The Role of Industrial Schools and Control over Child Welfare in Ireland in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

This article explores the growth and development of Industrial Schools following independence in Ireland with a particular focus on children within the family setting and how these institutions influenced child welfare policy in Ireland. Twenty-five unstructured interviews were conducted with male and female former Industrial School ‘inmates’. This article focuses on the research gathered from these, with a particular emphasis placed on the data that emerged relating to their background and this is further supplemented by that collected in the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA) Report (2009). This article draws on a Foucauldian perspective in order to understand how institutions regulated the lives of Irish people (in this case children and their families), through the definition of what is ‘normal’ and identifying who is seen to deviate from this.