Over 300 schools were referenced in the report.

A government report, released yesterday, has uncovered a “ferocious” regime of systematic rape, sexual assault, and violence at religious-run boarding and day schools. The long-awaited report details 2,395 allegations of sexual abuse across 308 religious institutions over a 30-year period. While the number of allegations is shocking, the report noted that it’s very likely that the true number of allegations made is much higher than 2,395, given the level of underreporting of childhood sexual abuse. The majority of abuse incidents occurred from the early 1960s to the early 1990s, peaking in the early to mid-1970s.

Testimonies in the report gave graphic details of the abuse students faced, and the life long impacts the abuse had on them. The researchers gave survivors of abuse a questionnaire, enabling them to describe the abuse they faced. The report depicts how respondents described being “molested, stripped naked, raped and drugged amid an atmosphere of terror and silence”. The impacts of this abuse for many was life-long, creating adult mental-health issues, and difficulties forming relationships following “feelings of shame, responsibility, isolation, powerlessness and secrecy”.

“Many said that their childhood stopped the day the abuse started.” – Report

The investigation further disclosed that a significant portion of allegations are centered around special education schools, with 590 claims reported across 17 institutions, implicating 190 alleged perpetrators. Lota, a special needs school operated by the Brothers of Charity in Glanmire, Co Cork, had the highest number of abuse allegations, with 166 claims made against 50 alleged perpetrators.

The report highlighted that several participants expressed a belief that, due to the widespread nature of abuse within schools, both State and Church institutions were working together to orchestrate systematic cover-ups. This perception was rooted in the notion that such pervasive abuse could not have continued without some level of collusion between the authorities, allowing the crimes to be concealed and enabling the culture of abuse to persist unchecked.

Following the report, Education Minister Norma Foley announced plans for a Commission of Investigation into historical sexual abuse in religious-run day and boarding schools, likely chaired by a judge. While she acknowledged the report’s recommendations for a Government financial redress scheme for survivors, she did not commit to one. However, it’s understood that the Government is determined that religious orders will significantly contribute to the cost of compensating victims of abuse, with a clear expectation that past minimal contributions from some orders will not be repeated.

A full list of the schools and religious orders involved can be found here.

Elsewhere on District: Survivors of institutional abuse will have access to their records