CHRISTIAN BROTHERS MAKE U-TURN ON DOCUMENTS
CHRISTIAN BROTHERS BACK DOWN IN DEMAND FOR GLIN SCHOOL RECORDS
THE Christian Brothers have climbed down dramatically from its legal pursuit of Tom Wall, a survivor of the notorious industrial school the order ran at Glin, over records he removed from the school on its closure in 1973.
Mr Wall was threatened with legal action by the Christian Brothers over his donation of a collection of 800 documents that he removed from the school to the University of Limerick — described as one of the most important tranches of firsthand material relating to the industrial school system anywhere in the state, outside of religious ownership.
However, within hours of Limerick Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins raising the matter in the Dáil last Wednesday, Leader of the European Province of the Congregation of Christian Brothers, Brother Edmund Garvey, wrote to the TD informing him the Order would no longer have any objection to the papers being donated to UL — provided the Christian Brothers are furnished with copies of the documents.
Mr Wall described it as an ‘astonishing’ turnaround following a bitter legal battle for ownership of the papers that lasted almost two years. Since donating the papers in 2015 to UL for the benefit of historic understanding of the industrial school system and its era, the documents have been effectively locked from public view as both Mr Wall and the Order claimed ownership of them.
Mr Wall feared that if the Order took hold of the papers they might never be seen by the public again. They are judged so important as they are about the only significant tranche of material not held by the orders that ran the industrial school system in the country; with records that reveal, among other things, how the brothers sent boys out as labourers and apprentices while pocketing their earnings.
Up until last Wednesday, the Christian Brothers were contesting Mr Wall’s ownership of the collection. But in a letter to Deputy Collins following Wednesday’s Dáil debate — the day Mr Wall’s case was highlighted on the front of The
Kerryman — Br Garvey set out a dramatic climbdown: “Were we to be provided with appropriate copies of the Glin documents for our archive we would have no objection to the original papers being donated to UL or the Irish State. For the avoidance of doubt we will also communicate our position on this matter to both Mr Wall and UL.”
Br Garvey said the order only wished to get possession of the papers “to ensure that our archives are as complete as possible as the documentation contains important family history which we believe would be helpful in assiting any inquiries from former residents.”
Mr Wall thanked Deputy Collins for his help in raising the issue. “I’m now calling for all archives of the religious orders who ran these schools to be handed over into a central database that would allow survivors, and families, to research their own files. As it stands we still have no closure,” he said.