{"id":566662,"date":"2026-07-24T22:32:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T22:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/566662\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T22:32:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T22:32:19","slug":"he-smelled-of-chalk-and-sweat-pattern-of-school-to-school-abuse-uncovered-in-garda-search-of-pupil-rolls-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/566662\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He smelled of chalk and sweat\u2019: Pattern of school-to-school abuse uncovered in Garda search of pupil rolls \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

One victim described him as \u201cprobably one of the worst abusers Ireland has ever seen\u201d.<\/p>\n

Liam Coughlan, the former Christian Brother<\/a>, is likely to die in jail after being sentenced to five years on Friday<\/a> for the sexual abuse of pupils at the CBS primary school on Patrick Street in Portarlington, Co Offaly<\/a> in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

Coughlan, who pleaded not guilty to the Portarlington charges, watched his trial in the Circuit Criminal Court<\/a> in Portlaoise by video-link from prison.<\/p>\n

He is serving time for multiple sexual assaults on pupils at a different school in a different part of the country in a different decade: the CBS primary school on Stephen\u2019s Street in Kilkenny<\/a> for abuse he perpetrated in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

The pattern of Coughlan\u2019s abuse is not unusual. The nature of teaching in networks of schools run by religious orders meant abusers moved around and the abuse inevitably spread as they left victims in their wake with their relocation to new roles in new schools.<\/p>\n

\"LiamLiam Coughlan. Photograph: Michael Chester <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Former Christian Brother convicted of sexual abuse of boys in Offaly school in 1980sOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Before teaching in Kilkenny, Coughlan was principal of a CBS primary school in Youghal, Co Cork<\/a>, from 1971 to 1974. He was a teacher in Kilkenny from 1974 to 1979, a teacher in Carlow<\/a> from 1979 to 1981 and principal of the Portarlington school from 1981 to 1992. He joined the Christian Brothers when he was 16.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would call pupils to the top of the class,\u201d says one man who was abused in the Kilkenny school. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou would be put on his lap. That is where the abuse took place.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was an everyday occurrence, the man says, echoing the testimony of the former Portarlington pupils.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have the memory that he smelled of chalk and sweat,\u201d one of the Portarlington pupils, now in his 50s, told Coughlan\u2019s trial.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe site of the former CBS primary school on Patrick\u2019s Street, Portarlington, Co Offaly where Liam Coughlan taught. Photograph: Colm Keena\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

\u201cBr Coughlan had a nickname: the kiddie fiddler,\u201d says another. \u201cThis was common knowledge throughout the school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coughlan was convicted in 2023<\/a> of multiple incidents of sexual assault at the Kilkenny school. Publicity from that case prompted former pupils in Portarlington to come forward, leading to him being found guilty earlier this month for his crimes there.<\/p>\n

Victims from both schools have spoken of the enormous effect of the assaults, and of the suffering they and their families have endured in the decades since.<\/p>\n

In the mid-1970s, when he was 10-years-old, the former pupil from Kilkenny says he revealed he was being abused by Coughlan after he was called to the office of the then principal, Br Sean Murphy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t the only one. I\u2019d say maybe five, six of us were brought down, individually, within the hour,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

The former pupil does not know what led to the boys being called to Murphy\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Murphy] asked if there was anything happening to me in the classroom and I, through fear and wanting to tell the truth, told him exactly what was happening to me, and to others,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he wrote it down, in front of me. I\u2019ll never forget it. My feet were barely able to hit the floor from the chair I was sitting on.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the interview, Murphy said: \u201cNow \u2013 don\u2019t tell your mammy and daddy. You are a good boy. Go back to your class and I will deal with this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd from that day onwards, I was never touched,\u201d the former pupil says. <\/p>\n

But Coughlan continued to teach in the Kilkenny school for another two years, before being moved to Carlow and then to the school in Portarlington.<\/p>\n

For decades, the former Kilkenny pupil told nobody what had happened to him. <\/p>\n

