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	Parents Reluctant to Challenge Paedophile Offaly Teacher Offaly Express May 27, 2009 http://www.offalyexpress.ie/15744/Parents-reluctant-to-challenge-paedophile.5307399.jp Published Date: 27 May 2009 THE Ryan Report also deals with the case of the paedophile Offaly teacher Donal Dunne, who is referred to by the pseudonym of John Brander. The conviction of the former Christian Brother for sexual abuse of boys at Walsh Island NS, where he was principal, resulted from a Garda investigation which followed his conviction for abusing a boy to whom he gave private tuition in the 1990s. The conviction of the former Christian Brother for sexual abuse of boys at Walsh Island NS, where he was principal, resulted from a Garda investigation which followed his conviction for abusing a boy to whom he gave private tuition in the 1990s. This in turn led to convictions for abusing two boys at the Presentation Convent, Castlecomer. Dunne began his teaching career in the early 1940s as a Christian Brother in St Mary's CBS, Marino, Dublin, and he later taught at Mullingar, Inchicore and James Street, Dublin. Records show that his superiors were made aware on three occasions of his abuse of boys, but he was allowed to leave the order, with his record unblemished, on a Friday, and to take up a post as principal at Lanesboro NS, Co Longford, the following Monday. He taught there from 1957-60, followed by four years in Ballyfermot, and from 1964-66 seved in Rath Mixed NS, Ballybrittas, Portlaoise. His period in Walsh island, from 1966-69, led to complaints of sexual abuse from four male past pupils. In addition, eleven female past pupils reported violent punishments. Witnesses told the Commission of a reluctance by parents to challenge Dunne, given his standing in the community, and described how he would open letters of complaint in class, laugh and put them on a spike. They also described how he openly fondled boys' genitals in front of the class. While only boys were sexually abused, witnesses said that girls received more severe corporal punishment from him. Dunne's brother-in-law was a foreman in a local business, and many of his pupils' fathers were employed by him, leading to a reluctance to complain. The report outlines how Dunne left Walsh Island in 1969 following allegations of sexual abuse of boys, and obtained a post in a secondary school in Castlecomer, with a glowing reference from the then PP of Walsh Island. Following complaints in Castlecomer (a co-educational school), he was moved to the all-girls' Sacred Heart School in Tullamore, in 1975, and he spent the last decade of his teaching career there. Correspondence from the Department of Education reveals their thinking that as his sexual attraction was to young boys, he would not pose a danger to the girls. However, there have been numerous descriptions from women who attended the Sacred Heart School at the time of his violent assaults and humiliation of the teenage girls. On one occasion, in the early 1980s, Gardai were called to the school following a complaint of an assault on a girl, but no prosecution followed. A male teacher who overheard shouting was advised by the ASTI not to make a statement to Gardai. The Ryan Report also outlines the efforts of a past pupil to alert civil and religious authorities to Dunne's presence at the Sacred Heart School. The man, himself a teacher, wrote to the late Cardinal Tomas O Fiaich, to the then Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, and he approached a curate in Tullamore in the 1980s, who told him he "would not be a part of a witch hunt" against Dunne.
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