Foróige raises concerns with Garda over Ferry volunteering

YOUTH group Foróige has contacted gardaí after it confirmed serial child rapist Michael Ferry worked with it as a volunteer during the 1980s.

The 55-year-old was involved with the Foróige club in Derrybeg, Co Donegal, between 1984 and 1987. This club collapsed in the late 1980s and was not operating while Ferry was preying on children in the local Irish college.

Foroige said he had not been involved with the group, in any capacity, since then and it has passed all details available to it onto the Garda and the Health Service Executive.

After the collapse of the Derrybeg Foróige group, Ferry continued to get access to children in the area through his involvement with the Ardscoil Mhuire building where, in later years, the Irish college said he helped with adult education classes and repairs.

A Foróige spokeswoman also said, while Ferry had volunteered more than 24 years ago, it now had stringent vetting procedures in place to protect children from his likes.

“Foróige wishes to assure the public that child protection is a priority for our organisation. The most stringent child protection policies and procedures are currently in place. These include an application process, Garda vetting, a system of reference checks, and Foróige’s own organisational child protection guidelines and training, which are derived from and consistent with Children First [guidelines],” she said.

Ferry was jailed earlier this week for raping four boys while they were attending the Irish college at Coláiste Cholmcille. He continued to work casually at the college despite having been convicted of sexually assaulting another child in 2002.

A director of Coláiste Cholmcille, Seosamh Ó Gallachóir, told Raidio na Gaeltachta that the future of the college was in danger and he would welcome an inquiry into Ferry’s employment record and access to children.

He said the college was not aware the Ferry was a constant presence around the building of Ardscoil Mhuire after 2002 as he himself visited it regularly and did not see the child abuser.

He accepted the position of the college was difficult to believe, given that many local people witnessed Ferry on the site after his conviction in 2002.

Mr Ó Gallachóir said it tried to take every reasonable precaution to protect children from Ferry, but that he realised in hindsight that it does not appear to have been the case.