A powerful and personalised indictment of church and state-sanctioned abuse in a country once run by the clergy

Is this a holy thing to see,

In a rich and fruitful land,

Babes reduced to misery,

Fed with cold and usurous hand?

• William Blake; "Holy Thursday"; Songs of Experience (1794)

It is impossible to exaggerate the good effect which has been produced in the reduction of juvenile crime by [the] twin system of Reformatory and Industrial Schools. The latter have been particularly successful in Ireland; and the combination of voluntary effort and pri... read the rest.