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Former Ireland star Brian O’Driscoll is ‘shocked and appalled’ by the crimes of former rugby coach John McClean, who was jailed last week for sexually abusing students at Terenure College.
McClean (76) abused 23 students between 1973 and 1990 while working for the school.
O’Driscoll had cited McClean as a major influence on his rugby career in the past and recalls speaking “gleefully” of the former coach before learning of his crimes. Now he considers McClean a “total fraud”.
“He was influential in the early years, he was the first person to move me from the middle to the center,” O’Driscoll told Off the Ball.
“A bit like everyone else over the course of the last ten days, in particular as the levels of abuse have come to light, I have been as shocked and dismayed as everyone else how he managed to get away with it. yours for so long, it must have impacted those little kids, 12 years old, it’s actually unthinkable as a parent to think about that.
“Since [the victims’] From the point of view, I would commend them for their incredible bravery in staying the course with this and finally getting some justice. Although, I don’t know what justice there is in carrying that kind of luggage with you for 30 or 40 years. But it really surprised me.
“From my own point of view, what has bothered me is knowing that every time I could have spoken about him in a positive way, what he must have done to those poor victims, how he must have impacted them. It has been like a knife in the stomach for them, hearing someone talk so happily about someone who had such a negative impact on their lives. “
McClean left Terenure College in 1996 after certain allegations were made and took on a rugby coach role with UCD.
Inspector Jason Miley told the Dublin Circuit Court that in 1996 the father of one of the victims informed Father Robert Kelly, then Provincial of the Carmelite Order in Ireland, about the accusation his son had made against McClean.
He said Father Kelly had several meetings during the summer break with McClean during which it became clear that McClean would not be returning to Terenure College.
McClean was granted a three-year career break and became a rugby coach at UCD.
“It is completely unacceptable,” O’Driscoll added.
“It’s a shame that someone like him can be protected when moving between positions.
Have we learned nothing from the past? Things that are swept under the rug, pretending they never happened.
“It’s totally unacceptable and it can’t ever happen again. This is what these predators do: attack the vulnerable again, identify who they are. It’s something that just shouldn’t and can’t happen.”
O’Driscoll recalled McClean as a ‘quiet’ and ‘loner’ and said he did not know ‘the person behind the mask’.
He added: “There is no way you are not talking teenagers about those kinds of rumors, there is no way you are going on summer tours if you have any concerns.
“It was an absolute shock. I had him as a quiet and lonely person, but I guess you don’t always know the person behind the mask.”
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