A SECOND former pupil of St Columb’s College in Derry has disclosed details of alleged historical abuse by teacher Raymond Gallagher.
Eamonn Lynch, who attended the grammar school between 1965 and 1970, said he took the decision to speak out after reading Terry Doran’s recent account in The Irish News newspaper.
A St Columb’s pupil during the 1970s, Mr Doran waived his right to anonymity to disclose how he was paid £50,000 in 2015 after taking a case against the college and the former teacher.
Gallagher, who was an Irish language teacher at the Derry city grammar school from 1953 to 1993, died in 2007, aged 75.
A former vice-principal, he also had strong connections with the GAA.
Mr Doran said he and father made college authorities aware of the alleged sexual abuse, which spanned four years, in 1978.
Yesterday, The Sunday Independent reported how Eamonn Lynch alleged he was asked at 11 to strip naked in a classroom by Gallagher to try on a dress.
The incident is alleged to have taken place after a choir practice, which Gallagher had helped manage.
Mr Lynch said the teacher asked him to try on a women’s dress for an upcoming school show.
He told the newspaper that Gallagher stopped him putting the garment over his school clothes and insisted he strip naked.
“I felt this can’t be right but yet did not know what to do. I was on my own with this big man. I can remember clearly what he was wearing and the smell of smoke off him because he came so close.
“He made me strip naked and put the dress on. It was almost a relief to get the dress on to cover myself up. I put the dress on and I had to walk up the classroom.
“I was too young and naïve to realise there was something sexual about it but I knew there was something not normal about it.”
Mr Lynch said told no one at the time.
Now aged 68, he said he decided to go public after reading Terry Doran’s account in The Irish News.
“It took me right back and I thought somebody needs to stand up and say ‘you weren’t on your own’.
“I also believe that St Columb’s need to explain why that man was able to carry out his perversion for all those years.”
Child abuser Raymond Gallagher
“We take such allegations of abuse extremely seriously and following recent media reports where additional claims were made, we immediately contacted the PSNI to establish if they are currently investigating any alleged historical abuse cases associated with the school,” said the statement from the school’s board of governors.
“If that proves to be the case, we are committed to ensuring full cooperation and transparency around any historic cases and will support any subsequent investigations in whatever way we can.”
The PSNI confirmed last month that it had received five separate reports of alleged historical abuse at the college.
Police said in four of the cases, all lines of enquiries had been exhausted.
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