DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Kilkenny Live [Kilkenny, Ireland]
October 28, 2023
By Declan McSweeney
Nearly 25 years since the Portarlington paedophile Donal Dunne was jailed for offences against young boys, his deeds continue to cast a shadow over many lives.
He had a 45 year teaching career and left the Christian Brothers in 1957, his abuse of boys having spanned both his time in the order and subsequently.
He began his teaching career in Dublin in 1940 at Scoil Mhuire in Dublin’s Marino and he held posts in a total of ten schools before retiring from the Sacred Heart School in Tullamore. At the age of 78, he received a two year prison sentence at Tullamore Circuit Court in 1999.
Dunne’s abuse of boys came to light after incidents relating to a neighbour’s child led to a Garda investigation into his teaching career. This included the three years he spent as principal of Walsh Island NS, one of at least six schools where he abused boys, in Dublin, Longford, Westmeath and Kilkenny as well as Offaly.
His teaching career concluded in the all-girls’ Sacred Heart School – bizarrely, some of the officials felt that as he only abused boys, the girls would be safe, but he took his frustrations out on them by showing cruelty in other ways, being irate on Mondays to girls who didn’t know the results of the previous day’s GAA matches, for example.
Gardaí received complaints about Dunne as far back as 1969 but, for reasons which never became clear, the investigation did not progress at that point.
Dunne left Walsh Island in 1969 with a glowing reference from the then parish priest, and he took up a post as a secondary teacher in Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny. At least 20 boys in that school experienced either sexual or physical abuse.
One of them described reporting the matter to a Presentation nun who told him he must be ‘possessed’.
In 1982, one of his Walsh Island victims became aware Dunne was teaching in the Sacred Heart School and contacted the Department of Education, but was ignored. At least eight civil servants were aware of the complaints. He also contacted senior Catholic figures including Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich, Archbishop of Armagh, and Bishops Patrick Lennon of Kildare and Leighlin and John McCormack of Meath.
He also spoke to a now-deceased curate in Tullamore who told him he would ‘not allow a man’s past to be used against him like an albatross around his neck’.
The priest’s failure to act cannot but be seen as contributing to Dunne’s going on to abuse the neighbour’s child.
While the Dunne case was arguably the most high profile paedophilia case in Offaly, there were many others down the years, relating to both boys and girls. The issue of abuse of boys has gained renewed attention in recent times with the publicity surrounding cases in Spiritan schools and the revelations about the late Jesuit priest Joseph Marmion.
Research in USA by groups like the Centre for Disease Control suggest at least one in six men has been sexually abused or assaulted. To put that in perspective, it is as common among men as prostate cancer, and four times as common as heart disease.
While Irish research suggests a lower figure of 10%, it is arguable that this reflects a reluctance to come forward. Even at the most conservative estimate, that would suggest over 4,000 men in Offaly are likely to have experienced such abuse.
It is inaccurate to speak of some forms of abuse as worse than others – non-contact abuse could affect one male more severely than contact abuse does on another, depending on the personality and circumstances.
Common effects include anxiety, depression, feeling ‘less of a man’, having anxieties about sexual orientation. A very pernicious fear, stoked by misleading comments in public, is the idea that abuse victims will go on to abuse other children – in fact, the vast majority do not, and while this argument is often put forward by lawyers on behalf of those accused of child abuse, the reality is those who know what happened to them was abuse do not go on to abuse others.
However, the fear that they might can have a severe effect, preventing many men from having children or leaving them with fears when it comes to looking after them.
A history of sexual abuse among males is well-known to contribute to relationship problems and difficulties in finding a partner, but at the same time, being in a long-term relationship is even more important for such men than for the wider population, as it is seen as a vital part of the healing process: How to Help Your Partner Cope with Male Sexual Abuse (oprah.com)
As a result, the partners of male survivors also need particular support from the wider community.
This US-based website contains useful links: Sexual Assault of Men and Boys | RAINN as does this British site: Myths and Facts – MSP – The Male Survivors Partnership
About the author
Originally from Tullamore but now living and working in England, Declan McSweeney worked as a journalist with the Offaly Express for many years