A number of sex abusers resided in industrial school

A number of sex abusers had connections to the industrial school at Ferryhouse, the investigations committee of the child abuse commission was told yesterday.

Father Patrick Pierce gave evidence about three other abusers, apart from "Brother X".

He said he was appointed Irish provincial of the Rosminian congregation in 1991, and in July 1992 ITV broadcast a programme about abuse, after which he received a call from his counterpart in England.

He said he had been contacted by a man in Wales alleging that an Irish Rosminian priest, who had been a prefect at Ferryhouse in the 1960s, had attempted to abuse him on a visit to Ireland.

The man then contacted Father Pierce about the priest, who was then serving in an Irish parish.

Father Pierce contacted the local bishop, and the priest who was the subject of the complaint was sent to a treatment centre at Stroud in England.

The man complaining did not want police involved. The priest left the ministry.

In 1994 a former resident at Ferryhouse lodged a complaint against him. This was reported to gardaí in Clonmel, and the former priest was convicted in 1999.

Another incident involving a former resident at Ferryhouse took place at a Rosminian aftercare centre in Dublin on the night of the Ireland-Egypt World Cup game in 1994. The young man concerned had been staying at the centre.

He and a Brother there had been drinking and, later, as the young man slept at the centre he awoke to find the Brother attempting a sexual assault.

He ran off and told a relative of the Brother, who contacted Father Pierce.

The young man wanted no one to be informed. Later he went to the Garda, and the Brother, who by then had left the Rosminian congregation, was convicted in 2000.

Following complaints to gardaí a layman who had assisted with pantomimes at Ferryhouse "over a long number of years" was charged with sex abuse offences and was convicted in 2002.

In the late 1980s a complaint of abuse against a priest at Ferryhouse was withdrawn by a boy within 12 to 14 hours of it being made.

The boy had been home for a weekend and did not want to return to Ferryhouse. He told his mother he was being abused by the priest.

He later admitted this was not true and why he had made the allegation.

The committee's hearings have now gone into private session where evidence will be heard from 32 former residents at Ferryhouse.

This is scheduled to continue to the end of October, when the Rosminian provincial, Father Joe O'Reilly, and Father Pierce may be recalled for further questioning in public session.