I would have driven / walked, whichever, up this long avenue the very first time I entered Goldenbridge industrial “school” in the mid/late fifties. I would have entered the convent door in the middle, as my papers from the Dublin District Court had to handed over to the Mother Superior, before I was released to the management sister in charge at the industrial school, which lay to the left (unseen) of the picture. A lot of my Goldenbridge counterparts would have vivid recollections of going into the convent for the first time, either because of being old enough to remember, or perhaps that they were just able to go back that far in memory as small children. I personally do not have the slightest remembrance at all. All my memories are connected to the convent exterior, such as the chapel to the right, which I attended every single day for the duration of my incarceration period in the industrial “school”. I also have strong memories of the long and side avenues, as they were used by children during annual silent week-end retreats, excepting for prayers, whereby the latter had to walk in twos up and down this avenue as well as the narrow side avenue reciting fifteen decades of the rosary. It’s rather ironic, that the rosary beads given to child inmates were made of cheap string and virginal blue plastic beads, which were not in line with the grand pearl and opulent glass rosary beads that they produced every single day. One would have thought that at least they could have been afforded the luxury of praying on the rosary beads they slogged away at day in and day out of their institutional lives. I also have vivid recollections of looking out the Sacred Heart window every Sunday afternoon at the visitors strolling up the avenue to visit their children. One particular man against all physical odds arrived up the long avenue without fail every Sunday to see his daughter. He always brought tears to my eyes, as I surveyed him from the wet-the-bed dormitory. I wrote about it:
Goldenbridge: Looking out the Sacred Heart Window | Marie …
Apr 1, 2012 – I keep having recurring memories of looking out the Sacred Heart window each Sunday of my young life, whilst an inmate of the now notorious …
Always looking outside a rainy Sacred Heart dormitory window …
Jul 29, 2012 – To this day, I have a recurrent memory of always looking outside the top Sacred Heart window and it overwhelms me with sadness. I’ve also …
Goldenbridge industrial "school" survivor 