A statement from the Christian Brothers in response to advance publicity for the RTÉ documentary series 'States of Fear'.
The RTÉ three-part documentary series ‘States of Fear’ highlights life in childhood institutions. The first episode reveals what officials from the Department of Education were reporting in the years up to 1970 when the state's 52 industrial schools and reformatories were shut down.
Government documents from the time show the Chaplin of Artane Industrial School reported to Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid that many boys were malnourished, had no proper medical facilities, and no winter clothes.
In a statement the Christian Brothers said,
State funding of their industrial schools was never adequate and that in 1950 similar schools in Britain got three and a half times what they got here to look after each child.
The statement also says,
Boys in the care of the Christian Brothers got regular and appropriate medical attention.
While reiterating their apologies for the hurt and trauma suffered by anybody in their care, the Christian Brothers pointed out that
So far they have received 145 complaints of mistreatment out of the 20,000 boys who went through their institutions.
The statement ends,
One complaint of course is too many.
The Christian Brothers refused an RTÉ invitation to appear on the programme saying they were told by the producer that,
Their spokesman would be given only 4 to 5 minutes airtime in a three-hour series.
The RTÉ series ‘States of Fear’ produced by Mary Raftery documented persistent abuse of children in industrial schools and reformatories run by religious orders over decades. When broadcast in 1999 ‘States of Fear’ challenged how the institutions of the State and the Catholic Church had treated vulnerable individuals.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 27 April 1999. The reporter is Joe Little.
