This St. Patrick’s day on Newstalk, as part of our Spring Season of Documentary on Newstalk, we broadcast award-winning programme ‘There is no such thing as a bad boy: The Story of Fr. Edward Flanagan.”

In 1946 Fr. Edward Flanagan, a native of Roscommon made a visit to the industrial schools of Ireland from the United States. He blasted them as being “ a scandal, un-Christlike and wrong”

He called Ireland’s penal institutions "a disgrace to the nation," and later said "I do not believe that a child can be reformed by lock and key and bars, or that fear can ever develop a child’s character."

This documentary tells the story of Fr. Edward Flanagan and Boystown, the home for children that he set-up in Omaha Nebraska.

It investigates what it was in Fr. Flanagan’s background that made him so ahead of his time when it came to the care of children.

We speak with residents of Boystown from its very first days to now. We speak with people who came in contact with Fr. Flanagan on both sides of the Atlantic through his work and also to people that were related to him.

Many people will remember Fr. Flannagan from Spencer Tracy’s Oscar winning portrayal in the 1938 movie “Boystown”. From Leabeg in Roscommon to Omaha Nebraska to falling out with the Irish State: we will find out what it was that made Fr. Flannagan change the way we look at childcare and say that “There is no such thing as a bad boy”.

There is no such thing as a bad boy: The Story of Fr. Edward Flanagan - St. Patrick's Day, 19.00