‘It Gives Great Relief to My Mind’ – Family Involvement at Children's Committal to the Sister of Mercy run Irish Industrial Schools, 1868–1936

Abstract

This paper uses convent archive sources from five Irish Sisters of Mercy run industrial schools to examine the role of children's families at committal to the schools and explore how the sociocultural climate of Ireland at the time formed this experience. Such an analysis sheds light on the system's operation ‘from below’ and the variety of reasons, motivations, and emotions surrounding the committal process. It reveals the complicated nature of familial relations and facilitates a greater understanding of the behaviours, responses and protocols that arose from poverty and dependency. In doing so, it also progresses understandings of the power of those in control to influence such decisions as well as families' attempts to use the system as a strategy for survival.