Schools abuse: Almost 2,400 allegations at more than 300 religious-run institutions disclosed to inquiry

A report on allegations of abuse at schools run by religious orders was published on Tuesday.
The former chief executive of the charity Barnardos, Fergus Finlay, has said that he wants religious orders like the Spiritans – formerly known as the Holy Ghost Fathers – “bankrupted”.
“I want to see orders like this bankrupted. I want to see the Holy Ghost Fathers, who have hundreds of millions in assets. They can employ every legal firm in the country to protect themselves. I want to see them lose those assets. They can go back to the vow of poverty that they’re supposed to have taken. And I want those assets to be distributed among survivors. I know that’s never going to happen in Ireland.”
Mr Finlay told RTÉ radio his view was that a commission of inquiry should go ahead immediately, but that very firm deadlines should be imposed.
“The fact that it’s happening at all is a tribute to the courage of the survivors … whose courage and bravery is both heartbreaking and humbling.”
One In Four, a group that provides support to adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse said in a statement on Tuesday evening that it welcomed the publication of the report and acknowledged the courage of the survivors who came forward.
Chief executive Deirdre Kenny said the report “exposes a systemic culture of abuse and silence, where authority figures often normalised or ignored abuse. The survivor testimonies paint a vivid picture of the far-reaching and long-lasting impacts on their lives”.
The group also urged Government to “prioritise the development of a fair, accessible, and comprehensive redress process” and called for “financial contributions to a redress scheme by Religious Orders are important aspects of accountability for many survivors”.
From our Europe Correspondent Jack Power:
Speaking on Tuesday evening, Taoiseach Simon Harris said the Government’s response to the report into sexual abuse in schools run by religious orders would be “survivor centred”.
The 700-page scoping report into the past abuse was a “harrowing read,” Mr Harris said. “It is a shadow of our past that continues to loom large in so many lives, so many families, so many communities,” he said.
It was crucial that the setting up of a full statutory inquiry to further investigate the abuse was done correctly, he said.
“It is really important that we get this Commission [of Investigation] right. It is really important that we get the terms of reference right and it is really important that we get the structure right and that the next steps that we take are absolutely survivor-centred,” he said.
The Government would work with abuse survivors to find the best “appropriate way” to respond to the findings and recommendations, he said.
“I note there is a number of recommendations, including around redress, including around engaging with religious orders in relation to this, but today I think it is most important that we let this report speak for itself,” he said.
“It is absolutely essential that the next steps that we take our survivor based, survivor centred,” he said.
From Mark Hilliard:
Amri, the representative body of many of the orders included in the scoping report, has said it is “deeply sorry” for the abuse experienced in religious-run schools.
“We acknowledge the courage and bravery of the victims and survivors. We are deeply sorry that they experienced abuse in religious-run schools,” it said.
“We are acutely aware that sharing personal, sensitive, and traumatic experiences can cause additional pain and suffering. We recognise that we can never know the depth of the pain and suffering survivors have endured and continue to endure.”
Amri, which was still awaiting the report on Tuesday evening, said it has worked with its members who were involved in running the schools “to facilitate the fullest co-operation in this Inquiry”.
“We will carefully examine the recommendations and respond accordingly.”
It said religious orders and congregations continue to provide access to safeguarding personnel to support victims and survivors.
Asked if the concerns of survivors have been taken on board, Mr Feddis said: “It’s really important that if it is to be victim-centric that we are involved in making decisions … and most importantly [in] what actions are taken afterwards.”
Mr Feddis said his group has programmes in place with the Spiritans which would allow for apologies, investigations and redress and support for victims.
“We’re concerned that this may be used as an opportunity to kick the can down the road, both in the form of providing help to more people than we’ve been able to do but also addressing in detail what has happened,” he said.
“The problem is people are suffering from [the abuse] every day … all of our members … another day of delay is another day of justice denied.”
“It’s really important that action and support and therapy and councilling are made available immediately and that we don’t have to wait for another inquiry.”
Speaking on Tuesday evening’s RTÉ Six One News, Philip Feddis, co-founder of the Restore Together advocacy group representing survivors of abuse at Spiritan-run schools, said the report looks to be “detailed”, “comprehensive” and “unbiased”.
Despite this, he said the group’s initial concerns centre around the recommendation of a judicial inquiry which Mr Feddis said “may take two years, three years, five years”.
“We need immediate support for all victims, all survivors, of all forms of abuse in schools so it’s not good enough to wait another five years for another report to come out,” he said.
From our reporter Jack White:
A total of 185 allegations of abuse were disclosed at Spiritan-run junior and senior schools in Blackrock, Co Dublin to the Government-appointed inquiry into historical abuse at schools across the State.
Some 130 allegations of abuse were disclosed at Willow Park Junior School against 24 alleged abusers, while 55 allegations of abuse were disclosed against 13 alleged abusers at its post-primary counterpart Blackrock College.
