Madam, – As a former internee of the infamous Artane Industrial School, the article by Dr Finola Kennedy (Rite Reason, June 21st) on Frank Duff, the founder of the Legion of Mary, made me sit up.
For many years, I have been of the opinion that Mr Duff, with his fundamentalist attitude to women in religion, was all for illegitimate children being locked away (therefore “out of sight, out of mind”) in industrial schools, being, as quoted by Dr Kennedy, “social outcasts”.
This opinion was mainly based on a story told to me by a relative of sorts after I had been “released” from Artane; in that I had been reported to the then RSPCC by a member of the Legion of Mary, to the effect that “I was illegitimately living with my grandparents”. The RSPCC subsequently brought me before the Dublin Children’s Court, where I was “sentenced” to be detained by the State until my 16th birthday.
The article has, happily, removed a small chip I have carried on my shoulder for the best of 60 years against the many institutions of this State which destroyed my right to be a proper and equal status as a fellow human being within society – however “illegitimate” I may have been. – Yours, etc,