Catholic schools

[mrsmiawallace3]

I grew up in Blackrock, Co. Dublin. Most of the guys I knew, attended Blackrock College in the 70s and 80's. My brother was in Bob Geldof's class.Anyone else extremely shocked and heartbroken by todays 'Scope report on child sexual abuse?

No I am not shocked. I remember a friend of mine who used to talk of a school chaplain who regularly called children out of class to 'talk' to them. She used to talk about how creepy he was. The teachers weren't in a position to object, jobs were scarce in the 80's, though I do think there was an element of naivety there too.
He is currently in jail for abuse but there are still people who believe he was innocent.
So many lives ruined.

Not shocked here either, sadly.

I am heartbroken though by all of it.

Even one alleged abuser is upsetting enough but the numbers in Willow Park is sickening - it just reads as organised ring. As do the special schools numbers. On top of that I strongly suspect in reality numbers are higher everywhere.

If your brother and friends attended I'm surprised that you're surprised tbh. IME if you talk to men who attended in that era, they'll be able to tell you about what they knew about things happening that were just not right. They were children and didn't necessarily know the scale or details but there was a lot of knowledge of the fact that there were bad men teaching there and that you needed to try and avoid them. Boarders were particularly badly hit. They didn't necessarily talk to each other about it then, but have done as adults and particularly since it first started appearing in the media.

I feel particularly sickened at the thought of what happened in the special schools. Most of those victims would never be able to report what happened so the full scale will almost certainly never be known.

It puts an interesting spin on 'privilege', doesn't it? Boys who attended those expensive fee-paying schools were regarded - rightly - as the privileged posh rugby-playing golden boys who lived comfortable lives, remote from the troubles of ordinary folk.

But a vulnerable child is a vulnerable child, and in this case social class was no protector for these boys.

I posted elsewhere about the killing of Rebecca Cheptegei.
Doctor. Politician. Olympian. Professor. Politician.
Put 'woman' in front of any of those, and you're reminded that relative social privilege - being educated, high-earning, high-achieving, rich, famous - is nothing in the face of MVAWG. That's something we all have in common.
RIP Rebecca Cheptegei.

Children too, whether from well-to-do homes or not.

It's right that the abuse of boys in religious schools is getting publicity and condemnation, but it shouldn't be forgotten that most sexual abuse of children is carried out by dads and uncles and grandads and brothers and stepdads, and most of the abused children are girls.

It's not something that 'the religious' do, it's something that men do.

Why has nobody investigated what Jimmy Saville got up to over here where he was feted for his charity work, in particular with the Central Remedial Clinic.
He led charity walks and would have had access to very vulnerable children.