Letters dating back over 60 years giving graphic descriptions of the verminous condition of children's heads and worrying bruising on the bodies of girls at the infirmary of an industrial school were discussed at the inquiry into child abuse yesterday.
However, it was stated that the Sisters of Mercy at Newtownforbes, Co Longford, only became aware on November 20th last of the highly critical official descriptions of conditions at the industrial school in the 1940s.
They have also been unable to explain why the letters, sent to the resident manager from the Department of Education, were absent from the industrial school's archive. The letters were "discovered" to them by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse last November. The commission's investigation committee was also told yesterday that an examination of the Newtownforbes archive disclosed nothing to substantiate complaints by former residents at the industrial school, which closed in 1969. The commission has received complaints from five such former residents.
In a letter dated February 12th, 1940, Dr Anne McCabe of the Department of Education wrote to Rev Mother Agnes Langan at Newtownforbes: "I cannot find any excuse which would exonerate you and your staff from the verminous condition of several of the children's heads."
She continued: "Then I was not satisfied in finding so many of the girls in the infirmary suffering from bruises to their bodies." Dr McCabe was writing following a medical inspection of the school.
She said: "The neglect of supervision and individual attention is, in my opinion, the reason for the dirty condition of the heads and the untreated abscesses I discovered in the child in the infirmary."
She referred to unsatisfactory fire precautions and warned that she would "be reluctantly compelled to take the matter further" if there wasn't "a marked and sustained improvement".
In another letter, dated October 13th, 1943, and following another inspection, an unnamed "cigire" noted that, while the running of the school had improved and was satisfactory, "a number of the younger children had no shoes". It was requested this be remedied immediately.
A letter from the cigire to the school on July 6th 1944 noted "a serious need for a general improvement in the standard of cleanliness and tidiness in every department" there. Extra bath rooms should be provided as well as tooth brushes for each child, and mirrors and nail brushes, it said. It noted just one exit to a dormitory and called for "at least two" in case of fire.
A handwritten note from Department files, dated April 26th, 1948, was of a phone call from a man complaining about the condition of his children at Newtownforbes. He said they were suffering from scabies for months with one of his girls "practically disabled from the sores between her fingers".
He said the children's footwear was in very bad condition and they had no stockings. Further Department documents presented to the committee noted major improvements in conditions at the school throughout the 1950s and 60s.
Sister Margaret Casey, provincial leader of the congregation's western province since 2001, told the committee that before the 1990s the congregation at Newtownforbes, as elsewhere, had no awareness that children in their institutions "experienced their upbringing as damaging or abusive".
She expressed deep regret and apologised on behalf of the congregation.