THE PLANNED auction of detention orders, birth certificates and other documents relating to the committal of three children to a Cork industrial school a century ago has been strongly criticised by abuse survivor and Aislinn founder, Christine Buckley.
The documents, being auctioned in Dublin today by Whyte’s, refer to Mary O’Connor (6) of Wellington Street, Dublin, who was “found wandering and not having a proper guardian”. They also relate to Catherine White (8) of Henrietta Place, Dublin, “found destitute and being an orphan” and to Kate Keohane (11) of Ring, Co Cork, “found wandering”.
The auction catalogue describes the papers concerned as “extremely rare and evocative documents of a part of Irish history that was effectively suppressed until recent years” and says they are offered for “€200-300”.
The children were detained at Clonakilty industrial school. An example of the documents, posted as lot 145 online at whytes.ie, is for Kate Keohane. On June 29th, 1911, and at the request of “Monsignor O’Leary of Clonakilty”, she was committed to St Aloysius’s industrial school “being a school conducted in accordance with the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church”, to be detained there until January 17th, 1916. It was run by the Sisters of Mercy.
So too was the Goldenbridge orphanage in Dublin, where Christine Buckley was detained as a child. “I find it physically nauseating. I am so shocked, it is absolutely grotesque and completely dehumanising,” she said about the planned sale of the documents.
“That could be me in 100 years’ time. I was “found wandering . . . I strongly object and find it absolutely appalling that such documents are put up for sale.”