Then, out of the blue, he received a call from a garda<\/a> investigating allegations of child sex abuse in the Kilkenny school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was during Covid times. I was at work and I nearly fell off the ladder I was on. I had never told anyone \u2013 not a single soul in the whole world ever knew,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"AA former Portarlington student who was sexually abused at the age of 10 by Liam Coughlan. Photograph: Alan Betson <\/p>\n

The garda said he was making inquiries of former pupils about their time in the school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very nervous conversation. He asked if I would make a statement. Maybe through shame, or fear, I thought, I may as well tell,\u201d says the former student.<\/p>\n

Eventually the man and five other complainants, most of them from the same class, gave evidence in court of being abused. <\/p>\n

Coughlan was found guilty of multiple sexual assaults on 24 former pupils of the Kilkenny school. He contested a first set of charges but pleaded guilty to a second, in two trials in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe pleaded guilty [in the second trial], the bastard, after putting us through hell in the court,\u201d says the former pupil, a witness in the first trial, where Coughlan pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n

The jury in the Portarlington case were not told Coughlan was in prison having been found guilty of identical offences when in the Kilkenny school in case it would prejudice them. <\/p>\n

They took less than an hour to find him guilty on all charges<\/a> at the Circuit Criminal Court in Portlaoise earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Det Elaine Conlon, who led the Portarlington investigation, told Judge Keenan Johnson, in the absence of the jury, that Coughlan told the garda\u00ed the complainants were \u201call liars\u201d when interviewed as part of the inquiry.<\/p>\n

Other former pupils she approached as part of the investigation, she said, did not want to make statements, saying they had \u201cput all that behind them\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Kilkenny inquiry, conducted by the local divisional protection services unit, began with a complaint about another former teacher, Br Martin O\u2019Flaherty.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Flaherty (74) taught at the Kilkenny school from 1976 to 1981. He was found guilty of multiple counts of sexual assault on 29 former pupils in a series of trials between 2022 and 2025, all arising from the Kilkenny inquiry.<\/p>\n

He is now in jail.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Court to hear breakthrough case that may fast-track Christian Brothers sex abuse claimsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The inquiry into Coughlan began when one of the men interviewed about O\u2019Flaherty mentioned Coughlan.<\/p>\n

The Garda team then discovered there had been an investigation into allegations against Coughlan in the late 1990s, but that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had directed that no charges be brought.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t as easy back then [to track people down],\u201d says a member of the Kilkenny investigative team. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I suppose maybe the attitude in the DPP\u2019s office was different, about going ahead with cases like this, indecent assaults on children in school.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new investigation obtained books of old school rolls, drew up spreadsheets of pupils in different classes during the years the abuse took place and then set about trying to locate the former students and get them to fill in questionnaires.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tracked down witnesses all over the world,\u201d says the garda. \u201cWe had social media. So it was a bit easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

People, who declined to make statements during the 1990s were now willing to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had a little more life experience when we were dealing with them,\u201d the garda says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe attempted to approach every single person who was in the school, whether pupils or teacher,\u201d the garda adds. <\/p>\n

The operation involved about 900 questionnaires being completed.<\/p>\n

In addition to complaints against Coughlan and O\u2019Flaherty, the investigation learned of two other alleged abusers at the school, one a brother and the other a lay teacher, according to a number of sources.<\/p>\n

No charges were brought against these men as both were deceased. One was Murphy, the principal who called boys to his office in the mid-1970s and quizzed them about Coughlan.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that makes sense as to why it was never followed up,\u201d says the former pupil who was called to Murphy\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me it was a paedophile ring. It was organised like a sweet shop \u2013 just go and pick what you want,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Victims in both schools say the sexual abuse occurred against a backdrop of a general culture of violence, bullying and humiliation. Both trials heard of how children at the time tended not to tell parents what was happening to them at school.<\/p>\n

