Damning report could pose question of survival for St John Ambulance

From priests to teachers, sports coaches, scout leaders and other volunteers, predators using trusted positions of power in institutions and organisations to abuse children in decades past is a well-worn, tragic story.

The greater scandal for organisations where abusers gain access to children is always in the knowing and failure to act, often in a misplaced attempt to protect the institution.

In St John Ambulance, a scathing report by Dr Geoffrey Shannon has found the first-aid organisation for years failed to intervene, despite knowledge that children were at risk from a senior figure in its Old Kilmainham division in Dublin.

The man is now accused of sexually abusing more than 15 boys in the organisation between the late 1960s and late 1990s.

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In shying away from confronting suspicions or acting on concerns at the time, due to a misguided effort to avoid controversy, the result is a reckoning delayed rather than prevented.

More concerning for parents with children in the organisation today will be the criticism from Dr Shannon of current standards, on foot of a review of contemporary child-protection cases and incidents.

In the months after it was commissioned in early 2021, the leadership of St John Ambulance privately appeared confident the report would largely vindicate the organisation.

The details of Dr Shannon’s year-and-a-half independent inquiry will have come as a shock.

Its findings of failings both past and present create a controversy that, if handled poorly, could pose a threat to the survival of the century-old organisation as it currently exists in Ireland.

The voluntary organisation will find little sympathy in the Oireachtas as it grapples with the fallout

In recent years Scouting Ireland faced a major historical child sex abuse scandal, which the youth organisation weathered and came through as a safer place for children today.

Amid the controversy the organisation’s entire board stepped down and it pushed through a range of governance and child-protection reforms.

On several occasions Scouting Ireland apologised to those it had failed to keep safe, as past abuse revelations first emerged and again following findings that the crimes had been covered up.

The apology issued to survivors by St John Ambulance on Thursday comes more than two years after the historical abuse was first revealed publicly in reports by The Irish Times.

Its board does not plan to step down, but some long-serving members will retire to be replaced by the end of this year, which is some way off a clean slate at the top of the organisation.

The level of compassion it shows in dealing with legal claims for compensation from survivors will speak more loudly than words of apology and promises of reform.

The voluntary organisation will find little sympathy in the Oireachtas as it grapples with the fallout.

Politicians across all parties have been critical of the lengthy delay in publishing the report, which Dr Shannon finished late last November.

The independent report raises serious questions for Tusla, the child and family agency, which previously said it had no concerns about current standards in St John Ambulance.

The State agency said it had reviewed the organisation’s safeguarding statement, required for organisations working with children, and deemed it compliant. This was held up as an assurance over current standards on several occasions in the Dáil and Seanad by Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman.

The fact that a review of St John Ambulance’s policy on paper is taken as comfort that child-protection practices are fit for purpose, in light of Dr Shannon’s findings to the contrary, should be a cause for concern.

The State’s child-protection agency, it seems, is lacking in its ability to examine how safe youth organisations are for children in reality.

For survivors of abuse, Dr Shannon’s report will provide vindication that the organisation failed them in the past.

For St John Ambulance, it represents an opportunity to make up for the mistakes of the past, or compound them.