John McClean abused 23 boys while a teacher at Terenure College. He was appointed to head up UCD’s rugby academy

Via Gavin Cummiskey in the Irish Times (full article at link below):

…Everyone in south Dublin rugby circles knew McClean.

If this reporter heard the rumours about him when I was still a teenager in the late 1990s, can the decision makers back then honestly say the same whispers failed to reach their ears? If the answer is ‘we heard nothing’ then there is a far deeper problem than we already perceive it to be.

…Despite decades of sexual assault, John McClean wielded enormous power as UCD director of rugby. Terenure College and UCD must explain how he was able to skip from one rugby institution to another unchecked.

In the summer of ‘96 McClean the coach toured Australia with the Ireland schoolboys, some of whom have since become central figures in the professional game, before taking up his new job on the Belfield campus.

….If he had already admitted to abusing one boy – as court records show – then Terenure would have warned the IRFU and UCD before he ascended to one of the most influential positions in Irish rugby, right?

….His victims, one of whom described him as “evil personified,” and the public deserve to know precisely what happened between the summer of 1996 and the beginning of that first UCD term in the autumn of 1997. If for nothing else than to ensure that history does not repeat itself…

The Offload: John McClean questions can no longer be silenced (Gavin Cummiskey, The Irish Times)

Earlier: Blocking A Victim

RollingNews

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15 thoughts on “Who Knew?

  1. SB

    “If he had already admitted to abusing one boy – as court records show – then Terenure would have warned the IRFU and UCD before he ascended to one of the most influential positions in Irish rugby, right?”

    I wonder if, on the contrary, Terenure College provided him with a glowing reference, even after asking him to leave because of the allegations.

  2. Shitferbrains

    Why did 18 year olds, 6 ‘ plus and 12 – 14 stone not deal with this ? Young ones I can understand being totally intimidated.

      1. Marguerite Tronçonneuse

        That’s the least of it. Threats about grades, threats about reporting bad behaviour, threats to “expose” the student as a deviant when homosexuality was still illegal. Rape isn’t just about violence, it’s about power and control. McClean had it, the students didn’t.

  3. johnny

    …you can trace the start of the vile campaign to vilify,question and besmirch the mental health of the investigative journalist who was working on this story,to when she started ‘asking questions in leinster circles.
    -many of the trolls including one persistent bond trader/office boy on here were leinster/rock sct wannbe’s,hanging around players,going to away games,watching training-like get a life!
    -anyway,most the campaign to ruin this investigative journalists reputation and yeah life was coordinated ,organized,led,suppported and cheered on by these D4 hacks and gravy boys-rich and thick rugby groupies….circle the wagons lads.
    while McClean stayed free and justice was denied,but,but,but about Gemma again,who under this relenting,violent assault would not crack up…

  4. Marguerite Tronçonneuse

    This is the same as Slinker Collins in Peter’s College, Wexford. Everyone knew since 1966 but he got away with it for another 35 years because he was important and connected.

    1. eamonn

      Was just thinking about that stain. How come nobody took his slimy head off his shoulders I don’t know.
      Vile,Vile man, as you know probably he wasn’t the only paedophile to hide behind a cleric’s collar in St Peter’s College, Wexford.

      1. Daisy Chainsaw

        The place was rotten with them, just across the road from Comiskey’s gaff, down the road from Jim Doyle in Clonard, who was very friendly with my family (bullet dodged there!)… and the rest around the county who got away with it while Herlihy and Comiskey either willfully ignored it or covered it up.

        They got away with it because they were priests and teachers, highly thought of and highly influential. If you were to accuse one of them of abusing your child, first of all you’d be labelled a bad parent, your child labelled “troubled” and you’d be the one to be made look bad, not god’s chosen princes of the church.

          1. benblack

            Individuals protected other individuals.

            People who desire power seek powerful positions.

            Back then, that power, was the CC.

            The CC has lost its societal power, so now the sociopaths etc. seek positions in the new power structure.

            Very simple.

          2. eamonn

            True indeed, however, there were an awful lot of like “minded” individuals informing the culture of that particular institution, all the way to their HQ in the Vatican, not to worry about what went on in Herlihy or Comiskey’s Palace. A fine institution, just had more than its fair share of predatory types….. the old omerta is great too !

  5. Truth.

    Weakliam,Graham,o/Donovan,Madden,all Carmelites.Kelly took notes of admission of abuse by McClean.
    Hundreds of students,now past pupils.

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