Survivors of abuse at industrial and reformatory school enter fourth week of hunger strike

Four survivors of abuse at industrial and reformatory schools are entering the fourth week of their hunger strike outside the Houses of the Oireachtas.

Thousands of children were subject to systematic and sustained abuse — physical, sexual and emotional — at Irish industrial and reformatory schools going back to the 1940s.

These schools were operated by Catholic Church orders and funded and supervised by the Department of Education. According to reports, neither the church nor the State intervened to stop the mistreatment.

The abuse undergone at these institutions has been described by survivors and investigators as "Ireland's Holocaust."

Now well into adulthood, many with children of their own, survivors continue to experience discrimination, systematic neglect and a lack of adequate health and social support.

The government's refusal to protect survivors has led some to risk their very lives in the pursuit of change. Two such survivors — 73-year-old Mary Dunlevy Greene and 57-year-old Mary Donovan — spoke to Hot Press on day 26 of their hunger strike.

"I was taken by the state when I was one year of age, along with my older brother and my older sister through a court order," Donovan said.

"I was sentenced to be sent there for 16 years but they held onto me until I was 18 and a half."

Both women wore t-shirts printed with images their court order documents. Donovan pointed to her name, and then to the year: 1969. She was barely old enough to speak in full sentences, let alone to understand what was being done to her.

While at the school, Donovan explained that she was boarded out as a free au pair for a rich family, where she was physically and sexually abused for six years between the ages of 11 and 17. She said the school was aware of this, and they did not inform or ask her parents for consent to send the young girl away.

"The reason we're doing a hunger strike is because we need support," Donovan said.

"I'm not well. I just buried my last living sibling nine weeks ago. My whole family has been wiped out, all survivors of reformatory and industrial schools."

In 2019, Donovan was part of a consultation forum for Irish and UK survivors which put them in dialogue with former Minister for Education Norma Foley. The forum created a proposal document with 29 recommendations of support that Irish survivors need.

"Apparently, the document was never accosted," Donovan said.

They presented the document to current Minister for Education Helen McEntee. Again, it was not accosted.

The Support for Survivors Bill, supposedly designed to create a new framework for providing health and educational support to eligible survivors, was passed in June. However, it included none of the urgent recommendations put forward by survivors.

The strikers are making two primary demands: a Health Amendment Act (HAA) card and a contributory pension.

"There are only 4,000 living survivors left and our numbers are dwindling," Dunlevy Greene said.

"We're just the ones vocal enough and strong enough to do a hunger strike. A lot of us couldn't do this, because all the medical issues we suffered as a result of being incarcerated for our childhoods and teenage years will have effect on every part of our bodies for the rest of our lives. We're all suffering, and yet they won't cover us for medical care.

"They're the ones that did it to us, they're the ones responsible and they're the ones that have to stand up to the plate before we're all dead. And yet, it seems their motto is 'deny until we die.'"

At the age of three, Dunlevy Greene and her siblings were abducted from their home by representatives from the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC). Her mother had recently died in childbirth and her father was away at work at the time.

"By the time our father got home from work that day, we had been to court," Dunlevy Greene said.

"We'd been sentenced until we were 16, but we were actually detained until 18 at these institutions. They separated my brothers from me. They sent my brothers to Cork and me to Limerick, and we were institutionalised straight away. What we suffered in those institutions was horrific. We were child slaves. We got very little food. From the day we went into that court, we were deprived of every human right."

She described watching Bertie Ahern's "so-called apology" speech on the steps of the Dáil in 1999.

"With the apology, we were told we would get lifelong support," Dunlevy Greene said.

"But we're here now, over 26 days into hunger strike, sleeping outside, still trying to get those supports in place. Back when we got that apology, there would have been tens of thousands. The numbers are dwindling daily because of our age profile, and now there's only 4,000 left. I'd say that in 15 years at the most, there will be none left, and yet they're saying it would be a burden on the revenue if they give in to our two little demands."

They said their only interaction with government officials has been in the dead of night, and claimed some media personnel said they would only cover the strike "if one of us was wheeled away in an ambulance."

The strikers, along with some loyal volunteers, spend their day telling their stories and calling for passersby to sign a petition in support of their demands.

Survivors on hunger strike with their volunteers outside of the Houses of the Oireachtas on October 16, 2025. Photo: Ailish Sullivan/hotpress.com

"Sign this petition to advocate for justice, fair treatment, and equality for the survivors of Ireland’s Industrial and Reformatory Schools," the description reads.

"Demand that their rights are recognised and their voices are heard."

The petition, titled "Justice for Ireland's Industrial and Reformatory School Survivors," is accessible on Change.org.

"The number of signatures is rising, but we need thousands more," Donovan said.

"We just want people to stand behind us and stand with us. That's all. We don't need aggression because our anxieties are heightened as it is right now. We just need support and solidarity."

As they enter their fourth week of hunger strike, Hot Press asked what keeps them going for so long. Donovan's immediate answer: "We're survivors."

"The hunger element doesn't worry us at all because our resilience is getting stronger every day," Dunlevy Greene said.

"Our bodies may be getting weaker as days go by, but our determination only gets stronger."