Behind the name

The Origins of the Artane Band

The Artane Band was founded in 1872 as part of the Artane Industrial School in Dublin, run by the Christian Brothers.

The school was not a place of learning or culture.
It was a place of fear, violence, and control.

  • Over 15,000 boys passed through its gates between 1870 and 1969.

  • Many were sent there for being poor, orphaned, or born outside marriage.

  • The Ryan Report found that children in Artane were subjected to systemic physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.

  • Some of the very boys who performed in the Artane Band were being abused by the men who ran the institution.

  • The Artane Boys band director, Brother Joseph O Connor, was a notorious violent paedophile.

The band was used to present a polished public image of the school — even while children were suffering behind the scenes. It also raised vasts amounts of monies for the Christian Brothers at home and abroad.

Today, the Artane Band continues to perform — under the same name, insignia and in a uniform not far removed from its institutional roots.

This campaign exists to ask:

Why are we still celebrating that name?

[ Read the Ryan Report Summary ]

Brother Joseph O Connor, Band Director and notorious paedophile

Brother Joseph O Connor, (Joe Boy)

Band Director (until 1975)

Violent abuser

Artane band, drummer, 2025 uniform

The current uniform (2025) and Artane insignia

Artane Boys Band, Granard, 1960tys

Artane Boys Band in their uniforms at Granard in the 1960tys

What the Ryan Report Found

“What happens in the band room stays in the band room”
— Tommy - Artane Industrial School inmate

In 2009, the Ryan Report (Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse) documented decades of systemic abuse in Irish institutions — including the Artane Industrial School, where the Artane Band originated.

It confirmed that:

  • Children in Artane were subjected to severe physical and sexual abuse.

  • The institution operated through fear, punishment, and neglect.

  • The Christian Brothers routinely failed to protect children in their care.

  • 40 Christian Brothers were noted in the Ryan Report for abuses against children in Artane School alone.

The same institution that produced the Artane Band was also a place of cruelty.
The name carries both histories and cannot be separated from either.

[ Read the Ryan Report Summary )