A woman whose son attended the Portarlington school says she sent her boy to a clinical psychologist when he started to disimprove after entering sixth class where Coughlan was the teacher.<\/p>\n

The boy was referred to a psychologist at Moore Abbey, a medical clinic at the time in nearby Monasterevin, Co Kildare, who eventually disclosed that her son was being abused by Coughlan.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The psychologist] said the Christian Brothers were a law unto themselves, and that it was difficult to deal with them,\u201d says the woman, who does not want to be named as she does not want to identify her son.<\/p>\n

In lots of cases the family does know, but it is not spoken about. There is a hangover of shame attached to the whole thing<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Mother of abuse victim<\/p>\n

The mother says the psychologist contacted three government departments \u2013 education, justice and health \u2013 in an effort to have something done about Coughlan. <\/p>\n

She cannot remember whether if the Garda was contacted and says she herself did not directly raise the issue of sexual abuse with Coughlan.<\/p>\n

Instead the psychologist gave her a form for Coughlan to fill in as part of the care being given to her son.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe wanted me to let him know that Moore Abbey knew, that it was official,\u201d says the mother of the psychologist\u2019s intentions.<\/p>\n

Soon afterwards, she says, it was announced that Coughlan was leaving the Christian Brothers. He married a local music teacher who gave private lessons to children.<\/p>\n

\"'This‘This has had a long-term effect on my marriage and on my relationship with my children throughout the years’, says one of the Portarlington victims of Coughlan. Photograph: Alan Betson <\/p>\n

The couple moved to Tramore, Co Waterford, where Coughlan was living until 2023 when he was jailed for his offences.<\/p>\n

One of the features of what happened in Portarlington is how people chose not to talk about it at the time, says the mother who sent her child to see a psychiatrist.<\/p>\n

People talk about it now, she says, \u201cbut it\u2019s peculiar\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cCertain ones will come up to me and say they knew about [her son]. But not as much as you might expect,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The mother of one of the former Portarlington pupils, she says, \u201cis racked with guilt, because she never noticed. <\/p>\n

\u201c[The son] never felt he could tell her. In lots of cases the family does know, but it is not spoken about. There is a hangover of shame attached to the whole thing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The former pupil of the Kilkenny school also mentions the shame felt by victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never told my mother or my father. The shame I feel for not having told my father, because if I had told him, he would have gone up there and he would have knocked [Coughlan] into another planet,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I have this horrendous guilty feeling that, because I didn\u2019t open my mouth and tell my father, that all those [other instances of abuse] were not prevented. I can\u2019t get that out of my head.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then I have this huge anger, this massive anger, that they knew in the CBS in Kilkenny, the principal knew, and he did nothing, and he left [Coughlan] there, for two more years, to abuse more, and then, irony of ironies, they made him principal [of Portarlington]. And he goes to town on those poor lads.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Former Christian Brother\u2019s 1970 abuse confession letter concealed for decades, D\u00e1il hearsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The crimes for which Coughlan was found guilty involved improper touching, including on their genitals, though there were also assaults that involved masturbation and forcing boys to touch his penis.<\/p>\n

However, a civil legal action before the High Court involves a claim from a man who says he was raped by Coughlan while at the Kilkenny school. A second former pupil at the school also claims to have been raped by Coughlan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has had a long-term effect on my marriage and on my relationship with my children throughout the years,\u201d one of the Portarlington victims told the sentencing hearing. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a secret I carried and \u2013 let me tell you \u2013 that secret was heavy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody has ever said sorry,\u201d says the former Kilkenny pupil. \u201cNo one is saying this is what happened, and it should not have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One victim described him as \u201cprobably one of the worst abusers Ireland has ever seen\u201d. Liam Coughlan, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[45,16665,14234,46,51250,1346,42,12969,43,8286,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-566662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-carlow","tag-christian-brothers","tag-cork","tag-criminal-courts","tag-garda-siochana","tag-headlines","tag-kilkenny","tag-news","tag-offaly","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}