Patsy McGarry, in The Irish Times, reports:
The Garda and child and family agency Tusla are investigating an alleged incident at a major Dublin boarding school, following a claim that a 13-year-old boy was sexually assaulted in a dormitory with a hockey stick by eight other pupils.
The incident is alleged to have taken place late last Thursday night at the 450-year-old Church of Ireland-governed King’s Hospital secondary school in Palmerstown
However, it was not reported to the Garda, Tusla, or the Church of Ireland authorities until Tuesday.
… In February 2008, King’s Hospital and Swim Ireland agreed to pay substantial damages after a 10-year dispute to 13 female victims of convicted sex abuser Derry O’Rourke, who had been employed by the school as a swimming coach.
Thats a really strange name for a school in Ireland.
west britan
Why ‘hospital’?
florence nightingale
Protestant Doctors?
bad spelling!
Britain
from wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King's_Hospital
The school was founded in 1669 as The Hospital and Free School of King Charles II and was located in Queen Street, Dublin. King’s Hospital was a continuation of the old Free School of Dublin.[4] On 5 May 1674, the school opened with 60 pupils, including 3 girls.[5] From 1783 to 1971, the school was located in Blackhall Place, Dublin, currently the headquarters of the Law Society of Ireland.
Lots of protestant boarding schools were originally grand houses on estates which were turned into hospitals by the owners during the various wars from the Zulu wars and Crimean war to WW1 and WW2, they were then turned into boarding schools as they had the layout of wards/dorm rooms and day or study/recreation rooms etc.
There is King’s in Palmerstown and another called Wilsons hospital in westmeath and another one or two in Tipperary and more in Cork
This is awful but the widespread reporting of it this morning can’t be making it any easier for the kid involved. What was surely a traumatic/humiliating/physically painful and confidence shattering event is now national news. Knowing how teenagers operate this will make harder for him to return to normal everyday school life.
yes , it should be swept under the carpet like most “incidents” at irish boarding schools are..
I think you know that is not what I meant. Let the guards and school authorities deal with it. Making it national news is only going to make this ordeal more difficult for the young victim.
+1
My apologies, but I think such things should be brought out into the light, considering the alleged perpetrators would use their resources to cover things up.
“Alleged” is the important word you’re ignoring.
i’d expect nothing else from them
This was obviously an incident which was too hard to “keep close” and out of the public gaze.
Money usually makes these things go away for the wealthy and connected. Not this time.
Seems odd to mention the Derry O’Rourke case in the context of this (presumably unrelated) incident, one might almost think the IT is suggesting there is some sort of ‘culture’ going on at this school.
How is it odd? How is it unrelated? it’s the same school?
School with history of sexual abuse does not report sexual abuse – it’s completely relevant.
Poor boy – hope the perpetrators are caught and punished.
I know the school well – it doesn’t surprise me that bullying is prevalent.
Why this story is linked with the other also surprises me.
That O’Rourke was a vile scumbag. I learned to swim at Kings Hospital – thankfully not with that animal.
Serious question, could a “wedgie” be constituted as sexual assault? In my school there was various forms of the wedgie. Classic underwear wedgie, a “poling” where the victim had either leg on either side of the basketball pole and the legs pulled or two people got in front and behind you with a hurly or other stick and yanked it up between the legs. All horrible, painful and demeaning, usually group versus one. Kids have been doing messed up things to each other for years. No excuse for it. Some of the stories I’ve heard from the few friends I have that attended boarding school make the horrible bullying I saw at school look like mere shenanigans and it was rough enough where I went. A few of the local private “rugby schools” had some f*pped up traditions of their own. Terenure have a great bit of craic every year kidnapping the head boy and tying him naked outside the nearest girls school.
“Serious question, could a “wedgie” be constituted as sexual assault?”
My rule of thumb is if you did it to a person in Tesco or a co-worker, you’d be in court, so yeah it’s assault anyway. Sexual assault too, since it’s basically interfering with another persons junk!
Probably could be. It should be defined as such and treated as such even though we think of it as a small matter.
“Every little helps”, as they say.
Isn’t it only sexual assault if it’s sexually motivated? If I fire a gun at you but inadvertently the bullet hits your genitals, then it’s not sexual assault.
aggravated sexual assault, since some here seem to spend their time wondering how far you can sexually assault someone before you get accused of sexual assault..
What is sexually motivated? Plenty of people say paedophiles aren’t sexually motivated, that it’s all about power and control and sadism. If I grab your balls randomly how do you prove my motivation was sexual?
Agreed
Looks like they’ve moved up a level from gip on the biscuit
Jeez, I wish I had a PILE of kids to send to this prestigious school.
they’d all be well “adjusted” individuals by the time they are finished.
Jolly hockey sticks and japes.
Allegedly.
And not a Christian Brother in sight. That would of course be an ecumenical matter, Ted.
Prod me baby