KENNEDY REPORT 1970 PRIVATE PAPERS of Kennedy Committee

KENNEDY REPORT 1970 [[ PRIVATE PAPERS of Kennedy Committee February 28th. 1968]] .

Both of the doctors on the Kennedy Committee (Dr. John Ryan & Dr. J.G. O'Hagan) then put a number of questions to Fr. McGonagle (Manager of Daingean) about the circumstances associated with the corporal punishment of the boys. He replied openly and without embarrassment that ordinarily the boys were called out of the dormitories after they had retired, and that they were punished here on one of the stairway landings. The boys wore nightshirts as sleeping attire when they were called for punishments. Punishment was applied to the buttocks with a leather. I put the only question that I asked in respect of corporal punishment at this juncture.

I asked if the boys were undressed of their nightshirts when they were punished. Fr. McGonagle replied that at times they were. He elaborated some further remarks to the effect that the nightshirts were pulled up when this was done. This remark was subsequently commented upon by the Committee members in private discussion. The point was made that when boys were punished with the leather they could hardly be expected to remain still and his struggles were likely to enlarge the state of his undress, and the likelihood that a struggling boy could be struck anywhere on the naked body could not be excluded.

Some other Committee members asked why he allowed boys to be stripped naked for punishment, and Fr.McGonagle replied, in a matter of a fact manner, that he considered punishment to be more humiliating when it was administered in that way.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION and the KENNEDY REPORT:

District Justice Eileen Kennedy of the Dublin Children's Court wrote to the Dept. of Education on the 4th. April 1968, seeking details of ALL complaints received over the previous five years, and how THESE complaints had being dealt with. OVER A YEAR LATER, the Department had STILL NOT RESPONDED. Justice Kennedy sent a sharp reminder on the 5th. May 1969. It reads: My Committee is concerned at the failure to obtain replies to enquiries made to your Department affecting your Reformatory & Industrial Schools Branch. These include

1. Letter sent in April 1968 asking for details of complaints made to your Department referring to Industrial Schools, and how they were dealt with. Reminder sent in April 1969.

2. A letter sent in June 1968 regarding Daingean. Reminder sent in March 1969.

3. A complaint made by the ISPCC regarding an alleged incident of excessive corporal punishment at Artane Industrial School. The ISPCC brought up this matter at a meeting with the Committee.

4. An enquiry made by a member of this Committee in his official capacity in connection with an incident at Marlborough House Glasnevin.

While it is appreciated that in certain cases, enquiries could be protracted this hardly justifies the failure to obtain any kind of reply.

..... THESE PRIVATE PAPERS ARE MISSING .... The Files are KAPUT!! Most, if not ALL of the Working Papers used by the members of the Kennedy Report(1970) are believed to have been kept by the Dept. Of Education and are thought to have been in existence at least up to 1995.

Coincidentally a Br. P.A. O'Raghallaigh (described as Manager Artane School) and a Sr. Caoimhin Ni Chaoimh (described as Little Sisters of the Assumpta) as members of the Kennedy Committee

.... I make no ASSUMPTIONS here, maybe because I don't need to.