An Inspector Calls

Or what the Inspector noted after visits to the Sisters of Mercy managed Newtownforbes Industrial School

A ..... I cannot find any excuse which would exonerate you and your staff from the verminous condition of several of the children's heads .

B ..... I was not satisfied in finding so many of the girls in the infirmary suffering from bruises on their bodies.

C ...... It is observed however that a number of the younger children had no shoes and I am to request you to take immediate steps to remedy this matter.

D ...... The practice of allow children to go barefoot has been condemned on medical grounds as exposing the children to the danger of infection from cuts. It is also uncomfortable for the children."

E ...... "The children looked and were very untidy. Their necks were badly washed. In most cases their heads verminous."

F ......"Mr. (Blank) called to complain regarding the condition of his children in Newtownforbes. ................ and says that they are suffering from scabies from months past.

G ...... One of the girl's hands is practically disabled from the sores between her fingers. The parent says the children's footwear is in a very bad condition and they have no stockings."

H ...... the dirty condition of the heads and the untreated abscesses I discovered in the child in the infirmary.

QUESTION to Mercy Representative :> Were there [any] conclusions which, as a congregation, you were in a position to draw from the accumulated sources of information which became available to you?

ANSWER . Well, I suppose, from these sources of information it became clear to us that Newtownforbes was like other industrial schools, therefore it was run in a very institutional manner. That it was organised in a very routine and fixed way. It was also clear to us that the children who were in the industrial school were very vulnerable children and had special needs, and that the system in place and the industrial school wasn't really able to meet or provide for the needs of the children. 

EMPHASIS ADDED

1.  Newtownforbes was like other industrial schools,   A BLANKET ACKNOWLEDGEMENT that Newtownforbes was not an out-of-the-ordinary bad Industrial School, that it was no different than other places of Detention.  ..... As yet we have to hear ANY denial from other Religious Orders that the conditions in their own particular Industrial School  was LESS SALUBRIOUS than Newtownforbes.

2.  .... run in a very institutional manner.  Basically this means that there was little to no individual attention given to children, indeed it seems that if one child had a verminous condition on her head then this condition would spread to other children's heads.  Beatings seemed to take happen to groups of children and it seems these beatings required care in the Infirmary (see B).  Is there an implication in B, telling the Sisters of Mercy to refrain from beating big numbers of girls all at the one time?  The Inspector writes ....     I was not satisfied in finding so many ....... suffering   ......  Is this an EXHORTATION from the Inspector to the Sisters of Mercy?  And I remember from my Catechism that an EXHORTATION is a gift of the Holy Spirit whereby one is blessed with the ability to encourage others in the godly way !!!!

3.  ....organised in a very routine and fixed way ... She is really describing an UNYIELDING FORCE so to speak.  Just take the matter of the barefoot children, presumably the Inspector's Report on Newtownforbes was written up when he/she returned to the Education Department, someone higher up the chain read it and made notes and, probably, wrote to the Mercy nuns about the health risks of allowing children to go barefoot.  The Mercy nuns then, probably, wrote back to the Education Department looking for funds to buy shoes, that letter would have been sent higher .... and so on ..... but the children would STILL be barefoot.

4.   children   .....  were very vulnerable children and had special needs  ....... he industrial school wasn't really able to meet or provide for the needs of the children     Special Needs for scabies, bare feet, abscesses ??? The mind boggles, this order of nuns were already managing Secondary Schools and Boarding Schools ..... surely a Degree in Childcare was NOT needed to see the hurt of the children in Newtownforbes!  Special Needs indeed!  Yet this order of nuns continued to claim more and more money from the State ostensibly to cater to the   special needs       .. of... very vulnerable children       ..... yet they were UNABLE TO CATER FOR THE BASIC NEEDS OF THE CHILDREN