Ó Lubhlaí abuse allegations may have been about in 2001

Court documents filed for a civil case against former schoolteacher Dómhnall Ó Lubhlaí suggest the Department of Education may have been on notice about sexual abuse allegations against him at an earlier stage than it has indicated.

The Department of Education had said child protection concerns relating to Ó Lubhlaí were first raised with it in early 2012. However, court documents relating to a case brought against Ó Lubhlaí in 2001 by a man who was allegedly abused by him as a child enjoined the department as one of the defendants.

The document, which has been seen by The Irish Times, indicates that the department might have been put on notice about his alleged sexual abuse almost a decade earlier than when child protection concerns were first raised with it.

Ó Lubhlaí, who died in 2013 aged 84, is alleged to have abused dozens of young boys over three decades when he was an Irish teacher. He was also the founder and principal of the Gaeltacht summer college, Coláiste na bhFiann.

Never convicted

A number of men who said they were abused by Ó Lubhlaí as teenagers disclosed details of the sexual assaults last year. While criminal complaints were made against the schoolteacher, who was a leading figure in the Irish-language movement, he was never convicted.

The documents have been shown to The Irish Times by Gearóid Ó Conchubhair, a former student at Coláiste na bhFianna, who says he was abused by Ó Lubhlaí when he was a student at a summer college.

The civil case was taken against Ó Lubhlaí and Gael Linn, for which he worked during the 1960s. The High Court case related to sexual abuse by Ó Lubhlaí against a boy who attended Irish language courses. It was settled in 2009. Significantly, the minister of the Gaeltacht and the minister of education were enjoined as defendants.

When Mr Ó Conchubhair wrote to the Department of Education in 2012, asking if any settlement had been made by the department arising from the case, an official replied: “I can confirm that [the plaintiff’s] claim against the minister for education was discontinued in May 2009 . I can also confirm that there was no settlement [made by the minister].”

A spokesman for the department says it is reviewing its files in the light of the latest information and will be in a position to respond further early next week.

As well as being the founder of the Irish college, Ó Lubhlaí had worked as a secondary-school teacher for more than 30 years, latterly in a Gaelcholáiste in Clondalkin.

When the disclosures about his sexual abuse of teenage boys were made public last year, a number of inquiries were launched by the Garda, the Department of Justice and the Department of Education to review the handling of the matter over 30 years. A briefing report for the department indicated that child-protection concerns were first raised with it in 2012.

Mr Ó Conchubhair, however, has said there is documentation to show that some sections in the department were aware of Ó Lubhlaí’s activities at a much earlier stage, and that it should have investigated any child-protection concerns around him at a much earlier stage, given that he worked as a teacher.

There were media reports that the department had also been informed of Ó Lubhlaí’s activities by his successor as head of Coláiste na bhFiann in 1997.

A subsequent check, however, established that it was the Department of the Gaeltacht which had been contacted.