Christian should be removed from the name of the society..... so sad....

It was a label they (the Irish "christian brothers" used to give them moral authority - also political authority.

but not authority to abuse or kill kids.

Onlye recently at the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse the "christian brothers" called sexual abuse of children a "moral failure" on the part of their members and not as a crime. They had no problem calling in the police when a boy absconded but NEVER thought to call the police when one of their "brethern" raped a boy.

Sunday November 3rd 2002 Sunday Independent [SUMMARY]

SURVIVORS of the Letterfrack Industrial School in Connemara uncovered the unmarked grave of a four-year-old boy who died while in the custody of the Christian Brothers and was buried in woods near the school.

The discovery came about when a 74-year-old man turned up for a ceremony to mark the graves of the estimated 99 boys who died at the school between the 1870s until it closed in the Seventies. The man brought organisers to a site in the woods near the school where they found the grave of Bernard Kerrigan, who died in 1935.

The elderly man, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the organisers he had played with the boy in the schoolyard and wanted to visit his grave before he died.

This man who played with him in the schoolyard confirmed that he died and we found his grave. The grave is less than 10 yards from the school building. John Prior said they had heard that a boy had been buried in the woods beside the school but had no idea where it was. It was totally unmarked. "This man came here this morning and brought us to the grave. He said he had been playing with Bernard Kerrigan the day before and the next day was at his burial."
Boys remember trying to escape from the school and being brought back by local people and Gardaí.

The organisers of the event placed 77 marble hearts in the graveyard beside the school. While organising the event, the group known as the Joseph Pike Research Group, discovered from Christian Brothers' records that at least 99 boys died in Letterfrack.

The Christian Brothers said on Friday that incomplete records had been kept at Letterfrack and that they had kept full records in their Dublin Provincialate. They wished that all records about deaths at the school be made available to families and ex-inmates.

The Christian Brothers gave 97 names but the actual total may be actually 99. In some cases there were no death certificates. They are not registered in the Register of Deaths in Galway. On death certificates the boys have also been robbed of their parentage. They are down as 'son of a tinker', 'son of a labourer', 'son of a butcher'.

"Manopeace" says in his post that they (the christian brothers) had no authority to abuse or kill kids. Wrong. They had all the freedom in the world to do what they liked to innocent children - because the Irish people let them!

In reply to The Knitter's postings: Ireland is just as corrupt (if not more so) now that it was back in the Letterfrack/Artane/Ferryhouse (etc-etc) days...the ROT is still rotting away at Ireland's soul. The vast majority of the torturers and murderers of all those Irish children - whether survivors of the indstrial school gulags or not - will, of course NEVER be brought to justice, because we have a long way to go yet before we become a civilised society. The fact is, people who have had total power for a long time don't easily let go the bit!!!

Hi Celtic Mist - True .... an indication of the power that can STILL be wielded was shown this week when the extradition of fr. patrick colleary to the United States of America was refused over the issue of pink underwear. No account was taken of the child abuse charges against colleary only the issue of prisoners wearing pink underwerar.