Louth Schools Named in Abuse Report

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In the last couple of days Irish news organisations have spewed out faux-shocked headlines like “shocking report”, partly quoting the Minister for Education, Norma Foley.

Around 2,400 allegations of abuse have been brought to light by former students of Irish schools, an inquiry has found – They phrase it mostly as “religious schools”, as if you can find any other type of school within Ireland. Firstly let’s not separate blame and the state here. The church and state in this country are one thing, historically and presently – And these are Irish schools, these are OUR only schools.

The Scoping Inquiry spoke to 205 prior students and uncovered 844 alleged abusers in schools run by 42 religious orders. Records reveal that over half of the 884 people accused of historical sexual abuse are now deceased. There is a particularly high number of allegations in special schools. Most of these incidents occurred between the early 1960s and the early 1990s, with the highest number of reported incidents taking place in the early to mid-1970s.

Within the listed schools, we can reveal that thirteen of them were in County Louth and East Meath.

While we should be shocked, disgusted, with an outpouring of empathy and anguish towards those who were brave enough to step forward, all these adjectives feel flat when there is an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. At this stage this is “normal” for our small country – Every couple of years there’s a scandal of sexual abuse uncovered, by the hands of the church and state. At what stage do we collectively decide to stop acting shocked?

As for those local schools...

In Dundalk, the CBS primary school had nine incidents of alleged abuse recorded by the Inquiry (perpetrated by five different people).

While the CBS secondary school had four incidents of abuse recorded (involving three alleged abusers).

St Nicholas Monastery School in Dundalk was found to have four incidents of alleged abuse (by three abusers).

De La Salle College in Dundalk is noted to have had two incidents of historical abuse in this one report (by two alleged abusers).

St Mary’s College secondary school in Dundalk had nine cases of alleged abuse (four people accused in this case).

In Ardee the De La Salle boys primary school was noted as having one singular incident in the inquiry.

St Joseph’s CBS primary school in Drogheda had fourteen in total cases (carried out by six separate alleged abusers).

Drogheda CBS primary school had two incidents of alleged abuse reported to the Inquiry (perpetrated by two different alleged abusers).

St Joseph’s CBS secondary school had one alleged incident of abuse and St Mary’s CBS secondary school was accused of four cases of abuse (committed by two different abusers).

The worst within the region was Franciscan College in Gormanston, with a total of reported nineteen cases in this one inquiry (with just two accused abusers).

Other schools in the area included St Michael’s College in Omeath, which uncovered five incidents of alleged abuse (three people accused), and St Mary’s School in Drumcar which recorded one case of sexual abuse.

The important thing now, apart from acknowledgment, would be to focus on why as a country we still do not have fully state ran schools. Why is outsourcing to abusive powers still our norm? We may not be able to always protect our children, or prosecute institutions like the church (especilly when reporting on historical abuse), but why are we continuing to reward them, and allow them to control a monopoly over our children's education?

There's a shift in thinking towards fully secular, non-denominational schooling in Ireland (like most countries already practice), but unfortunately we are far off this in reality. Ireland has yet to separate church from state. Will we ever learn from our past?

If you have been affected by the abuse raised in this report and need to talk, please contact OneInFour.

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