and church working in conjunction to break and demoralize the working class and all radical opposition. Outside the CPI and its allies there was little opposition. Once again thanks for bringing it to light and to the attention of this current generation of working class activists.

2. on 17 Sep 2012 at 2:04 pm2Meanwhile, In 1935 | Broadsheet.ie

   […] Death In Artane (Conor McCabe, DublinOpinion) […]

3. on 17 Sep 2012 at 3:55 pm3Brian Hanley

   Good find Conor. I tried to use this particular issue for teaching a few years ago but the only photocopy I had was so dark it was unusable. Did you take a photo of the hard copy? Some interesting stories on housing agitation in Cabra and elsewhere in that series of Workers Voice.

4. on 17 Sep 2012 at 4:31 pm4Conor McCabe

   This is down to my new “toy” - the microfilm reader in UCD library on level two next to the DVDs. It allows you to save images as digital files. It’s linked up to a PC and it’s an absolute godsend. If you’re around on Wednesday I can show you how it works. It’s a bit niggley but once you get used to it it’s just brilliant.

5. on 17 Sep 2012 at 4:32 pm5Conor McCabe

   I saw that stuff on Cabra all right. The paper itself is a great social history resource.

6. on 17 Sep 2012 at 8:21 pm6Jonathan

   ‘Hold a public inquiry into the conduct of Artane’ was written in 1935. “Ten gardai including a detective sergeant were assigned full-time to working on the Artane inquiry in early 1998.” http://www.independent.ie/national-news/ten-gardai-a-threeyear-inquiry-but-only-one-prosecution-203460.html

7. on 18 Sep 2012 at 9:00 am7Andrew

   This is a great find - gold dust you could say. I wonder was there any follow-up by the Workers’ Voice?

   The left-wing voice on this issue is very notable …. by it’s absence! The Irish Labour Party input was to posit a question every year in the Dail as to how many children were incarcerated in the Institutions.

8. on 18 Sep 2012 at 9:08 am8Conor McCabe

   Hi Andrew, there were follow-on articles by the Workers’ Voice, I’ll try to post them soon.

9. on 18 Sep 2012 at 10:01 am9Andrew

   Thanks Conor.

   There were a few deaths in one of the places I was in. One death I remember was in 1967 and an ‘investigation’ did take place into it. The stated reason for the death was meningitis but this seems to have been a catch-all reason to explain deaths. In fact the child died due to the horrific conditions of the Institution. There was serious overcrowding in the place. Another institution run by the same Religious Order had closed down and many of the children were transferred to this institution.

   There were two dormitories, and in one of them there were 120 beds. This dormitory housed the bigger boys - aged 12 to 15 years. The dormitory for the smaller boys - aged about 8 to 12 - had even more beds! According to ‘official’ statistics there were on average 205 boys in this particular institution but we know that ‘official’ statistics on the Institutions were fiction.

   Anyway the Dept. of Health carried out an ‘investigation’ and condemned conditions in the Institution and recommended its closure. The institution was never closed. The Dept of Health were worried that if news of these conditions leaked to the wider world there would be a scandal. The Dept itself had around 20 children in this Institution which it was directly responsible for, so they immediately removed those children and transferred them to other - presumably more salubrious - institutions and abandoned the other (over 200) children to the horrific conditions they were forced to live in.

   That report was kept secret until unearthed by Mary Raftery.

   A few months before this child’s death RTE filmed in the Institutions and from stills of the film it is obvious that the children are seriously neglected - http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c135/theknitter/Ferryhouse/stolenlives46.jpg

10. on 18 Sep 2012 at 10:31 am10Conor McCabe

    Thanks Andrew, I’m speechless.

11. on 18 Sep 2012 at 12:59 pm11Andrew

    I’ve passed on this link to a few others - let’s hope something happens!

    As devastating as the Ryan Report has appeared to be, it never mentioned this boy’s death in Artane 1935 … it did however write on the death of boy after fall in Artane in the 1950s and - you won’t be surprised - cleared the Institution of culpability.

    You would think from the Ryan Report and Government files for those times that deaths of children in the Institutions were few and far between yet one Institution I was in managed to produce 3 mass graves in it’s history!

    One other Institution even had 60 children die in it’s first year of opening in 1930!

    “” History professor at Warwick University, Maria Luddy, said that 60 out of 120 babies died in Sean Ross Abbey in its opening year. Had that rate been maintained – and, in fact, the unit expanded – it would have meant 2,400 deaths until 1970 when the mother and baby unit closed.

    Considering that 60 babies died in the opening single year of Sean Ross Abbey, it is safe to assume that deaths, at least in their hundreds (being utterly conservative) if not greater, occurred. Remember, Sean Ross Abbey was just one of three mother and baby homes operated by the order in the state. The sisters sold babies and infants to the few wealthy in Irish society and American people. “”

    http://theraggedwagon.wordpress.com/2009/08/15/new-evidence-that-irish-children-were-murdered/

    I think we need a Ryan Report II - only this time no interference from Government, politicians or the forced resignation of the judge. And it should be international!

12. on 19 Sep 2012 at 10:21 am12Patrick Rice

    So what’s new? I was charged with ‘receiving alms’ at Dublin DC in 1932 when I was two and sentenced to 14 years by a judge Cussen. I witnessed deaths in both Industrial schools one of which was Artane.
    When I was 17 I left Ireland for ever and tried to forget those years. I never knew family or home in Ireland no on e wanted to know. Society was in denial. Recently I carried out research on my background. The records revealed a mass of both shocking and outrageous lies. My story is part of Irish social history.

13. on 19 Oct 2012 at 11:12 am13Adrian Grant

    Hi Conor, I’m coming to the post late because I stumbled across it looking for something else. I’ve been meaning to do some more research into the radical papers’ exposure of abuse. The Workers’ Voice had a lot around this time but I think (not 100% sure about this) that An Phoblacht ran a campaign to investigate industrial schools in the 30s too. I always thought it would be worth checking the mainstream press for any mention of this kind of thing.

14. on 25 Jan 2013 at 8:52 am14Oliver Whelan

    I served 7 years hard labour in Artane Prison school of a fourteen year sentence at Carlow Court in defence of my pregnant mother at Ballavass Farm near Castledermot. I was just over two years of age when sentenced as I stood upon a chair, with no food no medical treatment and no legla representation after a night in police cell. In Artane I witnessed terrible brutality and a death of a child had only to be recorded and not investigated by Gardai. Is it any wonder that when these investigations started that the Artane Graveyard was bulldozed and remains mixed with concrete. And now Artane Kilmore Road victims Cemetary is a McDonalds fast food outlet. A Mackers upon their Stones,,, And concrete mixed with bones.

15. on 26 Jan 2013 at 1:18 am15Mary

    One particular Death of a child I remember that happened in the Industrial school that I have never been able to forget it has always been imprinted in my mind , I can still see the face of that child, many years later when I talked about it The Nun’s said to me she had died from Meningitis , we can’t never get justice from those evil people they have to much power behind them and I am only one ex Industrial Reformatory school survivor. our voices have been silenced through Fear.

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