Diarmuid Martin says allegations against special schools are particularly shocking
Diarmuid Martin criticised the Brothers of Charity for moving abusers from one place to another. Photograph: Eric Luke/The Irish Timeshas said the revelations of the scoping inquiry into sexual abuse is worse than what he encountered in his previous role.
“This is worse,” he said. The revelations that widespread sexual abuse went on in 17 special schools was especially shocking, he said, as the children there were so vulnerable.If you want to know whether Sinn Féin’s housing policy will work, look at what it achieved in the North“I’m extraordinarily struck by the numbers in the special schools. I think that sexual abuse of particularly vulnerable children is very shocking and that the second thing is that the numbers are very high,” he said.
“The leaders in some organisations were simply not following the norms. Many of these orders took decisions to safeguard their own institutions. Not only did they do immense harm to children, they also damaged their own institution’s good name.” He said religious orders named in the scoping inquiry should be forced to pay compensation if it was found they were “responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their actions”.
Both schools have the highest number of allegations of abuse attached to any institution, a total of 185 allegations in total. Blackrock had been the subject of a separate inquiry after two brothers came forward in a documentary in 2022 to reveal they had been abused. To date 300 former pupils of Spiritan schools have come forward with allegations of abuse.
Rockwell College principal Audrey O’Byrne said the abuse which went on in that school was a “source of profound shame and sorrow to us all” and she urged victims to get involved in the Spiritans’ restorative justice programme.
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