Four appointed to schools-abuse probe body
Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring and solicitor Roddy Bourke are among four commissioners appointed to the Commission of Investigation into the Handling of Historical Child Sexual Abuse in Schools.
The four will join Mr Justice Michael MacGrath, who was appointed as chair last year, in leading the commission’s work.
The commission was set up after a recommendation by the Scoping Inquiry into Historical Sexual Abuse in Day and Boarding Schools run by religious orders.
Ms Justice Ring was appointed a judge of the Circuit Court in 2012 and a judge of the High Court, where she served for over ten years, in 2015. She chaired the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission from 2015 to 2021.
Tribunals experience
Bourke was a was partner in McCann FitzGerald LLP from 1992 to 2024, specialising in complex litigation and investigations.
He has extensive experience acting in tribunals and commissions of investigation and is a former member and chair of the Law Society’s Litigation, Alternative Dispute Resolution, and Law Reform Committees.
The Minister for Education and Youth Hildegarde Naughton also appointed child-safeguarding consultant Kieran McGrath and Michele Clarke (adjunct professor at the School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin) to the commission.
Sample cases
The scoping inquiry was set up in response to revelations of allegations of historical sexual abuse in schools run by religious orders, following the broadcast of an RTÉ Documentary on One programme, Blackrock Boys.
The commission will carry out a formal legal investigation of sample cases or instances of the handling of allegations, complaints, or concerns of child sexual abuse in schools.
The second element of its work is a survivor-engagement programme, which will provide an opportunity for those who experienced historical child sexual abuse in schools to give their account in a non-adversarial, informal, and anonymised process.
"This Government is committed to ensuring that the truth of what happened is fully examined and that those who were failed as children are finally heard,” Minister Naughton said.