Mary Margaret Dufficy (1876 - 1883)

Born 15 Mar 1876 in Tulsk, Roscommon, Ireland

Ancestors

Died 15 Mar 1883 at age 7 in Industrial School, Summerhill, Castleplunkett, Roscommon, Ireland

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Biography

Mary was born in Tulsk, Roscommon, Ireland on March 15, 1876. She was the daughter of Patrick Dufficy and Catherine Lynn.

Mary Margaret died at the Industrial School, Summerhill, Castleplunkett, Roscommon, Ireland on March 15, 1883, age 7

Cause of Death : Whooping Cough (10 days)

Establishment of reformatories and Industrial Schools (3)

Reformatory Schools had been established in 1858 under a Poor Law amendment.[6] Ten years later Industrial Schools were introduced by the Industrial Schools (Ireland) Act of 1868, four years after the equivalent in England. An 'upgraded' Reformatory Act was also introduced that year.[7] Ironically, children charged with begging could not benefit under the terms of the original 1858 Act and were still being sent to adult prisons while young burglars were being sent to the more benign 'special school'. Over the next few decades there was a building boom to provide new premises for both types of institution. Reformatories were intended for children found guilty of criminal offences, while Industrial Schools were for orphaned neglected and abandoned children and those considered in danger of contact with criminality. This latter category had previously been accommodated in so called 'Ragged Schools (such as the one at the Coombe in Dublin),[8] and in the countrywide network of Workhouses. Many private philanthropic schools were granted certificates as Reformatories or Industrial Schools for the reception of children committed by the courts. After certification they became eligible for grants from public money in proportion to the number of children catered for. Although Reformatory Schools were established first, Industrial Schools soon surpassed them, both in numbers of schools and of pupils. Between 1851 and 1858, ten Reformatories (five each for boys and girls) were certified. The 1868 Act insured that Protestant and Catholic children would be catered for separately, preventing proselytising.

1898 saw Industrial Schools reach 71 (the highest number of them). Of the 61 which are in what is now the Republic of Ireland, 56 schools were Catholic run and 5 were Protestant run. Of the 10 in what is now Northern Ireland, 6 were Catholic run and 4 Protestant run. Of the 9 Protestant Industrial Schools in Ireland 5 were for girls and 4 for boys.

By 1900, only seven of the ten original Reformatories remained. In 1917 the last Industrial School run by the Church of Ireland (Anglican) was closed in Stillorgan. A number of the reformatories were re-certified as Industrial Schools so that by 1922, only five remained (one of which was a Reformatory for boys in Northern Ireland).

Sources

• https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie
• "Ireland Civil Registration Indexes, 1845-1958," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FTQP-RMS : 10 March 2018), DEATHS entry for Mary Margaret Dufficy; citing Athlone, Jan - Mar 1883, vol. 3, p. 10, General Registry, Custom House, Dublin; FHL microfilm 101,592.
• (3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Schools_in_Ireland
• (6) Poor Law Amendment; Reformatory Schools (Ireland) , House of Commons Debate, 20 April 1858 vol 149 c1353 1353 (Hansard)
• (7) Reformatory and Industrial Schools – Ireland Archived 26 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine
• (8) Luddy, Maria (1995). Women in Ireland, 1800–1918: a documentary history. Cork University Press. ISBN 978-1-85918-038-9. Retrieved 17 June 2009.