Sir, - Here in the United States we read with interest your article of January 31st on the compensation scheme for victims of abuse in religious institutions announced by the Minister for Education, Dr Woods.
At this time, it is good to remember that Father Edward J. Flanagan, born in Ballymoe, the founder of Boys Town in 1917, returned to Ireland in 1946. By that time, he was a celebrity whose story had been told in the hugely popular 1938 movie Boys Town. He was a world-renowned expert on child care.
He was shocked and saddened by the abuse and neglect he observed in the child-caring institutions of his own native Ireland. As a man of action and principle, he attempted to raise public official awareness about the facilities that were, in his words, "a disgrace to the nation". What was the result in 1946 and 1947? He was attacked by Irish officials for his attempt to raise the alarm about the appalling abuse in child-care facilities.
He saw physical abuse and emotional neglect. He intended to return to Ireland to continue his crusade for reform. But President Harry Truman sent him in May 1948 to Germany to help address the crisis of displaced children on the Continent following the second World War. He had a massive heart attack in Berlin and died there on May 17, 1948.
As the successor of Father Flanagan and caretaker of his dreams, it is good to remind the people of his beloved homeland, Ireland, that had they listened to Father Flanagan back in those days this whole thing would have come to an end quickly.
Father Flanagan was deeply hurt by rejection by his own people. On February 18, 1947 he wrote to Walter Mahon Smith in Dublin: "It seems that in all these discussions that we have had through the Irish press since last July, we have been going around in a vicious circle, getting nowhere, while some people over there are doing everything to attack my main objectives, i.e. - unjust incarceration, unequal distribution of physical punishment both inside and outside the prisons and jails, and the institutionalisation of little children, housed in great big factory-like places, where individuality has been, and is being, snuffed out with no development of the personality of the individual, and where little children become a great army of child slavery in workshops, making money for the institutions which give to them a little food, a little clothing, very little recreation and a doubtful education."
And then he added: "How can those people become inspired with religion when they think with more adult minds back over the years where they had been child labourers and where they got little or no constructive teaching that would help to build up their dignity as children of God and Brothers of Christ? How in the name of God could a man like Mr Boland justify his stewardship of these helpless little children throughout the little Island of Eire when he is face to face with all the information that has come through the papers since last July - criticisms which I so justly made. All he has done is deny them and try to put me in a bad light with the Church and otherwise by trying to strike at my character".
And one last comment: "I have seen in Belfast institutions run by the Christian Brothers conditions that would make your heart pain. I have seen children working in the little shoe shop on shoes in the dark when a socket with a good bright light would have protected the eyesight of these little boys. I did not fail to call the attention of this to the Head Brother who was with me, or to tell him of the necessity of a good light being there. I suppose he must have thought I was crazy to bother with a little thing like that. These children are only little mites of humanity!
"We have punished the Nazis for their sins against society. We have punished Fascists for the same reason. We have been talking a great deal about communism. I wonder what God's judgment will be with reference to those who hold the deposit of faith and who fail in their God-given stewardship of little children."
Thank you for listening. I hope you will publish this. God bless you now and always. - Yours, etc.
FATHER VAL J. PETER,
JCD, STD,
Executive Director,
Father Flanagan's Boys' Home,
Boys Town,
Nebraska,
USA.