These are two of 308 schools named in the report on allegations of abuse at schools run by religious orders, which was published on Tuesday. The 700-page report includes a breakdown of 2,395 allegations of historical sexual abuse by school, which can be seen in the tables included elsewhere in our coverage.
Read the piece in full here.
[ Abuse report: Full list of 308 schools and case numbers detailedOpens in new window ]
The scoping inquiry has been published in full. Read Volume 1 below.
The main Government decision is to accept the recommendation for the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry. However, it has made no decision on another central recommendation, that of a redress process. Thirdly, Ms Foley said several times that the Government was open to the Commission extending its remit to all 760 or so post-primary schools in the State.
The press conference has now concluded. The report will be published shortly.
The Minister has said the Government would be “open” to extending the scope of the Commission of Investigation to all post-primary schools, which total around 760.
Returning to her own response to reading the personal accounts, she said she could only imagine the horror and trauma that they encountered. “There are many people in education who will be shocked and horrified by what they have seen and read. The testimonies from the survivors themselves are horrendously difficult to read,” she said.
Ms Foley has said that it is “nothing short of horrific” in relation to the details of what has happened in special schools. She said that a small number of students from those schools came forward as part of that inquiry. She said former students of those schools would be “facilitated in whatever capacity that we have” to come forward and give evidence.
On allegations on high level of abuse at special schools, Ms Foley said she was appalled and horrified to hear of the high number of allegations, reports Harry McGee. “We have our most vulnerable children in our special schools … I am more than 30 years involved in education and I am heartbroken.”
Asked has Cabinet made a decision yet on redress scheme, she says that Government had taken the first and important step in relation to a Commission of Investigation. She said it had worked with great speed given she had received the final report as late as late June.
“Issues like redress are very much part of the recommendations and they will be looked at.” She also said the Government was open to considering all recommendations including extending the scheme to all schools.
Ms Foley again says that all recommendations from the report will be looked at, including the possibility of a redress scheme.
“The survivors were very clear that they have lived with the experience all of the lives,” she says. “It was a destructive influence on their relationships … it’s quite horrific, the long term impact that this has had on people’s lives.”
For this reason, there is a duty on everyone involved to play their part in expediting the process, she said.
The report’s recommendation on redress to be looked at as well as everything else, says Ms Foley.
Ms Foley become emotional towards the end of her address, as she pays tribute to the late Mark Ryan, who she said was instrumental in the establishing the scoping inquiry.
She says that “uppermost” in her thought today are the survivors of historic abuse in schools.
Political Correspondent Harry McGee is reporting from a press conference with the Minister for Education.
Speaking at the press conference, Ms Foley said that the level of abuse was shocking. “It is truly shocking and so is the number of alleged abusers. There were 884 alleged abusers in schools of 42 religious orders.”
“It is clear from the report that survivors want accountability,” she says signalling that a Commission of Investigation was the appropriate vehicle to fulfil that desire.
Minister for Education Norma Foley has formally announced a Commission of Investigation into sexual abuse at schools, following recommendations from the report.
Ms Foley on Tuesday afternoon called the report a “harrowing document” with “appalling” accounts of sexual abuse.
“The scale and horror of what people described in their interviews with the scoping inquiry is shocking, and the lasting impact on the lives of those survivors cannot be overstated. I have been deeply moved by the courage, fortitude and openness of all those who have shared their experiences,” she said.
A statement from the Department of Education released on Tuesday afternoon acknowledged that the report recommended giving considation to a financial redress scheme for survivors, but did not make a commitment to delivering such a scheme.
The inquiry report found that, as adults, participants endured serious and ongoing difficulties in relationships, mental and physical health problems, addiction issues, lost career opportunities and damage to their sense of place and community.
“Many described failed early intimate relationships and marriage breakdowns,” the report said.
“Some said that, as a result of the sexual abuse, they decided not to have children, or when they did, it impacted their parenting, with many participants describing the effects of intergenerational trauma on their families.”
The inquiry found that many survivors “spoke with real sadness of the impact of telling their elderly parents of their experiences”.
Survivors encountered difficulties with authority figures in employment, with their long-term solution being to undertake contract work or self-employment.
Others missed out on opportunities to go to university due to poor academic progress or “inappropriate behaviour in employment resulting from mental health difficulties and addictions”, the report said.
Some participants said they had successful careers because they worked excessively “at the cost of their close relationships, to distract themselves from their early trauma”, the inquiry found.
Survivors spoke of emigrating and “creating distances from family and friends to avoid traumatic memories”.
They spoke of becoming alienated from religion and church-related services to the extent that they would avoid a parent’s funeral or other family event “as they could not enter a church”.
Some detailed how a crisis in adulthood such as a suicide attempt or time in rehabilitation “as a time when their childhood abuse first came to the fore and was identified as a source of their difficulties”, beginning a process of healing.
The majority of participants who in later years approached the religious order about the abuse said the “encounter had not been helpful, especially where it involved a defended legal process”.
A minority found the experience helpful “where a sincere apology was offered with compassion and meaning”, the report said.
