Sexual abuse in Carmelite College Moate: ‘We knew something wasn’t right’
Former pupils allege regular sexual abuse by priest and decorated GAA coach Fr Michael Cremin
As a football coach, Fr Michael Cremin brought glory to the small Co Westmeath town of Moate, guiding the Carmelite College school team to three All-Ireland GAA titles in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Originally from Co Cork, the priest taught maths in the boys boarding school and coached the football team, as well as later becoming principal.
Now amid ongoing revelations of past abuse in schools, multiple former Moate students who spoke to The Irish Times allege suffering or witnessing sexual abuse by Fr Cremin, who died in 2019.
the man claimed he was sexually assaulted during classes, where the priest would sit beside students and grope them. “Everybody else put the head down so they’d avoid the attention. I still haven’t forgotten it,” he said.
The former student reported witnessing the priest allegedly sexually abusing classmates during lessons, something echoed by several other past pupils.
“He was abusing them in front of us. This was regular, happening for years,” the man said. “This was going on in front of everybody. If he was doing this openly, what was he doing in the dorms?” he asked.
Another student who was taught by Fr Cremin in the early 1980s claimed he witnessed the priest “molest people” during classes.
“He would slip into the desk beside a pupil. He’d put his arms around them, kiss them on the cheek, tell them he loved them, run his hands up their shirt. He would put his hand down the back of their trousers. It was striking and weird. It just became part of every day,” he said.
James Flanagan, a former barrister who was in the school from the late 1970s, said he recalled witnessing Fr Cremin grope a student openly in the corridor.
“This kid was up against the radiator and Fr Cremin was leaning up against him, feeling up inside his jumper,” he said. The priest’s inappropriate touching of students was a “known thing” in the school, he said.
Another former student confirmed he also witnessed inappropriate behaviour from the priest, which included him kissing or touching pupils during class, under the guise of joking around.
A number of past pupils stated the priest would commonly grope students during maths classes in the school’s study hall.
Several recalled a common modus operandi, where the priest would squeeze into a desk beside a student or lean over it, while touching the pupil.
The Carmelite order, who also run Terenure College in Dublin, said 41 allegations of child sexual abuse had been reported against 12 priests who had worked in its schools.
https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2023/...snt-right/
Former pupils allege regular sexual abuse by priest and decorated GAA coach Fr Michael Cremin
As a football coach, Fr Michael Cremin brought glory to the small Co Westmeath town of Moate, guiding the Carmelite College school team to three All-Ireland GAA titles in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Originally from Co Cork, the priest taught maths in the boys boarding school and coached the football team, as well as later becoming principal.
Now amid ongoing revelations of past abuse in schools, multiple former Moate students who spoke to The Irish Times allege suffering or witnessing sexual abuse by Fr Cremin, who died in 2019.
the man claimed he was sexually assaulted during classes, where the priest would sit beside students and grope them. “Everybody else put the head down so they’d avoid the attention. I still haven’t forgotten it,” he said.
The former student reported witnessing the priest allegedly sexually abusing classmates during lessons, something echoed by several other past pupils.
“He was abusing them in front of us. This was regular, happening for years,” the man said. “This was going on in front of everybody. If he was doing this openly, what was he doing in the dorms?” he asked.
Another student who was taught by Fr Cremin in the early 1980s claimed he witnessed the priest “molest people” during classes.
“He would slip into the desk beside a pupil. He’d put his arms around them, kiss them on the cheek, tell them he loved them, run his hands up their shirt. He would put his hand down the back of their trousers. It was striking and weird. It just became part of every day,” he said.
James Flanagan, a former barrister who was in the school from the late 1970s, said he recalled witnessing Fr Cremin grope a student openly in the corridor.
“This kid was up against the radiator and Fr Cremin was leaning up against him, feeling up inside his jumper,” he said. The priest’s inappropriate touching of students was a “known thing” in the school, he said.
Another former student confirmed he also witnessed inappropriate behaviour from the priest, which included him kissing or touching pupils during class, under the guise of joking around.
A number of past pupils stated the priest would commonly grope students during maths classes in the school’s study hall.
Several recalled a common modus operandi, where the priest would squeeze into a desk beside a student or lean over it, while touching the pupil.
The Carmelite order, who also run Terenure College in Dublin, said 41 allegations of child sexual abuse had been reported against 12 priests who had worked in its schools.
https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2023/...snt-right/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
