The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse has been hearing details of how a former Christian Brother was moved between three industrial schools in the 1950s and 1960s. The brother in question was known to be physically assaulting children.
The man's violence was described as 'a catalogue of mayhem'.
The commission heard details of the Christian Brother's running of St Joseph's Industrial School for Boys in Tralee, which closed in 1970.
A member of the Christian Brothers' order confirmed in evidence that one of the brothers who taught at the school was believed to have physically assaulted young boys in three industrial schools.
The brother first came to attention in 1956 at St Joseph's in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, when he reportedly pulled a clump of hair out of a boy’s head.
He later moved to Tralee in Co Kerry and then later to Glin in Co Limerick where in the early 1960s he reportedly broke a young boy's jaw during one attack.
None of the assaults were ever reported to gardaí. The Christian Brothers finally took the man out of school in 1969.
A spokesman for the Christian Brothers told the commission there was no excuse for its inaction in allowing the man to have contact with children for so long.
