A Dublin man has revealed how he was sexually abused by three members of the Holy Ghost Order, now known as the Spiritans, while a student at Blackrock College.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Liveline programme this afternoon, Stephen, who did not disclose his surname, said he attended Willow Park junior school in 1968 at the age of seven.
Stephen (61) said he was abused by Fr Aloysius Flood, Fr Senan Corry and Fr Gerard Hannan.
“As a child I was sent to both Willow Park and Blackrock College in Dublin. I went to Willow Park in 1968 as a seven-year-old and in those days, it was a privileged school to go to,” he said.
“The second year I was there, the abuse started; I was eight or nine at the time. It was probably one of those situations where you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“The first time, we were playing and running around the pitches, and I slipped, and I ended up getting covered in head to foot in mud and a couple of my school mates were taking me up to the matron.
“On the way up there, we came across somebody by the name of Flood who said that he could sort me out that he had a couple of spare uniforms in his office and a shower. I was nine, I didn’t know anything different, so I said ‘yeah, fine’, and went into his office.
“He helped me strip off, I got into the shower, he started cleaning me and that’s when he started massaging me between my legs. He put me on his knee to start helping me dry off and there again started feeling me all over, whispering in my ear and at the same time he had his hand in his pocket.
“I didn’t know what he was doing but I know what he was doing now, so that lasted for about half an hour, and I got dressed and I left. A couple of days later, he met me again and he said, ‘come in, I’ve got your old uniform here, you better take that one off and I’ll give you your proper one back’.
“It just started there again. A couple of times then he would get me in the playground and ask me would I run a message for him and when I got in to deliver something there was obviously nothing there to be delivered.
“He would just bounce me on his knee and in those days, we didn’t wear long trousers, we wore shorts, so the hand went up the side of the shorts pretty easily. So, that lasted for most of that year.”
Stephen said another priest then started to abuse him in class when he was 10 years old.
“We went into fifth class, and we had a math’s teacher by the name of Corry, when we came back after Christmas; I became his next victim shall we say,” he said.
“And what he used to do was, in the old school desks, they used to lift up the lids of the seats. So, he’d lift that up and he’d ram me between the corner of the desk in such a way that I couldn’t move because he’d have his hand around my neck.
“And then he would proceed to put his hands down the front of my trousers, down the back of my trousers and at the same time he would be rubbing himself against me.
“Now bear in mind, this is in a math's class, and this is in front of 28 or 29 other guys. He was known for frothing at the mouth, he would be breathing in my ear, ‘this is our secret, you can’t tell anybody, nobody is going to believe a young lad like you against a priest’.
“It was a total and utter fear factor with them. The thing with Corry in the classroom, that lasted from Christmas until we left in the June, it was continuous, five days a week.
“Since I spoke about this, it’s not just the victims that have been affected by this, I have spoken to a number of ex-schoolmates who were witnesses and it has affected them badly as well.
“They make you feel so ashamed, so guilty, it’s actually frightening. It had an effect on my relationship with my parents at the time, so far as I just wanted to escape. I tried everything to get expelled, just to get out of there, and at the same time I was breaking my mother’s and father’s heart.
“Because they couldn’t understand why I was like I was, and I couldn’t tell them what was going on. I suppose in a way I was screaming for attention, but I couldn’t tell anyone.”
Stephen said when he was 13, he got into an altercation with a classmate who hit him in his crotch area. He said Fr Hannan witnessed this and then started to abuse him in his office.
“My third abuser saw me drop to my knees and asked me was I okay, said come into the office and I’ll give you a glass of water.
“He said we better check to make sure there’s no serious damage done, and he just began to massage me and at the same time he had his hand in the pocket of his cape.
“That was my first encounter with him, and I had a couple of other similar encounters with him during the year and then he was my dean in fourth year.”
Stephen said he received an apology and financial settlement from the Spiritan order in December 2021.
He never told his parents about the abuse he suffered while at school. He said the three priests, who are now deceased, were not charged to his knowledge.
“I rang Blackrock Garda Station, and I went to speak to a detective, and I couldn’t have met a more sympathetic person who listened to everything I had to say,” he said.
“Quite a lot of people started coming forward after I had spoken to them. I went to the guards, and I went to the Spiritans and I got acknowledgment.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Spiritans said: “We do not at all dispute the accuracy of Stephen’s Liveline account in relation to Frs Corry, Flood and Hannan and we reiterate our sincerest apology and profound sorrow for the harm that he described, the pain and suffering that he outlined and the burden that he has carried for so many years.”