Ireland: St Mary's School for the Deaf — Dominican Sisters admit a visiting priest sexually abused a pupil; he 'left shortly after ... and never returned', no Garda referral recorded

Proceedings

1. 1990-01-01 · official findings only — the Congregation's own admission records no Garda referral or canonical proceeding against the priest

   Ireland — Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (Ryan Report, 2009), Vol. 2 ch. 15. The Ryan Report's Investigation Committee received statements from complainants alleging physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and emotional abuse at St Mary's School for the Deaf, Cabra (run by the Dominican Sisters, 1846-present). Of the sexual-abuse allegations specifically, the Report states: 'Allegations were made of sexual abuse by visiting priests and the Congregation admitted that such an allegation was made against a priest, who left shortly after that and never returned.' No prosecution, Garda referral, or canonical sanction against the priest is recorded anywhere in the chapter; the resolution recorded by the Commission is confined to the priest's simple departure from the institution. In their own respondent statement, the Dominican Sisters otherwise denied that children were beaten for using sign language, while accepting a lesser degree of physical correction, and did not respond in detail to the individual allegations 'due to the passage of time'.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• the closed, residential, oral-method deaf-education environment in which children were actively discouraged from using sign language, restricting a deaf child's practical means of reporting abuse to hearing staff
• clerical/pastoral access as a visiting priest, trusted and unsupervised, inside a girls' residential institution
• the Congregation's own response pattern — quiet removal of the priest rather than referral to the Garda Siochana or to the diocese for canonical action