Residential Institutions Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-20 ============================================================ Tom Clonan (IND), University of Dublin I thank the Minister of State for coming here today. I put on the record of this House and Oireachtas the life of Carmel Crehan, who was born on 11 June 1950. She would be 75 years of age if she were alive today. She was born in the St. Patrick's institution, Navan Road, and like tens of thousands of Irish citizens she found herself, through no fault of her own, in a system of unparalleled cruelty and abuse for all of her life. She was fostered out for two years, and then she was sent to St. Teresa's industrial school in Temple Hill, Blackrock. At the age of 11, as an assertive young girl entering her adolescence, the nuns sent her unlawfully to St. Brendan's, an adult mental institution off the North Circular Road. She remained in that institution, subject to its abuse and unlawful detention, until she passed away in 2023. I welcome our neighbour from Booterstown, Patricia Kavanagh, Carmel's half sister, and her son, Bryan, who was in school with my son. They have both embarked on their careers in law. When I look at Bryan, I see the life that was denied Carmel. Could she not have had a family? Could she not be here today with her son or her grandchildren? These are lives that were obscured, hidden and taken from public view. This was detention and deception at its most grotesque. In fact, these institutions were an archipelago, a system of detention centres like the Gulag across this State, and Patricia, as a great neighbour and friend, brought Carmel's case to my attention. What strikes me as a father and parent, is the love and the advocacy that Patricia has shown to ensure that Carmel's name not be forgotten, along with the other hundreds of young girls and boys that were unlawfully detained and abused in this manner. I know the Cathaoirleach shares my concern about the detention of children in adult mental health settings, that is, the inappropriate and probably unlawful under the UN conventions detention of children in adult centres. In our debates in this House on the mental health reform Bill, the Minister of State has said she is not in a position to legislate against the detention of children inappropriately in adult mental health centres. I ask that the Department launch an inquiry. Let us quantify the exact number of children and young adolescents affected. Imagine a young girl who needs to be supported at this time in her life being detained unlawfully in this manner. We need to quantify and remember Carmel and all of the other boys and girls who were abused in this way because it is a very important part of that story. I commend Carmel, a survivor of this system, on being an incredible citizen, neighbour and friend, and a great parent, who, like us, is very proud of her children. What happened in 1961 still reverberates today through intergenerational trauma. We must mark and acknowledge it in order to heal. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-01-20/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:31+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-20