SEANAD MOTION TO CHANGE THE NAME OF ARTANE BAND
A MOTION to rename the Artane Band will be brought before the Seanad in the coming weeks, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned.
Independent Senator Gerard Craughwell says he is introducing the motion because of the continuing hurt felt by survivors of the industrial school at Artane over RTÉ’s ‘love affair’ with the band despite the historic abuse that occurred at the institution.
The motion will also call on both RTÉ and the GAA to cease promoting the band, formerly known as the Artane Boys
Band, with Mr Craughwell telling the MoS that the marching band’s high profile within both organisations is ‘utterly lacking in sensitivity’.
He said: ‘Each appearance is especially traumatic for survivors of abuse. I am calling for this band to be renamed and for a redesign of the uniform. This is the least that can be done for those living with the black memories of what they suffered in this institution.’
Mr Craughwell was echoing the call by Dublin City Councillor Mannix Flynn, a survivor of Ireland’s industrial schools, for RTÉ to end its ‘unhealthily close relationship with the Artane Boys Band’.
Mr Flynn put forward a motion in recent weeks, which was unanimously adopted at a meeting of Dublin City Council, also calling on the management of the Artane Band and the
GAA to change the uniform and the name of the band.
‘If RTÉ is going to persist in its strange love affair, any features on the band should be accompanied by a warning to viewers who might be affected by coverage,’ Mr Flynn said.
‘Like other institutions of the State, RTÉ must confront the past and its own exploitation of the band for commercial gain.
‘Many children from the mother and baby homes were incarcerated in Artane and many more were press-ganged into the band, where children suffered horrendous abuse, sexual and otherwise, in the band room. Today many of us still carry those scars.’
Responding to queries, a spokesman for RTÉ said: ‘This is a matter for the GAA. RTÉ has no further comment.’