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THESE WALLS CAN TALK

These Walls Can Talk Image Name: These Walls Can Talk Description: These Walls Can Talk documentary maker Amanda Coogan.

Partially demolished in 2011, this controversial school has divided opinion among the community, and certainly among the men featured in Garry Keane’s powerful film.  For over 150 years the Christian Brothers’ run school provided an education, developed a community and offered a chance of a future. But for some, who experienced years of physical and sexual abuse within its walls, that opportunity came at a huge price.

Performance Artist, Amanda Coogan is the daughter of two Deaf parents and her father Larry attended St Joseph’s in the 1950’s.  In this evocative documentary, she returns to St Joseph’s to examine its complex legacy.

These Walls Can Talk, RTÉ One, Thursday, October 8th at 10.15pm

Brief

In 2011, the iconic building that housed St Joseph’s School for Deaf Boys in Cabra for over 150 years was demolished.  The news of its demise split the Irish Deaf community. Many mourned the loss of a building that represented years of Deaf history. It was a place where thousands of Deaf boys from every corner of Ireland and beyond were offered an education, a language – Irish Sign Language – a community and in many cases a trade, such as tailoring or shoe-making that gave them a chance to succeed in life. Others rejoiced that it would no longer stand as a reminder of the terrible abuse that was perpetrated there against some of the most vulnerable children in our society.

Performance Artist, Amanda Coogan, is the first born hearing child of two Deaf parents and her father Larry attended St Joseph’s in the 1950’s where he learned his trade as a master tailor. Growing up attending sports days in the grounds of the school and socialising with other deaf and hearing children, Amanda had nothing but fond childhood memories of this place. It was somewhere she could be free, where her family weren’t different and deafness and communicating in sign language were normal.  It was only as she grew older that she discovered that not all St Joseph’s boys shared her father’s affection for the place. Far from being the beacon of light her father remembered, she began to realise that for some boys, life at St Joseph’s was marred by fear and abuse.

In this powerful film, Amanda returns to St Joseph’s to re-evaluate her perceptions of this iconic building and to decide, in the wake of its demolition, how it should be remembered.

Beginning with her own father, she asks past pupils of the school to paint a picture of the its complex legacy:  those who found opportunity there and a freedom that came with their new signed language – ISL.  Without St Josephs, those Deaf boys would have had little chance of succeeding in life. She weighs these stories against the powerful stories of the Deaf men, who as boys experienced physical and sexual abuse at the school, whose young lives were sadly tainted by those who should have cared for them.

In May 2009, the final report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (known as the Ryan Report) was published and devoted a full chapter to St Joseph’s. It revealed documented cases of physical abuse by Christian Brothers and lay staff, dating back to 1955 and it reported that corporal punishment was at times excessive and was still used up until the mid-1990s, despite a ban being in place since 1982. It outlined allegations of sexual abuse against lay staff and Christian Brothers over a forty year period from the 1950s onwards and notes that sexual abuse was not reported to the Gardaí until the 1990’s.

In addition to allegations made against Christian Brothers and Lay Staff, the Ryan Report outlined a number of incidents of sexual abuse perpetrated by other boys at St Joseph’s, between the 1970’s and 1990’s.

Past pupils of the school fearlessly recount their experiences of being abused at the school and why they were glad to see the building torn down.

These Walls Can Talk is a complex and poignant story about a school that stood at the heart of the Irish Deaf community for over 150 years. It is where Ireland’s indigenous sign language was developed and where the foundation of the modern Irish Deaf community was built and while it offered incredible opportunity to some Deaf boys, for others, that opportunity came at an unspeakable price.