The Dublin International Christian Church allegedly isolates new recruits from their families after ‘baptisim’ at the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Square.
The outfit, overseen here by Luke Snow, 29 is an offshoot of the US-based International Christian Church (ICC) which has faced a series of lawsuits in California over alleged sexual abuse.
It began searching out new members on the streets here after being banned from the campuses of Trinity College and UCD.
Former teacher Mr Snow says Ireland is ‘no longer a Christian country’, but ‘a pagan nation’ which requires saving.
In one old sermon posted online, he tells how God ‘sent a Brit, St Patrick’, when he was unable to find a faithful Irishman. He said: ‘Now 1,000 years later,
‘This is like a hostage note’
God has found no true Christian man in the whole island, so he has sent another Brit, and that man is me.’
Those approached by the ICC tell of seemingly random interactions with friendly strangers that ended with follow-up invitations to meet.
What follows is progressive isolation from their families until they lose contact altogether.
One woman told the Irish Daily Mail how the ‘lonely’ daughter who joined up following a bad break-up eventually cut herself off from her family after going to live in a church-approved ‘sister household’.
Carol’s daughter Nicola joined the church in 2023 at the age of 22, after returning from living in Spain following a bad break-up.
Her mother was initially delighted her loving and close girl had made new friends and was attending Bible study classes.
But Nicola became more and more distant and one day arrived home to announce she was moving into a sister household.
Carol said: ‘She was a different person. Disconnected. Disembodied.
She wasn’t my daughter any more.’
The family has endured two Christmases without Nicola. In December, Nicola declined an invite to visit because the last time she visited, Carol had been ‘too emotional’.
On Christmas Day, a brief text arrived telling Carol she was a wonderful woman who had raised her children with such kindness.
‘And I thought, where are we?’ Carol says. ‘This is like a hostage note.’ Carol also saw one video posted online by the church in which Nicola shouted “That’s my mum” at Snow’s wife Francesca.
‘That is one of the most painful things I have ever witnessed,’ Carol said. ‘Luke Snow has told my daughter that he is her father now. He has said it to her. He has taken that from us.’
Ronan O’Grady is a Dublin man and a committed Christian who encountered the group by chance and attended events billed as Bible studies – neither of which involved any sustained engagement with scripture.
He said: ‘He was asking really personal questions. It felt like they were prying information from us.
‘The biggest danger is the isolation. If anyone – your parents, your friends – expresses concern that you might be in a cult, you are taught that they are being used by the devil.’
New members, he says, are encouraged to compile a written list of every sin they have ever committed and hand it to their discipleship leader. The stated purpose is spiritual growth. The practical effect, he says, is leverage.
‘If you ever try to leave, they have something on you,’ he says. The Dublin ICC did not respond to calls, texts or detailed written questions submitted by the Mail before publication.
Some names have been changed or withheld to protect sources.