Background
Chapter 2 of the Report outlines the history of institutional assistance for children in Ireland. UK Acts of Parliament had provided for:
- Reformatory schools for younger criminals from 1858, and
- Industrial schools for destitute and/or orphaned children from 1868,
where they could learn life skills, and be fed and educated. This was considered an improvement on the Workhouse system of poor relief. The harsh system was improved over decades, particularly by the Children Act 1908 that was enacted by the Liberal government. Though the 2009 Report deals with each type of school separately, they and similar schools are referred to generally as "residential institutions".
Where the children were from Catholic families, the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland insisted on supervising their care and upbringing by running most of these institutions in Ireland. A handful of Irish Catholic authors such as Michael McCarthy and Frank Hugh O'Donnell criticised the Church's un-audited state funding, and the state's inadequate supervision in 1900-1910. They were generally ignored by the growing Nationalist movement that had firm support from the Church, and also by the British administration based in Dublin Castle.
Read more about this topic: Commission To Inquire Into Child Abuse
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