A Christian Brother who broke a child's jaw was allowed to carry on teaching for nearly a decade, it emerged today.
The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse is examining allegations about St Joseph's Industrial School in Tralee, which was run by the Christian Brothers up until 1970.
Brian McGovern SC, representing the tribunal, said there had been documented complaints about a Brother who had been moved to the school despite a series of horrific complaints against him.
The man known as Brother X broke the jaw of a child he was teaching at the Christian Brothers Industrial School in Glin, Co Limerick, in 1961, after earlier pulling hair from a child's head and beating boys with a leather strap at another Christian Brothers school in Clonmel, Co Tipperary.
He was then moved on to St Joseph's where he continued to teach.
Mr McGovern asked Br Seamus Nolan of the Christian Brothers if the failure to remove him from teaching duties immediately showed a remarkably uncaring attitude by the Order. "It certainly does. The efforts made weren't sufficient. It isn't good enough," he said.
He told the commission that to his knowledge the gardaí were not informed about the Brother's activities and that although the Department of Education was aware of him, it eased off after he was eventually removed.
Other Brothers had warned as far back as 1960 that Brother X was unable to control his temper and was capable of doing the most foolish things. He was eventually removed from classroom duties in 1969 and transferred to a Christian Brothers institution in Dublin.
There were eight deaths of boys at St Joseph's including that of Joseph Pike in 1958. The young boy died in hospital due to pneumonia but had earlier received a severe beating from a Christian Brother at the school.
St Joseph's received a limited amount of funding from the State and was forced to make up the shortfall through other activities carried out by its staff and pupils, such as farming, carpentry and bakery.
Br Nolan said that in the 100 years of St Joseph's existence the effort of generosity by the staff there lasted throughout.
He said there had been regular inspections which showed, by and large, there was great satisfaction all round and added that some of the surviving Brothers were still friends with the former pupils. "So it wasn't all a grim and bleak story though the building may have given that impression from the outside," he said.
However the commission is investigating several complaints of sexual abuse made against Brothers who worked in the school.
One complainant, John Glynn (60), said he had entered the school in 1949 at the age of two and was sexually abused by a Brother after his first Communion.
"What disgusted me today was that there wasn't any word of apology. I just find it horrendous they're still hiding, that the cover-up is still there and that we still have to keep speaking out," he said.
Mr Glynn plans to give evidence to the commission about the one surviving Brother who abused him.
PA