Sir, – Pat Leahy’s report on the possibility of a statutory inquiry into abuse in schools does not state whether, like the previous scoping inquiry, it may have a sectarian aspect (“Statutory inquiry into sexual abuse of children at day and boarding schools agreed at Cabinet”, News, September 3rd). While the information may not, as yet, be available, it is an important consideration.
Victims of abuse in Protestant ethos schools were not eligible to speak to the scoping inquiry, as it was confined to schools run by Roman Catholic religious orders.
Media reports (initially on RTÉ) of horrific abuse of children in Blackrock College and then other schools run by Roman Catholic religious congregations, and its cover-up, precipitated the State scoping inquiry. Abuse happened also in St Patrick’s Cathedral Grammar School and in King’s Hospital School. Both have a Church of Ireland ethos. Victims in those and similar schools must not be excluded from a right to tell their story.
Roman Catholic institutions, after consistent media and, consequently, public attention, no longer ignore legitimately expressed concern about child safeguarding practices and historical abuse. The same criteria should apply to other institutions caring for, or educating, children, irrespective of religious ethos.
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Protestant ethos schools do not feel as obliged as their Roman Catholic counterparts to account for past practice. When The Irish Times wrote to Roman Catholic schools on the subject last year, they responded with information. A similar request for information from Protestant boarding schools met with silence. That should have been followed up. A statutory inquiry into abuse in schools run by religious groups must have an inclusive, secular, and not an exclusively sectarian basis.
Such an inquiry should be one worthy of a secular republic, that treats all of the pupils of the State equally. – Yours, etc,
Dr NIALL MEEHAN,
Journalism & Media Faculty,
Griffith College,
Dublin 8.