John McClean, the serial paedophile, was sitting in a small cubicle in the Midlands Prison on Tuesday. Already serving a ten-and-a-half-year sentence for abusing 45 children, the former Terenure College rugby coach, teacher, and criminal, had now pleaded guilty to abusing four more boys. 

McClean appeared by video link. He glanced up occasionally and kept his head down. 

He looked the same as when he had previously been exposed as one of the most prolific child abusers in Irish history; this was a man who was, sadly, free to abuse children from 1973 until the mid-1990s. 

There was a scar on his bald head where a fellow prisoner branded him with a scalding hot cup of tea. This was the only thing that had changed about McClean since he was first convicted as a paedophile in 2021.

McClean appeared virtually in the Criminal Courts of Justice to hear the victim impact statements of four former schoolboys he was trusted to take care of. 

None of the four knew each other. Each had attended Terenure College in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. 

Two of the victim statements of former Terenure pupils were handed in to Judge Martin Nolan. A third, which was read out in court, described McClean as a “very nasty piece of work” as well as explaining how the abuse had impacted his life. 

A fourth statement was read to McClean in person by his former student. 

Accompanied by his partner and child, the man said: “As I stand here in court, I feel a sense of relief. I think of failed relationships, anger with myself and an incomplete education. I was given every opportunity to blossom and be the best I could be. But how could I, a very young man, robbed of my self-worth by a respected representative of the very institution that should have protected me. I’ve struggled to move on as a man of 47 years, but with the love of my family, I began to find peace in myself. My future is now bright, and I can begin to move on in the knowledge that justice has indeed been served.”

The man, the court heard, was abused in 1990. He was a 12-year-old. He was in first year.  

He was sent to stand outside the door of the classroom for a minor misdemeanour when McClean, his form master, swooped in and took him to his office to abuse him. 

He did so repeatedly, just as he did with so many others. 

I was in first year at the time. The abuse took place about thirty metres away from the 150 first-year children in the school’s care and the dozens of adults tasked with protecting us all.

Silence

I spoke to the survivor afterwards, and he said speaking to McClean in a criminal court, telling him the impact of his actions, was important. 

“It was a very scary thing to do, and there is no shame in not turning up, but I thought for me it was a way of closing it off,” he said. 

McClean was the subject of credible complaints of sexual abuse in Terenure College from the 1970s, but he was never sacked. 

The Criminal Courts have previously heard how he was the subject of another serious complaint of sexual abuse in 1996, which was known to some in Terenure College, but hushed up. 

McClean was allowed to lead an international schoolboys rugby trip to Australia before taking up a prestigious job as a rugby coach in UCD, as if nothing had happened. There the matter might have laid, if a group of brave former pupils had not decided to speak out. 

It was those brave individuals who exposed McClean, not the adults or the priests who were responsible for protecting children from a man who was allowed to become one of Ireland’s most prolific paedophiles.

My former schoolmate said that he did not wish to blame anyone specifically in Terenure for not doing anything. He said it was possible some teachers stayed silent about their suspicions in order to protect their jobs and reputations. 

He said that after The Village Magazine published an article in 2017 outlining serious allegations of sexual abuse against John McClean, he’d seen a group of his former teachers meeting up in a local pub. 

Seeing the group of older teachers together drinking made him think back to his abuse. He wondered if they were discussing the article and thought it seemed impossible it did not come up.  

“It was the day the news broke, and there was a group of them retired or nearly retired meeting up together,” he recalled. 

“I’m not putting guilt on any individual, but I am saying someone has to have known something at the time.” He said he also expected there were many more children abused than had so far emerged.

“Is this the end of this shameful saga?” the man asked. “How many more have still to come forward? We should also never forget the men who killed themselves. They were abused. They were failed, and were pushed under the carpet, but they should not be forgotten.” 

It was over

My former school friend contacted the gardaí in 2023 about his abuse. 

McClean had just been convicted for sexually abusing 23 boys, on top of the first group of 22 children he was convicted of abusing in 2021. 

He said it wasn’t easy to tell his story, but he had been encouraged by the bravery of others and the professionalism of the gardaí in listening to him and others.“The guards in Terenure should be praised for their efforts,” he said. 

He named Detective Peter Lyons, Sergeant Brian O’Loughlin and Detective Sergeant Charlie Dempsey among a team of gardaí who had treated people with respect, compassion and professionalism. 

“I couldn’t fault the gardaí at any step along the way,” he said, adding that the Carmelites who own Terenure College and who ran the school when he was there had not been in contact. “They should have a duty of care to get in touch, but perhaps they are too afraid of admitting what they knew.” 

He said that after he was abused in first year, he had avoided McClean. He decided never to play rugby and stayed away from him. “I flourished then, but I hid away from the rugby end of things.”

The man recalled being hit by priests in the junior school of Terenure College, and a ruler being broken on his hand. I remember that happening, and some of the priests who did that later went on to senior positions in the school where they were responsible for protecting children. Corporal punishment was legal at the time, but has since been outlawed. “It was not the same as McClean, but hitting children is a form of abuse,” the former Terenure College pupil said.

The man said that after the screen had turned off, and McClean was returned to his prison cell, he felt a sense of relief. His barristers thanked him, and he thanked the gardaí. He walked out into the sunshine of Parkgate Street with his partner, holding his child’s hand. It was over.

Further reading

Tom Lyons: A ring of silence that allowed a ring of abuse to go unchecked