Sectarian Smyllum

Your current reports on abuse at the Smyllum orphanage in Lanarkshire add to the already chequered history of

the facility. The 19 October 1882 edition of the Northern Warder and Bi-weekly Courier & Argu’ carried a report on a somewhat large and disorderly meeting held in Dundee for ratepayers to query the expense of accommodating children in Smyllum.

There was a belief that that the cost was excessive and children could in any case be given better quality and more economic accommodation in the local East Poorhouse at the time.

Some 54 children from Dundee were then looked after in Smyllum, while two parishes in Glasgow sent only eight children.

The meeting instantly lapsed into sectarian conflict, with it being argued that only Protestant ratepayers should have been given entry.

The main argument was whether it was right that all Dundee ratepayers were being charged (and allegedly overcharged) for a facility while a better local facility was available and was not constrained to take in children by reference to their religion.

The sectarian element continued with allegations that the Parochial Board had too great a Catholic influence in its decision-making, and that children should be trained to be good citizens, if not Christians, “instead of being trained up to bigotry and intolerance.”

This, together with the catalogue of abuse carried out in religious institutions, is the sort of episode that those who champion Scotland’s ‘Christian heritage’ always seem to overlook.

ALISTAIR MCBAY National Secular Society, Atholl

Crescent, Edinburgh