EMERGENCY MOTION

That this general assembly of Aosdana call on the management of the Artane Band and the Artane School of Music and the GAA to change the uniform and change the name of the Artane Band.

The symbol of the Artane Band, its uniform, its name, its insignia and its history are deeply traumatising and hurtful to the many thousands of us who were incarcerated in industrial and reform schools run by the Christian Brothers and other religious organisations.  Indeed, many children from the mother and baby homes were incarcerated in Artane.  Many more were press ganged into the band where children suffered horrendous abuse, sexual and otherwise, in the band room.  Today, many of us still carry these scars and we find it wholly unacceptable in this day and age having gone through all of the various inquiries including the Ryan Report, and the many horrors of child sexual abuse that the Artane Band still marches under that banner and in the uniform of the residential industrial School, Artane, St Josephs where it was formed over 150 years ago.  It is no excuse in this day and age to say that the children in the present band are well looked after or that the children in the band at present are going to be in anyway hurt by a change of uniform and change of name.   In a world of political correctness, in a world where symbols of this nature are being frowned upon, one only has to site the symbols of slavery and the decommissioning of public monuments etc to realise that the time has come, and long overdue, that the oppressive symbols of the Artane Band, its uniform and its name, be consigned to history.  No art form, especially music, can continue to be used in this manner to continuously traumatise the many thousands of individuals who experienced the brutal regimes of the residential institutions.

It is absolutely outrageous that the National sports field, that the likes of the GAA and indeed RTE would blatantly display these symbols and this band without having any regard whatsoever for the ongoing dreadful suffering many thousands of children had to endure in residential institutions.

Indeed, Justice Ryan in his report regarded the Artane band

“The band was the public face of Artane and was used as propaganda to reassure the public that those in residential institutions such as Artane and Letterfrack were receiving good care and education”  But as we all know now, the reality was very different. Indeed many of those that were in this band have since committed suicide. And many more who are alive today can’t even look at a GAA match or go to Croke Park where the band is playing.

This is our present day suffering and it needs to stop.

It is time now for change. Stop this re-traumatising and let us begin a proper process of recovery and healing.