62 entries for Mr John Brander

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.

Rumours were circulating in the locality that Mr Brander was molesting boys and being cruel to girls in his class. The mothers of two pupils approached the parish priest, Fr Colm,9 in an effort to have the parents’ concerns addressed. In their Garda statements, both said that he took a note of what they had said and indicated that he would look into the matter.

One mother stated that she learned about a week later that Mr Brander was to be transferred. The other mother stated that Fr Colm visited her and advised her that Mr Brander was suspended. Both stated that Fr Derek, the local curate, was annoyed at the manner in which the matter was handled, and said that he would have handled it quietly had they approached him. Around this time, both women were contacted by the Gardaí but neither wanted their children to make statements.

In the course of the Garda investigation in the mid-1990s, Fr Derek was interviewed. He said that no parent approached him about Mr Brander’s conduct, and the memorandum of that interview continued: The first he knew about problems in Walsh Island NS was when Fr. [Colm] told him that he was going to the school to get Mr [Brander] to resign due to ill treatment of a boy. He, Fr. [Colm], had a document prepared for Mr [Brander] to sign. Mr. [Brander] was gone from the school overnight. Nobody in Walsh Island NS wanted to talk about the situation. I.N.T.O.11 came down to see Fr [Colm] ...

Despite the circumstances of his removal, Fr Colm, the parish priest and School Manager, furnished Mr Brander with a glowing reference: Mr [Brander] B.A. H. Dip in Ed. has been Principal Teacher in a four teacher school in this parish for the past three years. I would find it impossible to speak or write too highly of Mr [Brander’s] complete dedication to his professional duties. To visit his classes was a refreshing experience and his splendid qualities of head and heart were reflected in pupils, parents and the people of the community. His attention to even the tiniest detail was indicative of his love for and devotion to his work ... [He] engaged in extra curricular activities of inestimable value to the pupils, the youth, and the parish in general. Mr. [Brander] at his own request and greatly to my personal regret leaves to devote his wonderful gifts to the Secondary branch of Education. He brings with him my gratitude for his wonderful service to the pupils and ... the parish, my best wishes for his continued success in the higher branch of education ...

Following his removal from Walsh Island NS and armed with his reference, Mr Brander took up his first secondary teaching position in Castlecomer.

Sr Giuliana in evidence described how, with the introduction of free education in the late 1960s, gradually more boys enrolled in the school. Mr Brander was employed by her predecessor, Sr Donata.15 She was not aware whether he furnished a reference for the position.

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.

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’.

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.

Mr Stegar and Mr Gadd spoke to a number of students in an upstairs classroom. The general response of the students was that it was very much common knowledge that Mr Brander had been really out of control in this area for quite some time and that nearly every pupil in the school knew that. Mr Gadd stated: we certainly were left with the impression that he certainly had been abusing students, that the allegation which this student’s parent was making certainly was probably true. Five boys named Mr Brander as having molested them. Mr Gadd then suggested that they contact a local barrister.