A garda investigation into the unaccounted deaths of 35 boys at an industrial school run by Christian Brothers was demanded last night by the Joseph Pyke Memorial Research Trust, a group representing victims of clerical abuse.
Seizing on a discrepancy between 61 deaths commemorated on an official memorial at Letterfrack Industrial School, Galway, and 96 recorded by the Christian Brothers, the trust called on the Minister for Justice to sanction a formal inquiry and to compel the order to surrender internal files.
The trust's director, Mr John Prior, accused the Christian Brothers of trying to suppress evidence of deaths of boys in their care in the wake of a 1997 Garda investigation which uncovered widespread child abuse at the Connemara institution.
The Christian Brothers have rejected the claims, saying the trust had unfairly glossed over the fact that it was they who provided it with records of the 96 fatalities.
Local authority files initially suggested that 77 boys had died at Letterfrack. When challenged over the inconsistency between this figure and the 61 commemorated on the memorial, the Brothers produced documents recording 96 fatalities at the school from its foundation in 1887 to its closure in 1974.
Yesterday Mr Prior presented a letter to the Office of the Taoiseach outlining the case for a fresh inquiry.
"We cannot allow their deaths to go unchallenged. An investigation is the only way to proceed," he said.
A spokesman for the order, Brother David Gibson, said the rate of infant mortality was much higher at the time most of the deaths occurred.