The Artane School of Music and campaign group Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (SOCA) have rejected a call by Dublin City Council for the Artane Band to be rebranded because of its association with historical abuse in industrial schools.
The council has supported a motion calling on the management of the Artane Band and the Artane School of Music to change its name, insignia and uniform.
The motion, by Independent Councillor Mannix Flynn, said the use of the name was deeply traumatising and hurtful to some former residents of industrial schools.
However, SOCA condemned the move.
Spokesman John Kelly described the motion as disgraceful and said it stigmatised children who are in the Artane Band.
"It's unconscionable that lovely innocent children would have their names, insignia and uniforms taken away. It's deeply offensive and we will fight tooth and nail to oppose it," he said.
Patrick Walsh, who suffered abuse while he was in the industrial school in Artane between 1963 and 1969, along with his two brothers, and played in the Artane Band, also condemned the motion.
"It's seriously unfair and entirely unconscionable. More than 50 years have passed and I see this as gesture politics of the worst sort.
"It's an attempt to link and stigmatise children with the abuse that happened years ago," he said.
Mr Walsh said he had written to Dublin City Council two years ago calling on it not to consider the motion and had believed the issue was "a dead duck" until he was informed about it this morning.
The Artane School of Music, which runs the band, said it cannot support the motion.
Chairman Dominic Slater said the band will not be making any changes because the name, insignia and uniform are an important part of the identity of the schools 600 students and band members.
He said: "It's important to keep it our identity because the children that come through that door come for the name.
"They come up because its Artane and by the time they're marching in Croke Park they love the colours and the insignia its part of who they are."
Cllr Mannix Flynn, who says he himself is a survivor of abuse at Artane and other industrial schools, said keeping the Artane Band brand is outrageous
He said: "This is not about children in the band, it's about the band the children are in and its inappropriate that this band has been marching in the uniform of the institution where we were savagely abused.
"In this day and age it's inappropriate that it would be on the national playing field and that this would be literally thrown into our face. It's outrageous that this could happen."
