Children of the Poor Clares: The Collusion between Church and State that Betrayed Thousands of Children in Ireland’s Industrial Schools
The original 1985 edition of Children of the Poor Clares was the first book to expose the reality of the treatment of children placed in church care in Ireland’s post-Independence Industrial School system. Giving an intimate picture, covering over four decades, of life in one of these state-regulated and state-funded institutions, it documented the gross physical and emotional abuse, malnourishment, lack of proper education, deprivation and humiliation that scarred the children for life. It further identified the collusion of the state and its own law-breaking that enabled the abuse in its vast apparatus of incarceration of impoverished children. This revised updated edition gives details of the revelations that have since become public knowledge, and of the Irish state’s ultimate responsibility for what took place. The one hour session starts at 12:pm April 26, 2013.