Blows to the head received while attending Belvedere College in Dublin as a student contributed to the traumatic brain injury he now suffers from, according to former student Mark Clancy (59).
The condition forced the former claims adjuster to retire early, and has impaired his short-term memory and his ability to use a computer and to read, he said.
The physical abuse took place in primary and secondary levels in the Dublin 1 school and occurred both in the classroom and during sporting activities, with the assaults including once being “thrown across the room”.
“I begged my parents to take me out of the school, but they wouldn’t. My father had gone there.”
Clancy, who now lives in Washington State in the United States, is one of several former students from Jesuit schools who contacted The Irish Times last month after the religious order published the names of 15 deceased former priests and brothers it believes were child sex abusers.
[ Who are the 15 Jesuits named who are the subject of child sex abuse complaints?Opens in new window ]
The prominence of Belvedere in the February report was notable. Of the 15 members named, 12 had worked in the school, including in senior roles. Five were the subject of child sex abuse complaints arising from their time at Belvedere, according to the report.
The report is not clear as to whether child sex abuse complaints against another two members who had worked in the school include complaints relating to Belvedere.
The 15 in the report were identified out of a total of 37 deceased Jesuits who were considered for identification as child sex abusers by the congregation, with the others not having met the criteria that were applied.
Are these people fit to be in charge of children?
— Former Belvedere College student David O'Gorman
In 2021 the congregation named deceased member Joseph Marmion as having been a likely abuser, and last year it named another two deceased members, Paul Andrews and Dermot Casey. Marmion and Andrews taught at Belvedere, meaning the congregation has to date named 14 deceased members who worked at the school and were believed to be involved in child sex abuse.
The report also acknowledged complaints of physical abuse. Clancy said his experience of physical abuse at Belvedere was so bad that soon after he moved there during his primary school education, he stopped doing schoolwork.
“I did badly. I gave up. I just didn’t want to be there,” he said.
His memories are only of physical abuse but since last month’s report he has been troubled by a new memory of being in the school sick room with Finbarr Lynch, one of the deceased Jesuits named in the report as an alleged child sex abuser.
All he remembers is being in the room with Lynch. Nothing else.
“There is stuff there that was totally repressed,” he said.
His view of the Jesuit order is that it knew at the time of the abuse and that claims it has made since “are a work of fiction”. He believes the congregation is using its safeguarding and redress schemes as a way of “making people go away”.
As part of his dealings with the religious order, Clancy has been told the redress scheme is not limited to those who suffered sexual abuse.
Ciarán Tanham attended Belvedere’s primary and secondary schools. In the latter, he was regularly beaten by Jack Leonard, a former prefect of studies who was among those named in last month’s report as a probable child sex abuser.
“There was no sexual abuse [in my case] but he was a particularly nasty man,” said Tanham, who left the school early in part because of the physical abuse he endured from Leonard.
“I just couldn’t function at the school at all,” he said. “A few friends had a similar experience.”
Another former student of the school, who did not want to be identified, said the issue of abuse is almost the sole topic discussed among his WhatsApp group of former students from the early 1980s.
“The gist of it is that [the Jesuits] are involved in a drip feed of acknowledgment that is just that: a drip feed. They are literally waiting for people to die off.”
The abusers were known at the time, said the man, who himself was not abused but saw other children being sexually molested in class by Jesuit priest Brendan Kearney, who was named in the February report.
“Some teachers were amazing, were incredibly good to me, but I think they prioritised the reputation of the Jesuits over everything else.”
Another former student, David O’Gorman, who was in the school from 1974 to 1982, said the Jesuits are acknowledging only what they are absolutely forced to acknowledge.
“Are these people fit to be in charge of children?” he said, referring to the congregation’s continued involvement with schools.
“Given the evidence, over a long period of time, from different countries, you must ask if these people, as an institution, can be trusted to be in charge of children.”
Two former students of Jesuit-run Galway school Coláiste Iognáid said a deceased member of the congregation who was not among those named in the February report took a sexual interest in the boys who attended the school’s rowing club.
One said the priest used to stand watching the boys shower at the club on the banks of the Corrib.
“Rubbing his hands together, a big smile on his face, staring at us, making us take off our underwear – it was obvious,” said the former student.
When he was 13, the man complained to his parents about what the priest was doing, he said.
“I’ll never forget the conversation. I’m not going down there again, I said. He’s a pervert.”
His parents went the next day to raise their child’s concerns with the then school principal.
“The principal obviously said something. They came back, called me a liar, and made me apologise [to the priest] for making such an accusation,” he said.
His father hit him.
Two boys had complained, he said, and both were made apologise. The priest “knew the apology was coming, he made us do it in front of the other lads, which, if they were going to speak up, stopped them”, the former student said.
Another man who contacted The Irish Times complained of the same deceased priest abusing him at the rowing club.
Both former students of the Galway school were critical of how they have been treated by the Jesuits since they got in contact to complain about the priest.
“They are still trying to sweep it under the carpet,” said one man. “They told me I have to get a solicitor, which I can’t afford.”
The other man said he had such an unsatisfactory experience he has initiated legal proceedings against the order.
The Jesuits, he said, taught them in school about justice and being an advocate for those who were less well off, “and then they come back at us like this. It is like a kick in the stomach.”
In publishing the 15 names, the Jesuits said they had noted how many people who had been abused came forward after Marmion was named, leading to them asking whether there were other deceased Jesuits the order should consider naming.
In a statement to The Irish Times this week, the Jesuits said it was “always with deep shame and sorrow that we read of any account of abuse by a member” and asked for “forgiveness for the pain and suffering that has been inflicted on innocent students, and we express our shame for when our response to their suffering was utterly inadequate. There are no excuses.”
It was their hope, they said, that “we are given the opportunity to make amends, in whatever way possible, for what was done in the past in our name”.
The order made a renewed appeal for anyone who wanted to get in contact with the safeguarding office, Tusla, or the gardaí, and said they had tried to make their redress scheme “as least cumbersome as possible”.
