Boys living at a Rosminian institution in Co Tipperary were physically and sexually abused, a lawyer for the religious order said yesterday.
Mr David Hardiman SC was addressing the investigation committee of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse in Dublin yesterday. The committee was hearing submissions on procedures to govern the inquiry into complaints of abuse in St Joseph's residential institution, Ferryhouse, Clonmel, Co Tipperary, and St Patrick's, Upton, Co Cork, which is to begin on July 7th. Both institutions are run by the Rosminians.
On behalf of the congregation, Mr Hardiman said he wished "to say emphatically it wants no confrontation or adversarial context at any of the committee's proceedings if at all possible. I believe it possible".
He said his clients were "conscious of the depth of feeling this issue holds for people" and these would not be disregarded. It was "a most emphatic decision of the Rosminian order" that they "resolutely decline" to contest [other\] allegations for which there was no evidence [where it was believed the core allegation was true\], he said.
However, they "would ask survivors and the committee to accept the statement made [to the committee, but not yet made public] precisely as it is and in the same spirit of not having confrontation".
He asked that the statement be taken as a response to individual cases \ insisting this was "not evasion", but was, rather, "a stepping aside from the question", posed by the committee chairman Mr Justice Seán Ryan. He had asked whether the Rosminians had altered their position on individual complaints.
As regards procedures for the hearings from July 7th, Mr Hardiman suggested it begin with an introductory phase which could include the administrative context at the time, the Rosminians' reaction to complaints and the trauma suffered also by them. A distinct phenomenon was a divergence of attitude about the school [St Joseph's\], he said. It was not necessary that this should lead to confrontation as such views could be seen to co-exist, from the neutral perspective of the committee.
The next phase could involve the private hearings into individual complaints, while the third phase might involve "everything else", such as the nature of the abuse, the abuser and the institutions; the general social context where physical abuse was concerned, financial and otherwise.
Justice Seán Ryan said the committee could adapt different approaches depending on the institutions. He said that in view of the acknowledgement of the abuse, the next thing to be looked at could be the scale of that abuse.
Responding to Mr Hardiman's suggestions for procedure, he said the general attitude would be to proceed by consensus, but where this was not possible the committee would make decisions.