Chapter 14 — John Brander

The School Manger advised the Department in the following year of the appointment of a new principal. The document noted that Mr Brander had taken up a new appointment but gave no further information. Naomh Mhuire NS, Walsh Island, Geisill, Co Offaly, July 1966 – September 1969

His next posting was at Walsh Island NS near Portarlington. Mr Brander pleaded guilty to numerous charges of indecent assault on pupils in this school. Four former pupils made statements to the Investigation Committee alleging abuse against Mr Brander.

In addition, the Investigation Committee was furnished with statements made by former pupils of Mr Brander and two of their parents in the course of the Garda investigation. The statements contained allegations of severe physical abuse of girls, and sexual and physical abuse of boys.

The pattern of physical abuse of girls that was described in letter of complaint from the boy’s mother to the Department of Education continued in Walsh Island NS. Eleven women who had been pupils of Mr Brander in this school made statements to the Gardaí. All describe violent daily punishment for failure at lessons and minor transgressions. They describe girls being punched about the head and other parts of the body, in many instances receiving injuries as a result. Many described how their parents felt helpless given Mr Brander’s standing in the community. One girl described how he would open letters of complaint at the front of the class, laugh and put them on a spike. Many recalled him openly fondling boys’ genitals at the front of the class. They described how he would sit on a high stool at the head of the class, a boy would be called to read and he was made stand between Mr Brander’s legs. Mr Brander would then put his hands in the boy’s pocket and fondle him.

Two former pupils of Walsh Island NS gave evidence before the Committee of the abuse they suffered while pupils of Mr Brander.

Mr Rothe7

Mr Rothe, a former pupil of Mr Brander’s, gave evidence that rumours of Mr Brander’s behaviour preceded his arrival in Walsh Island NS. He recalled: It was said before he arrived that he was extremely tough and it was also rumoured that he had been thrown out of St Michael’s CBS Inchicore.

Within a week of his arrival, the rumours were proved well founded. On the surface, Mr Brander was very religious, very conscientious and hardworking. However, he administered extreme physical punishment. Mr Rothe described the type of punishment Mr Brander would use: One of the punishments he had was to hit you with his knuckles on the top of the head which caused headaches ... [another was] being slapped on the hands and ending up with swollen hands ... On many days he would, before he left in the evenings at three o’ clock he would actually count the number of slaps he gave out that day. Everything revolved around physical punishment.

Mr Rothe also gave evidence of the regular sexual abuse the children suffered and said: if it wasn’t happening to me it was happening to someone else ... His MO was that he had a stool, a high stool that he used to sit on, he wouldn’t have the book so he would ask the child to come up, the child would stand, me in some instances, between his legs and he would have you reading from the book while he was holding your shoulder and masturbating against you ... It wasn’t the only place he abused ... I can remember one day a group of us around the blackboard ... and he was putting his hands inside my clothes and rubbing himself on me while other children were standing literally beside me.

He had witnessed the same thing happening to a number of other boys.

At the time he found the physical punishment more painful than the sexual abuse. Parents were happy because Mr Brander was getting great results, both academically and in sport.

Subsequently, when the witness was in secondary school, he heard that Mr Brander had been removed from the school for homosexual behaviour. He said that it was common knowledge that Mr Brander went to a psychiatric hospital for three weeks after this happened. The discovery furnished by the Director of Public Prosecutions contains a medical report from the late 1990s, which referred to Mr Brander being treated for depression in 1969.

Anja8

In the course of the Garda investigation in the late 1990s into allegations of sexual abuse in Walsh Island NS, a number of former pupils named a girl named Anja in particular as having suffered at his hands. The Gardaí then contacted her with a view to taking a statement from her.

Anja was taught by Mr Brander in her final year in primary school. She was 12 at the time. In the course of her evidence, she described a terrifying atmosphere in the classroom. She said that for failure at lessons she would receive six or seven slaps on each hand. She also described how he would strike her on the head, resulting in loss of balance. She described how her head or hands could be bruised following a beating. He was more severe in the administration of corporal punishment to girls than to boys. At the time, she felt that the boys were fortunate as she didn’t understand that they were being abused sexually. She described how the boys would stand at the front of the class, reading between Mr Brander’s legs, but she was not aware that he was fondling them.

After one particularly severe beating, her father wrote a letter of complaint to Mr Brander. The following day he slapped her again and commented: ‘Are you going to tell your daddy now were you slapped today?’ She replied that she would not.

She said that one reason why parents were reluctant to complain was that Mr Brander’s brother-in-law was a foreman or manager in a large local business where some of the fathers worked.