Former students of Spiritan schools are the largest group to address the report of past sexual abuse

Between the ages of 12 and 17, David and Mark were repeatedly sexually abused at various locations on the grounds of Blackrock College in south Dublin in the 1970s.

Her tormentors came from the community of the Order of the Holy Spirit, today known as the Spiritans.

A breakdown of the religious orders with the highest number of allegations in their schools (excluding those that run special schools) is:

• The Christian Brothers: 820 allegations in 132 schools. They stated that 16 members and former members of the order had been convicted of child sexual abuse, five lay staff had been convicted of child sexual abuse, and one member of the clergy associated with the school who was not a Christian Brother had been convicted;
• The Spiritans: 329 allegations in six schools. Of the 61 alleged abusers in the Spiritans' files, 80% were members of the order and 20% were lay employees. One member of the order and one lay employee were convicted of child sexual abuse;
• The Jesuits: 126 allegations in eight schools. Of the 32 alleged abusers, 78% were members of the order, 13% were lay employees and 9% were fellow brothers of the plaintiff;
• The Carmelite Fathers: 100 allegations in two schools. Of the 14 alleged abusers, 64% were members of the order and 36% were lay employees. Two lay people associated with the schools were convicted of child sexual abuse;
• The De La Salle Brothers: 84 allegations in 29 schools. Almost 90% of the allegations involved members of the Brothers, 7% involved lay staff, and 4% involved a clergyman who was not a member of the order.

Allegations were made more frequently in connection with special schools, presumably because the children there were at greater risk.

Special schools

A total of 528 allegations and 190 suspected abusers in the report relate to special schools.

The majority of the alleged abusers at these schools were members of a religious order (39%). A large proportion of the abusers recorded were students (28%), closely followed by lay staff (26%), and in 7% of cases the perpetrator was another clergy member who was not a member of the order.

Another difference from the figures we obtained for regular schools is that the majority of alleged abusers are still alive or their status is unknown, with only 27% registered as deceased.

The report noted that the figures published should not be taken as the total of all allegations that may exist in relation to a single order or school. It also said that the inclusion of an allegation in an order should not be taken as an admission of alleged abuse.

Looking at all regular schools run by religious orders, almost 70% of the allegations were made against members of religious orders. Lay staff were responsible for 17% of the allegations, followed by students (9%) and clergy (5%).

Schools run by women’s orders

A similar breakdown was observed in schools run by male religious, while in schools run by female religious the categories of alleged abusers were more evenly distributed across the four categories.

In these schools, students made up the majority of alleged perpetrators of abuse (34%), followed by lay staff (30%), clergy (22%) and members of religious orders (14%).

Most allegations of past sexual abuse occurred in male religious schools (2,217), compared to 158 allegations in female-run schools.

Only 46 percent of the alleged abusers identified in the report are still alive or their status is unknown. However, the report says it is “fairly likely” that some of them are also deceased.

The information received revealed that there were cases where suspected perpetrators changed schools.

In community schools co-sponsored by a religious order, the questionnaires showed that the majority of alleged abusers (48%) were students, while 19% were clergy and 5% were members of a religious order.