The first of these transactions was done on May 16 last year when the ownership of land at Clonturk, Coolock, in north Dublin, was transferred into a company called Christian Brothers CLG.
Until then, the registered owners of the property were Denis Gleeson, Michael Reynolds, David Bonaventure Gibson and John Kevin Mullan, who are all senior members of the religious order.
Ten months later, in March of this year, playing fields at Warren House, Dublin Road, Sutton, also in north Dublin, were transferred into a trust called the Edmund Rice School Trust CLG.
A month later, more land at Miltonsfields, in a townland near Swords in north Dublin, was transferred into a trust called Edmund Rice Trust CLG.
Until then, the registered owners of both of these properties were again listed as Denis Gleeson, Michael Reynolds, David Bonaventure Gibson and John Kevin Mullan.
Company records show that the Christian Brothers are still a very wealthy religious order.
According to the most recently available annual financial statements lodged with the Companies Registration Office, the Edmund Rice Schools Trust had net assets of €140.5million at the end of August 2025 and €1.55million in cash.
A separate company called the Christian Brothers CLG – which is a registered charity – received donations worth €3.18million between December 31, 2024, and the end of December 2025.
The same firm also received €1.81million from other unnamed sources.
However, during the same period it recorded a €7.01million deficit because, although the company had a gross income of €5.36million, its liabilities stood at €8.39million, with gross expenditure of €12.38 million.
Last May Taoiseach Micheál Martin asked Pope Leo, during his meeting with the pontiff at the Vatican, to put pressure on religious orders in Ireland to come forward with redress for survivors of sexual abuse.
‘I asked that every effort would be made to get the religious orders to engage proactively on the matter of redress,’ Mr Martin said after the discussion in the Pope’s private library.
The Taoiseach told the pontiff the Government had established a commission of inquiry into day schools and boarding schools, but some religious orders had yet to engage on the issue.
Mr Martin said ‘some orders have come forward, but a lot of orders haven’t, and that assets are being sold, and that we want those assets allocated in revenues from them to redress’.