Explore Carriglea

I.S. Complex is an interactive, immersive and experiential visualisation. It attempts to uncover the hidden history of the material structure of the Dun Laoghaire IADT campus in its former function as the Carriglea Industrial School, which operated in Deansgrange, Co. Dublin, for 60 years from 1894-1954.

Background to Carriglea

Initially conceived by the Christian Brothers as a south Dublin counterpart to the much larger Artane complex, Carriglea was, by all accounts, a highly chaotic and dilapidated place, suffering from chronic overcrowding, lack of maintenance and under-investment. In the 1930s the school experienced a catastrophic collapse in leadership, which precipitated the imposition of a brutal disciplinarian regime throughout much of the 1940s; some harrowing accounts of which are detailed in the Ryan Report.

In 1954 the Christian Brothers closed the Industrial School and dispersed the population to other Industrial Schools across Ireland. Using extensive savings generated in the neglect of maintenance of the school, they conducted extensive refurbishments and reopened as a Christian Brothers training school, which operated for a further decade before closing.

Traces

Much of the existing structures in IADT’s Quadrangle date from this period. There are no plans or photographs from the previous period as an Industrial School. As a consequence, much of the virtual tour of I.S. Complex is speculative and seeks to evoke the experience of this institutional landscape rather than be a historically accurate account. I.S. Complex is the work of John Buckley. The emotional experience of the work is heightened with an interactive score by sound artist Sharon Phelan.