Participants in the scoping inquiry spoke of their fear, shock and naivety about the sexual abuse when it happened and how it evoked “feelings of shame, responsibility, isolation, powerlessness and secrecy.”
They described “trying to avoid the sexual abuse, avoiding their favourite activities, their friends and ultimately their school.”
Some said they experienced mental health problems and adopted “unhealthy coping mechanisms including the misuse of alcohol and drugs, and how some of those problems followed them into adulthood”.
Some said other children tried to warn them about risky situations or certain staff.
The abuse caused confusion among the participants about their own developing sexuality and of declining academic performance hwich limited their opportunities in education and later employment, they told the scoping inquiry.
“Many participants said that they felt that the power of the Catholic Church permeated their lives in every way and, for the majority, they felt there was no one they could tell, including their parents,” said the report.
“For some this has led to lifelong estrangement or difficult family relationships. Many said that their childhood stopped the day the abuse started.”
Many survivors spoke “of their strong believe that what was happening was so pervasive that it could not possibly have gone unnoticed by other staff, and the members and leadership of the religious orders”.
“Many participants were very clear in their belief that there had been a cover-up in their schools or by the religious order and some believed there was collusion between some institutions of the State and the Church,” the inquiry report said.
The survivors talked about how the experiences of abuse had “impacted every part of their lives,” the scoping inquiry report said.
“It was evident that for some, the experience of sexual abuse recounted had a devastating impact on their childhood and that the effects had lasted throughout their lives.”
For many, the stories explained that there was “no place or sense of safety in their schools or indeed, their lives, as a result of their experiences of sexual abuse.”
The inquiry report said that “appalling childhood sexual abuse” was described by the survivors, occurring in various locations including in classrooms, dormitories, sports facilities and at musical and extracurricular activities.
Some reported being sexual abused in their homes by adults associated with their school who had “gained their family’s trust, only to abuse that trust egregiously.”
The sexual abuse also took place in private offices and residential quarters of school staff and religious order members.
Many spoke of being abused in the presence of other children or adults, and others reported being abused when alone with a teacher, priest or religious brother, other school staff or a visitor to their school.
In many cases, the sexual abuse had been ongoing, while for others it occurred randomly or “followed a period of grooming and was often reported as having been accompanied by ferocious violence,” the report said.
“Participants described being molested, stripped naked, raped and drugged amidst an atmosphere of terror and silence.”
The scoping inquiry received information questionnaires from 205 survivors detailing experiences of sexual abuse in schools in at least 22 counties in Ireland, with more than 80 schools, run by 24 religious orders, named by the individuals.
Most incidents of abuse too place between the early 1960s and early 1990s with the highest number of reported incidents occurring in the early to mid-1970s.
Some 182 survivors who completed questionnaires for the inquiry were found to fall within the scoping inquiry’s terms of reference and 149 people agreed to be interviewed in-person (137) or submit written statements (12).
Restore Together, an advocacy group representing survivors of abuse at Spiritan-run schools, has expressed concern that a Government inquiry into historic abuse might further delay justice for survivors, and avenues to redress.
Corry McMahon, a member of Restore Together group and survivor of abuse at Blackrock College, told The Irish Times that the process of establishing a redress scheme for survivors “shouldn’t be slowed down” by an inquiry. He said it was important to keep survivors front and centre of that process, and make sure that their voices are heard.
“It’s the men and women that were abused at their hands, they’re the important people,” he said.
Almost 2,400 allegations of historical sexual abuse at 308 schools run by religious orders have been disclosed to the Government-appointed scoping inquiry.
The allegations were made against 884 alleged abusers, the report is understood to say. The religious orders said that more than half of the 884 accused abusers are known to be deceased.
The scoping inquiry report said that the total number of allegations likely exceeds the stated figure given the level of underreporting of childhood sexual abuse.
The inquiry also found that, among the 2,395 allegations reported overall, there is a particular high number of allegations in special education schools where there were 590 allegations recorded in 17 special schools involving 190 alleged abusers.
The report was written by Mary O’Toole SC, who was appointed by Ms Foley after an RTÉ documentary was broadcast about Mark and David Ryan, two survivors of abuse at the Spiritan-run Blackrock College in Dublin.
A report on allegations of abuse at schools run by religious orders is to be published on Tuesday afternoon, following Cabinet agreement to establish a statutory inquiry into the matter.
The 700-page report was commissioned last year from senior counsel Mary O’Toole following accounts of abuse at Blackrock College in Dublin.
The scoping inquiry conducted by Ms O’Toole included religious-run boarding and day schools, and it is understood that the report features schools run by many different religious orders. Sources say that there may be thousands of cases of sexual abuse in the schools.
Minister for Education Norma Foley secured agreement at Cabinet on Tuesday morning to establish a statutory inquiry, which is understood to include all types of schools, rather than just those run by religious orders.
The Minister will hold a press conference on the issue at 4.30pm, with the report expected to be published shortly after. Follow us here for live updates on the report and reaction from survivors.