IRELAND
IrishCentral
Gerry O’Shea @IrishCentral April 04, 2017
I recall clearly a shocking conversation that I had about 20 years ago, with a fine man from Tralee, Co. Kerry about the Christian Brothers Industrial School in that town. He recalled that some of the boys confined in the industrial school attended classes with him in The Green, the brothers’ local high school. He remembered that when the final bell rang to end the school day they would bolt for their living quarters because if they tarried at all they claimed they would be beaten.
My other memory of that conversation is much more disturbing. He told me that local people would sometimes hear screams at night from the school. As a teenager, he was surprised by this and asked his father, who worked as a laborer in the town, what was going on to cause such nocturnal cries.
His father replied that such matters were beyond his ability to deal with and that his son was better not talking about them — a very understandable response in those times.
The scene of boys crying out for help to a deaf and seemingly uncaring community in my own county 50 or so years ago, is seared in my memory. The men in clerical robes were paid by the state and honored for their work by the local clergy and dignitaries.
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