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Northsider seeks answers to his brother’s abuse

Monday, 24 March 2008

A DETERMINED Northside man has vowed to continue pressing for the full circumstances surrounding the physical abuse that his deceased brother suffered at an industrial school over 50 years ago.
Kevin Flanagan told Northside People that he will keep fighting for his late brother, Michael, who had his arm broken by a Christian Brother at Artane Industrial School in 1954.
Michael’s case, which has become known as ‘The Boy with the Broken Arm’, was cited as one of the most serious incidents at Artane Industrial School to come before the public hearings held by the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse in 2005 and 2006.
However, Kevin, originally from Donnycarney, said he believed the Commission has so far not given him the answers he wants into the incident.

He said Michael, who was just 14-years-old at the time, had his arm broken with a brush by a Christian Brother at the school, but that his mother, Kathleen, did not get to see her injured son for up to eight days after the incident.
Kevin said he met with the Commission in 2006, after he heard Michael’s case being brought up on the TV.
“I arrived home one evening and heard a Dáil report on the news which had mentioned the case of the boy with the broken arm,” he explained.
“I knew instantly it was my brother they were talking about, so I immediately phoned the Commission and arranged to meet with them.”
Kevin said that in his meeting with the Commission, he outlined what he hoped would come from the inquiry.
However, he said that over two years later he is still not satisfied with the answers given.
“There were questions that should have been asked by the inquiry that I still want answers to such as why was my mother was not allowed into the school for eight days to see Michael after he had his arm broken? And why was he locked in a shed at the back of the school for two and a half days?
“I will continue to fight for my brother until all the questions into what exactly happened to him are answered and somebody is held accountable for this.”
According to Kevin, his mother was refused permission to see her son at the school in the days after the incident. She then went to see her local TD Peadar Cowan.
Mr Cowan, who brought the issue up in the Dáil with the then Minister for Education, Sean Boylan, eventually arranged for Ms Flanagan to see her son.
The Christian Brother involved in the incident was subsequently moved from Artane Industrial School to a new school – something that the Christian Brothers have now admitted was inappropriate.
Speaking at the public hearing in 2005, Brother Michael Reynolds, representing the Christian Brothers, admitted the whole incident was badly handled.
"It wasn't appropriate (for the Christian Brother to be moved) but I would say it wouldn't have been uncommon in various places at the time,” Brother Reynolds said.
“Certainly, that was one of the most serious incidents we had and it was handled badly, I would say, from all aspects of it,” he said.
Michael Flanagan sadly passed away in England in 1998 at the age of 59.
“As soon as Michael got out of the school, which was not very long after the broken arm incident, he moved to England where he lived for the rest of his life,” Kevin said.
“He worked for a brewery over there but could not properly read or write and did not have a trade.
“He never married and all he liked to do was drink and gamble on the horses.”
Kevin said his brother was regularly in poor health, which he has attributed to the trauma of the abuse he suffered at the school.
“Michael suffered from everything from epilepsy to gout and eventually died from problems with his heart,” he added.
When contacted by Northside People, a member of staff at the Child Abuse Commission said they were aware that Mr Flanagan had issues that he would like to raise with them.
However, she said that should he wish to bring them to their attention, he would need to do so through his solicitor.
“If Mr Flanagan’s solicitor gets in touch by way of a letter to the solicitor for the Commission then these issues can be looked into,” she said.
Meanwhile, Kevin Flanagan has called on anybody else who may have concerns surrounding the abuse at Artane Industrial School to contact him through Northside People.

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