Dunne left unchecked for 40 years to abuse

CRUELTY of the scale, intensity and impact revealed to the Child Abuse Commission is almost impossible to encapsulate, but one man epitomises the system that savaged the childhoods of thousands of innocents.

He is given the name John Brander in the report, gifted a pseudonym behind which to hide the appalling deeds he perpetrated on children in nine schools over 40 years, all the while protected by senior religious figures and civil authorities.

But his real name was Donal Dunne, a Christian Brother who began his teaching career in St Mary’s CBS, Dublin in the early 1940s before moving to Mullingar CBS, Co Westmeath and St Michael’s CBS and James’s Street CBS, Dublin, leaving a trail of abuse behind him.