Irish playwright, novelist and politician, Mannix Flynn (b. 1957), was in St Joseph's Industrial School run by the now notorious Christian Brothers in Letterfrack, County Galway, Ireland for 18 months from the age of 11.

He was also in the Marlborough House Detention Centre and sent to Mountjoy Prison for 5 years at the age of 15.

In his 1983 semi-autobiographical novel, Nothing to Say, Flynn writes about James O'Neill who is from a family of 14 living in a small apartment in Dublin, ends up in court and is sent to St Joseph's. At St Joseph's the boy is verbally, physically and sexually assaulted.

Flynn's 2003 play, James X, also tells this story. In 2011, the play was directed by Gabriel Byrne for a production at 45 Bleecker Theater in New York. Flynn founded Farcry Productions in 2004 which explores largely taboo topics such as child sexual abuse.