The Christian Brothers congregation has recently discovered files at its headquarters in Rome which deal with 30 proven allegations of child sex abuse after internal investigation, covering a period of 30 years from the 1930s to the closing of institutions in the 1960s.
The files contain information given to the congregation's leadership at the time and accounts of internal canonical trials of members found guilty. Sentences ranged from canonical warning to refusal to allow the men take final vows and dismissal from the congregation.
The files are to be made available to the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse investigation committee, which was told of their existence for the first time yesterday.
To date 791 complaints have been made against Christian Brothers in Ireland, including complaints about sex abuse.
Brother David Gibson, provincial leader of the congregation's St Mary's province, told the committee his order's headquarters moved to Rome in the 1960s and had taken with them the relevant documents. Within the last year the congregation in Ireland had hired an archivist to examine those documents, and she had found minute books of the canonical trials.
Brother Gibson said there was no evidence that any of the cases had been reported to the civil authorities in Ireland at the time. He believed it was clear very little help was given to the children abused with the focus on the culpability of the abusers.
He said the 30 allegations included 11 at Artane industrial school in Dublin, 10 at day schools run by the congregation, three at Letterfrack industrial school in Galway, two at St Joseph's in Tralee, two at the O'Brien Institute in Dublin, and two at the Glynn school in Limerick.
Earlier he told the hearing that, as well as day schools, the congregation had responsibility for eight residential schools, including one at Salthill in Galway, St Vincent's at Glasnevin in Dublin, Carricklea in Dublin, as well as the five schools mentioned above.
Between 1930 and 1995, 650,000 children had been at their day schools, with 10,000 in their residential institutions over the same period. The abuse issue first emerged as a concern for the Irish provinces of the congregation at the general chapter meeting of the Christian Brothers worldwide in 1990.
There was discussion of Mount Cashel in Canada where brothers had been found guilty of sex abuse. It was agreed child protection guidelines for the congregation worldwide would be prepared. In Ireland these were in place by November 1993.
Before 1990 the Christian Brothers in Ireland had received "three or four complaints". By 1998 the number was 80. In 1995 seminars on the nature of paedophilia were organised for members, who found it difficult to accept child sexual abuse had taken place involving colleagues. In 1996, 13 further seminars took place.
A public apology was made in March 1998, after which complaints rose to 340. They included allegations about harshness in institutions and "very serious" ones.
Eighteen Brothers were suspended from ministry, with three reinstated following investigation.
An additional 380 complaints followed the RTÉ 1999 States of Fear programmes, the Taoiseach's apology of the same year and the announcement that a Redress Board was to be set up.
The quality of later complaints was a cause of concern. "We found quite a few could not have happened," Brother Gibson said.