Two Christian Brothers who were senior leaders over the space of two decades and managed the congregation's assets are now convicted child sexual abusers.
Victims’ representatives say they are deeply concerned following discoveries by RTÉ Investigates that child abusers inside the religious congregation were at the heart of its leadership, managing its financial and business affairs in recent decades.
Br Martin O’Flaherty (73) was jailed for historical child sexual abuse in six successive trials over the last three years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court - the latest, last month, when he was sentenced to five years on 15 counts of indecent assault on seven boys at Kilkenny CBS Primary School between 1976 and 1981.
O’Flaherty was a senior member of the Christian Brothers’ leadership for Ireland, England and Europe in the 12 years from 2002 to 2014. He was a founding member of the trustee company that manages the congregation’s assets and was a trustee of its English properties until December 2019, over a year after he was formally questioned by Gardaí, RTÉ Investigates has discovered.
He remains a trustee listed on the deeds of other congregation properties in Ireland, including Christian Brother retained lands at Monkstown CBC, where he was involved in a legal change to the property's deed in 2022, over a year after he was charged with indecent assault.
As part of a wide-ranging investigation into Christian Brothers’ assets and abusers, RTÉ Investigates has uncovered hundreds of property transactions by trustees who hold assets in trust for the beneficial ownership of the congregation.
It has established that the Christian Brothers ran a total portfolio of over 800 properties since 1990.
Senior Brothers, acting as trustees, held, sold, or transferred the 800 properties on behalf of the congregation over the past 35 years.
The Christian Brothers still own at least 270 properties, while the trustees sold or transferred some 530 other properties over those years.
Another senior Brother who was part of the leadership and involved in the trusteeship of congregation assets, has also been convicted for historical child sexual abuse. He cannot be named for legal reasons.
He controlled a project that received significant monies from a special Children at Risk fund established under the Department of Education as part of the response to revelations of clerical child sexual abuse in the 1990s.
He was also involved in decisions on the Christian Brothers’ approach to civil cases taken by child sexual abuse victims in the courts.
Last year, the Scoping Inquiry reported the Christian Brothers as the religious order that had the highest number of schools and the largest number of alleged abusers, relying on figures supplied by the congregation itself.
So far, the taxpayer has funded the bulk of redress for abuse in residential industrial schools - many of them managed by the Christian Brothers - and for limited redress for survivors of Magdalene Laundries. More recently, the Government has repeated past requests for "contributions" from religious orders towards redress for survivors of Mother and Baby Homes.
Dr James Gallen, Associate Professor at the School of Law & Government in Dublin City University, said the bill for redress for historical child sexual abuse in day and boarding schools is expected to be billions.
He cited a Central Statistics Office survey estimating that when a Government-promised Commission of Inquiry is held, "there might be as much as 41,000 men and women, affected by sexual abuse in day schools."
Lawyers for victims have also criticised the Christian Brothers' continuing use of a legal tactic to block victims in the courts. The leadership invokes a 2017 Supreme Court judgment to deter victims from suing.
The judgment treats congregations like the Christian Brothers as 'unincorporated associations’, like a club run by a committee.
Relying on that judgment, uniquely among religious orders the Christian Brothers does not nominate a leader to act as a representative defendant when the congregation is sued by victims.
Philip Treacy, a solicitor with Coleman Legal, said that he considered the Christian Brothers’ legal approach as "particularly un-Christian" and that it was now "a matter for Leinster House to address".
The Christian Brothers said it "fully respects the rights of all parties in litigation to progress their case in accordance with the law and best legal practice".
However, John Boland, one of a group of victims of a then Christian Brother teacher, Seán Drummond, at Creagh Lane CBS national school in the late 1960s, said that they believe the Christian Brothers "holds all the power" in the courts.
RTÉ Investigates reveals a letter written by Drummond in February 1970, in which he admitted "sexually interfering" with boys he taught, as well as correspondence between the then Irish leadership and the Superior General in Rome that led to Drummond being freed from his vows.
A survivor of Christian Brother abuse and victims' advocate, Damian O’Farrell, who successfully campaigned for the Freedom of Drogheda granted to former Christian Brother leader Br Edmund Garvey in 1997 to be disregarded in 2023, said he believed the Christian Brothers has taken a step backwards since the Ryan Commission report into institutional child sexual abuse.
"They haven't moved, I would say they're worse since the time of the Ryan Report and since the time of the industrial school redress scheme", he said.
In response to tonight’s RTÉ Investigates, the Christian Brothers said it reiterated "...our apology for the physical and sexual abuse that occurred in many former CBS schools" and stated that they "cannot comment on individuals, not least as some remain subject to ongoing legal processes".