SECRETS AND LIES AN EXPLORATION OF THE ROLE OF IDENTITY, CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION IN THE 1 POLICY PROCESS RELATING TO THE PROVISION OF PROTECTION AND CARE FOR VULNERABLE CHILDREN IN THE IRISH FREE STATE AND REPUBLIC 1923-1974 By Anthony Keating BA(Hons), MSc, PGDip Child Forensic Studies, Cert Ed, C Q S W A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervisor Professor John Horgan School of Communications, Dublin City University 1 I hearby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of PhD is entirely my own work and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and ID No 99145235 Date 17 7 2002 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all of those who assisted me in the completion of this thesis, particularly my supervisor Professor John Horgan whose insights, encouragement and editorial eye have been an invaluable source of direction and support The staff of various archives and libraries have shown great patience, understanding and knowledge, including the staff of the National Library of Ireland, the staff of the National Archives of Ireland, particularly Mr Tom Quinlan, the library staff at Dublin City University, the Secretary to the Censorship Board of Ireland and Father Fergus McDonaugh S J, the Archivist of the Jesuit Order m Dublm All of the above provided me with facilities and support of the highest order I owe particular thanks to all who were prepared to talk to me, some of whom felt they did not wish to be named Of those who were happy to be named I would especially like to thank Mr Desmond O’Malley, and Mr Risteard MacConchradha I would also like to thank Ms Michelle Shannon in the Cnme 1 Section of the Department of Justice I am mdebted to Ms Bnd Ingoldsby and Ms Kathryn Marsh for their assistance in editing the final draft of this thesis and Ms Delores Harte for the invaluable secretarial support she provided during the various drafts of this thesis 3 I would like to offer a particular vote of thanks to Ms Cathy Holland who was unstinting in her support and loyalty Finally I would like to offer my thanks to the Department of Communications at Dublm City University who funded my fees during the period of my research CONTENTS KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS Page 6 SYNOPSIS Page 7 1 ) METHODOLOGY Page 8 2) LITERATURE REVIEW Page 13 (a) The Historical Context (b) Cultural identity in the post- colonial period DATA COLLECTION AND REPORTING 3) CENSORSHIP THE CORNERSTONE OF CATHOLIC IRELAND Page 95 4) A MESSAGE FOR THE PRESS Page 128 5) THE USES AND ABUSES OF CENSORSHIP Page 136 6 ) THE CARRIGAN COMMITTEE Page 150 7) OUR MOST VULNERABLE CITIZENS Page 177 8 ) THE INTER-DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE Page 197 ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE 9) THE KENNEDY COMMISSION Page 227 1 0 ) CONCLUSIONS Page 290 11 ) BIBLIOGRAPHY Page 300 r \: KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS NA National Archives of Ireland, Dublin DJA Department of Justice Archive, Dublin CBA Censorship Board Archive, Dublin NL National Library of Ireland, Dublin JA Jesuit Archive, Dublin CEL Committee of Enquiry on Evil Literature, Dublin DJ Department of Justice * * This abbreviation indicates that these files are still held by the Department of Justice and have not been transferred to the National Archives 6 SYNOPSIS This thesis sets out to explore the linkages between communication policy in Ireland and the wider social, political and economic factors in the development of social policy in relation to the nation’s most vulnerable children, namely its marginalized children in institutional care It also sets out to test the thesis that the complex interactions of these factors m a post-colonial state encouraged public authorities to avoid confronting the daily realities of life in the institutions concerned, and that it also involved a systemic suppression of communication m order to avoid public embarrassment for the state, which would otherwise been compelled to act to correct an abusive institutional system This m turn, it will be argued, was closely related to the need to avoid disturbing a delicately-balanced structure of power relationships, and to preserve the powerful myth of the state’s historic anti-materialist mission This sense of mission was based in no small part on the perception of the newly-mdependent Irish state, on the part of its political representatives and many of its administrators, as a Catholic nation free in the main from the vices or secular atheistic materialism of the outside world (O’Donnell 1945 31) This perception was fundamentally incompatible with the realities of the lives led by many of the state’s cared-for children 7 1 1 ) METHODOLOGY For any state to effectively limit communication on an issue as sensitive as the provision of care for vulnerable children requires several levels of formal and informal censorship It is therefore vital that the formal and informal levels of censorship at work in Ireland be explored in the thesis to establish the role of censorship, intentional or otherwise, in allowing childcare in Ireland to remain out of the arena of public debate, and indeed beyond the reach of public scrutiny In establishing the factors that governed the development of childcare and child protection practices m the Irish State, while developing an understanding of the course of all aspects of social history, an understanding of the communications process is vital (Edelstem, Ito & Kepplinger 1989, Pickering 1997) The marginalized in-care group in themselves are diverse, brought into the marginalized category by a multitude of factors Social class, educational ability, family composition/ kinship supports, criminality, mental health and physical or intellectual disability, the experience of physical or sexual abuse can be, but are by no means common, experiences for marginalized children Their homogeneity can only be identified in two features \ Firstly, they were identified as children by society, and were therefore assigned a special status in the pantheon of state responsibility, and secondly, they were cared for by the state (Constitution of Ireland, Article 42 (5), 1937) 8 In establishing the complex weave of issues that made up the daily realities of the lives of cared-for children in the Irish State, it was vital that this thesis explore the issues of sexual and physical abuse of children in Ireland, a reality which many other commentators have successfully proven to be a feet of life for many cared-for children in Ireland during the period of exploration and beyond (Raftery & O’Sullivan,2000) It was decided that this thesis would focus in the mam on children who were cared for in the industrial and reformatory school sector, and the related group of “Boarded-out Children” The thesis does not focus on children cared for in special schools as a result of their physical or intellectual disabilities, e g deafness, blindness or general learning disabilities such as Down’s Syndrome This was necessary both to put manageable parameters on the project and in recognition of the fact that, while all of these groups may well have shared many experiences when m care, they formed three distinct groups that required three different focuses The research was conducted by developing four distmct strands The first was a comprehensive investigation of newspaper reports of the treatment of cared-for children and the abuse of children in Irish society generally This included an extensive review of national and local paper coverage The selection of the local papers was based on the geographical area served, where that matched identified archival records of data on sexual crimes against children 9 The second strand of the research was an extensive review of primary material held in various archives, covering the specific area of childcare and the related areas of censorship and adoption, indeed the availability of archival material dictated the historical parameters of this research This primary research was complemented by a review of the existing literature relating to the cultural, political, religious and economic environments in which these children lived and in which policy was formed Thirdly, some of the key players m the policy arena for the latter part of the period studied were interviewed These included politicians, administrators, committee members and other interested parties Many of those involved in even the most recent events have died Of those who survive, many were reluctant to speak, whilst some of those who did speak did not want their names used for fear of litigation or of attracting negative publicity Whilst this clearly undermines their contributions as a reference source m an academic work, their insights are nonetheless an important part of this story Fourthly, the research explores the link between the social class of the individual convicted and newspaper coverage of the crime It would appear from the Breen case (see below in chapter 4) that the social status of the alleged perpetrator was a significant factor in determining newspaper coverage The list of convictions and personal details uncovered during the course of this research in the workmg papers of the Camgan 10 Committee afforded a unique opportunity to test this hypothesis. An approach was made to the Garda archivist to gain access to the crime files but the author was informed that all the relevant files had been destroyed. An approach was then made to the Department of Justice seeking access to their penal files. The Department of Justice initially claimed that these files had been destroyed, but when the author presented them with evidence that they still existed, they declined to give access on privacy grounds, despite the feet that all the relevant information, except social class, had already obtained from their files, in the National Archives.