Student was told to ‘keep his mouth shut’ by alleged abuser

A BOARDING school pupil said he was told to “keep his mouth shut” by an alleged abuser who was ordered to step down after regularly drinking with pupils late at night in his room.

The Murphy Commission heard of the claim in the single case against Fr Baird, who was working in a Cloyne diocese secondary school college in the 1990s.

Fr Baird, who was born in 1960 and passed away in 2004, regularly drank with mixed groups of teenagers aged between 15 and 18 in his room late at night on the boarding school’s campus.