Chapter 15 - Modes of Witnessing and Ireland’s Institutional History

Summary

For most of the twentieth century, Ireland had a system of residential institutions – known as Industrial Schools – for children. These institutions were funded and overseen by the Irish state, and run by the religious orders of the Catholic Church. Though the institutions were intended to provide children with vocational education for industrial employment and to respond to perceived problems of poverty and anti-social behaviour, in reality children were incarcerated in these residential institutions and physically, emotionally, and sexually abused. This chapter traces how Irish culture has galvanised official state responses to this history, and how contemporary narrative practices and technologies, in particular digital humanities, can facilitate greater understanding of Ireland’s difficult past.