{"id":573895,"date":"2026-07-07T20:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/573895\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T20:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:28:12","slug":"toxic-masculinity-creating-testing-time-for-staff-at-oberstown-child-detention-centre-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/573895\/","title":{"rendered":"Toxic masculinity creating \u2018testing time\u2019 for staff at Oberstown child detention centre \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toxic masculinity is an \u201cemerging trend\u201d among male youths in the Oberstown Children Detention Campus<\/a>, according to its annual report.<\/p>\n

The north Co Dublin facility and its staff experienced a \u201ctesting time\u201d last year, with several high-profile incidents recorded, it says.<\/p>\n

Oberstown last year had capacity to detain 46 children \u2013 40 boys and six girls, with the number gradually increased to address demand for additional capacity. .<\/p>\n

A total of 119 young people were cared for on the campus last year, with management noting the \u201cremarkable\u201d level of progress made. Six Junior Cycle examinations were completed and there was growth in programme delivery and creative projects. <\/p>\n

In his comments in the report, Oberstown director Damien Hernon warned that \u201ctoxic masculinity is an emerging trend\u201d at the child detention centre. Oberstown is developing sessions examining the impact of online influencers on those detained at the campus, with an \u201cemphasis on young people\u2019s identity as well as sexual violence prevention\u201d.<\/p>\n

A series of courses examining sexual consent, \u201charmful online behaviour\u201d, relationships, \u201cmasculinity and what it means to be a man\u201d, and abusive behaviour were delivered to a number of young people at the centre last year.<\/p>\n

The report notes several violent incidents that happened at the campus last year. Nine staff<\/a> members were injured in an incident involving one young person in early June. A series of separate incidents<\/a> saw at least three others left requiring hospital treatment.<\/a><\/p>\n

Staff were said to be left feeling \u201cunsettled\u201d by media coverage of the incidents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe faced a testing time through incidents involving some young people with extremely complex and significant behavioural challenges,\u201d Hernon said, adding that the \u201cresilience\u201d and professionalism of staff should be commended.<\/p>\n

Describing the period as a \u201cchallenging\u201d and \u201ctesting time\u201d, he said the \u201cisolated incidents were the subject of some erroneous and sensationalist media coverage which was very unsettling for our staff team and for the wider Oberstown community\u201d. <\/p>\n

Hernon said a \u201cremarkable\u201d level of progress was made against a backdrop of increased demand for the detention centre\u2019s services, increased occupancy, legislative challenges and a \u201cvery difficult recruitment environment\u201d.<\/p>\n

Koulla Yiasouma, chair of the Oberstown board, said a doubling in the number of days when the campus was at maximum male occupancy posed a \u201cmajor challenge\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecruitment challenges are likely to be a constant feature of the campus for some time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Staffing levels were among the issues raised by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) in an inspection of the facility late last year. Hiqa said staffing levels were, at times, too low to provide safe cover and that some children had been locked in bedrooms for long periods at weekends due to \u201ccritically low staffing levels\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yiasouma said the Hiqa report reflected the \u201cimpact of the pressures on Oberstown\u201d when it came to staffing and capacity, with \u201careas of improvement identified\u201d.<\/p>\n

Oberstown was found to be \u201cnot compliant\u201d in two areas in the Hiqa report, but its management said a plan is in place to address these issues including addressing \u201cpersistent staffing shortages\u201d. There were 264 people employed at the campus at the end of last year, with 41 new people starting to work at Oberstown.<\/p>\n

Minister for Children, Disability and Equality Norma Foley welcomed the publication of the report, noting that an extra \u20ac2.2 million in funding had been allocated for this year to address staffing issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toxic masculinity is an \u201cemerging trend\u201d among male youths in the Oberstown Children Detention Campus, according to its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,18,24728,19,17,111135,22481,117813],"class_list":["post-573895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-eire","tag-health-information-and-quality-authority-hiqa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-junior-cert","tag-norma-foley","tag-oberstown-children-detention-campus"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}