STAIR NA HÉIREANN | IRISH HISTORY
MAY 4 AT 2PM IN THE CAROLAN ROOM
Consensus to controversy: The visibility of abuse in industrial schools in Irish newspapers and its ‘rediscovery’ as a subject of inquiry, 1920-1990, presented by Conall Ó Fátharta.
A common view among journalists that the abuses suffered by Irish women and children in Irish institutions were ‘hidden in plain sight’. However, it is not the case that Irish journalists waited until the 1990s to address these topics. In fact, they frequently wrote about these issues from the 1920s right up to the 1980s. What changed in the 1990s was less that these aspects of Irish society were suddenly ‘revealed’, and rather that the journalistic practices and approaches used in the revelation of such matters gradually shifted. It is this shift in how journalism framed the narrative around such matters that is the focus of this research.
Conall will explore how from the very beginnings of the Irish State, industrial schools were abusive institutions being reported in Ireland’s three main national newspapers – the Irish Times, Irish Independent and Irish Press. These references range from hint at abuses, to concrete examples of the physical and sexual abuse of children, the exploitation of children for labour, the death of children in care and the suicides of young people after leaving industrial schools. These issues were rarely foregrounded as the main line in the news copy. However, social, economic, and cultural shifts in the 1960s created the space for a small, but influential cohort of Irish journalists, not to uncover, but rather to rediscover the industrial and reformatory school system – reframing it from a topic of consensus to one of controversy, and worthy of deeper journalistic inquiry. This shift in framing was crucial to raising public awareness and anger about the industrial school system and instrumental in the system being rediscovered again in the 1990s – this time as a ‘national scandal’.
Conall Ó Fátharta is an award-winning former journalist who previously worked as a Senior News Reporter with the Irish Examiner. He is currently undertaking a PhD in Media Studies at
Maynooth University, examining the Irish print media role in investigating and shaping historical Church and State abuse as national scandals from 1990-2020. He is doing this by examining the media coverage of interlinked episodes of injustice: (1) Magdalene Laundries (1993-2018), (2) abuse in industrial schools (1999-2009), and (3) the Banished Babies scandal (Irish- American adoption scheme) (1996-2020). As a Fulbrighter, Conall is at the Glucksman Ireland House at NYU to research the last of these ‘scandals’ – the Irish-American adoption scheme, analysing the crucial role played by US journalism in bringing the scheme to public attention.
Tickets $5.00 (Students with ID $2.00)
No scrip or credit cards.
Register online: gaclectures@gmail.com.
Subject: Irish History. Please provide name, address, phone.
GO RAIBH MILE MAITH AGAT
The Fréamh Éireann Genealogy Group would like to thank Féile and the Irish Language Group for their continued sponsorship of our Irish History Lectures.
