Chapter 14 — John Brander

Physical abuse

Mr Brander was regarded as an excellent teacher, the students in his classes got good results. In fact, a lot of pupils were anxious to get into his class. He was well respected by the other staff and by the members of the Congregation. He was very charming and came across as a genuinely nice person. He also cultivated his status in the wider community.

However, he had extraordinary methods of discipline and often assaulted children. He was particularly harsh with girls to whom he gave excessive and unusual punishments..

Mr Gadd said that he gradually became angry at Mr Brander’s behaviour: What I recollect most clearly about that is that his attitude towards girls in the School left much to be desired and one heard stories that he was prone to give physical beatings to the girls, that he was prone to beat girls about the face ... I came into a classroom one day and I found that he had a senior student on her knees at the front of the class. I am not sure if he hit her though about the face, I think that he possibly had.

He added, ‘he certainly... mistreated girls in the School’. He described how his hostility towards Mr Brander grew as he became aware of his use of force and beatings against students, male and female.

In his statement to the Investigation Committee Mr Stegar stated that Mr Brander ‘believed in the power of the fist for boys and girls’. In evidence he further described how, if a girl misbehaved in the classroom, Mr Brander would make her kneel outside the classroom for the duration of the class. When Mr Stegar raised the inappropriateness of this punishment with him, he was told to mind his own business.

Physical assaults were committed openly and in public settings. Sr Giuliana gave evidence that: well it was mostly at the games as far as I can recollect. I do know a few instances, well, now I can keep two in mind, where a couple of boys got black eyes because he was strict with them on the games field.

On the second occasion that she heard he had given a child a black eye, she decided to ‘bring it to his attention’ and registered her displeasure. She took no further action. The parents of the children concerned do not appear to have complained and she did not contact them to advise them of what had transpired.

Mr Stegar described one of these assaults which occurred at the sports day and involved a tug of war. One of the boys challenged Mr Brander about favouring the other side. In response, Mr Brander punched him to the ground. This occurred in front of other teachers and pupils, including some primary school classes. The religious and lay teachers present ushered their pupils out of the field following the assault. Two days later, Mr Brander gave the boy concerned a medal for bravery as his parents had not complained. Mr Gadd also recalled the event and said that he was particularly incensed by it.

Mr Stegar described another occasion when Mr Brander struck a referee during a match. On yet another occasion, Mr Stegar said that he had to stand between Mr Brander and a boy to prevent Mr Brander striking him.

Mr Gadd said that Mr Brander instilled a ‘mini reign of fear’. Some people he spoke to in recent years told him they used to be in dread of going to school.

In a statement to the Commission, Mr Stegar said that parents would come to the School to complain about the assaults. However, Sr Giuliana, in a Garda statement made in the mid-1990s, said that while she was principal of the School, ‘no allegations of any nature were made against Mr. Brander’.

When Mr Stegar’s evidence was put to her, she qualified her own statement to a certain extent when she said that she could not recollect parents coming to her, but conceded that it might have happened. She said, ‘parents might have said he was very strict but I can’t recall them making any complaints specifically to me’. She further said that if parents had complained, she would not have recorded the fact

Sexual abuse

A complaint by a father, that his son was being sexually molested by Mr Brander gave rise to an investigation by Mr Stegar and Mr Gadd, which resulted in his departure to take up a teaching position in another school. There was divergence between the evidence of the teachers and Sr Giuliana, the former Principal of the School as to the latter’s knowledge of the allegations against Mr Brander but the basic facts were not in dispute.

Mr Stegar said that the boy’s father called to his house one night and advised him that two days previously his son had been molested by Mr Brander. The child had returned from school in an extremely distressed condition, and had given his father the names of three other boys who had similarly been abused. The father made it clear that he wanted Mr Brander removed from the School and from the town. He wanted Mr Stegar to deal with the matter and did not want to make a complaint to the Gardaí.

That evening, Mr Stegar and Mr Gadd devised a series of questions to put to the three boys concerned: (a)did they understand the meaning of the word ‘molested’? (b)were they ever molested? (c)was it a member of staff? (d)would they name the person? (e)did they know of any other boys in the school who had been molested?