Sir, - I refer to Brother Mullan's letter of protest (October 9th) wherein he makes heavy weather of Patsy McGarry's highly revealing article on the terror endured by children held at Artane (The Irish Times, September 25th).
In his enthusiasm to "put the record straight" as he sees it, Brother Mullan has placed in the public domain what we hitherto only suspected - that the order of the Irish Christian Brothers has been permitted to retain custody and control of the medical files of those entrusted to them by the State, even though these files are rightly the property of the Eastern Health Board and/or the Department of Education.
For months now SOCA has been pressing the various departments of Government in Dublin to locate the medical files of the victims.
It is truly astonishing that the very people who are the subject of one of the most extensive Garda investigations in the history of the State are allowed to keep possession of what are State documents compiled under the provisions of the 1908 Children Act. Whatever next? - Yours, etc.,
M. Waters, Chair/Co-ordinator, Survivors of Child Abuse, King Edward Road, Hillfields, Coventry, England.