Two men say they were placed in psychiatric care after suffering from severe anxiety due to being abused by priests while they were in Willowpark junior school.
More victims have told their stories of being abused by priests who served in the Holy Ghost Order – now known as The Spiritans - as the number of allegations continues to grow.
On Monday, it was stated that allegations of abuse have been made by 233 people against 77 Irish Spiritans in ministries throughout Ireland and overseas.
Eoghan, who did not give his last name, said he had a “happy enough time” while he was a student in Willowpark junior school, but that all changed when he was abused by Fr Senan Corry, who was his maths teacher in 1972 when he was in fifth class.
Years later, when Eoghan was in 3rd year in secondary school, he had a mental breakdown due to the abuse and was hospitalised, but he didn’t tell anyone what happened.
"In my maths class, Fr Corry came up to me and pulled me out of the desk, pushed me against the desk, put his hands down my trousers and he pushed me so hard against that desk I was going to pass out both from the pain, the mental stress and being crushed,” he told RTÉ Radio 1’s Liveline.
"He did this in front of the whole close, it was on multiple occasions, I can’t say how many.
"The public humiliation hit me when I was in 3rd year, I became unable to go to school, I was bedridden and I was eventually hospitalised and that was a very difficult time in my life.
"I did recover from that, I went back to school and I did a reasonably good Leaving Cert but this anxiety thing rebounded on me several times.”
Dermot Flynn said he was physically abused by his teacher, who he didn’t name, when he was eight years old in Willowpark junior school.
“I remember my head hitting the wall, he had punched me full force into the wall and it was covered in blood,” he said.
“I saw worse than what happened to me because I ended up in Fr Corry’s class.”
Dermot said despite his parents paying thousands of euro a year to attend Willowpark junior school and Blackrock College, he left school without a Leaving Cert as he was traumatised by the abuse."I walked out not even with a Leaving Cert but the one thing I did get was a severe anxiety disorder which plagues me for many years,” he said.
“I only got out of St Pat’s in the past six months but I’ve made a remarkable recovery supported by family.
Finbar Moloney said he started being molested by Fr Corry in the late 1960’s after he had the “bad luck” of getting him for confession.
“I was told I was wanted in Fr Corry's room, I couldn’t understand why because I had no real contact with him so I went into the room and he was there standing up and he had a swivel chair at his desk and told me to sit down,” he said.
"All I had on me was pyjamas and he started to ask me about bad thoughts, I didn’t know what he was talking about at the time and he started to run his had up my leg and inside my pyjamas, then go back inside his desk.
"This was all for about 15 or 20 minutes and then when he was finished he told me to tell no one or I would suffer the consequences.”
The Spiritans have been contacted for comment.