A representative of the Christian Brothers has told the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse that from the late 1980s a negative picture of Artane Industrial School was painted and that media coverage was seriously unbalanced.
Brother Michael Reynolds, the deputy leader of St Mary's province of the Christian Brothers, said that taken in the round Artane was a positive institution.
He said he did not want to belittle the pain of anyone who had been abused and repeated an apology made by the order.
However, he said the onus was on people to prove their innocence and this was an inversion of the normal process.
When questioned about corporal punishment by counsel for the inquiry, Brother Reynolds said there were incidents of severe punishment but it was not any more strict than in any other primary school in the country at the time.
