A snapshot of the fledgling Free State, featuring a Monto madam, literary legends and two five-year-old Eamon de Valeras

A snapshot of the fledgling Free State, featuring a Monto madam, literary legends and two five-year-old Eamon de Valeras

Irish Independent logoIrish Independent

In the austere halls of Letterfrack’s Industrial School, the job of filling out the 1926 census fell to Brother James Keegan, who named himself head of the household — a desolate home to 168 unfortunate boys.