A short account of how St Joseph's Industrial school was founded.
Letterfrack is 13km from Clifden, Co Galway, and what was St Joseph's Industrial school was built in 1849 by Quaker couple James and Mary Ellis from Bradford in England as part of an effort at post-Famine relief in the area.
When they returned to England in the late 1850s the property was bought by absentee landlord John Hall, who sold it to the Catholic Archbishop of Tuam in 1882. It opened as an industrial school on October 12th, 1887, with the first 10 boys. By the end of 1891, 180 boys had been admitted.
It closed on June 30th, 1974, following a decision made in 1973. That decision in turn followed publication of the 1970 Kennedy report which found that the reformatory system was completely inadequate and should be abolished in favour of group homes similar to family units. In all, as Brother Gibson indicated yesterday, over its lifetime Letterfrack accommodated 1,356 boys.
Today it is a furniture college linked to Galway-Mayo Institute of technology, with more than 160 full-time students.