During his many English classes in Terenure College, teacher John McClean became emotional reading Wordsworth, while often favouring the Shakespearean tragedies where a noble character falls because of a fatal flaw.
It was a constant refrain. “I thought at the time and since that [it was] some sort of declaration or branding of himself, notions of nobility apart,” one former pupil said ahead of the sentencing of his former teacher.
However, the 76-year-old's downfall, which has played out at Dublin's Circuit Criminal Court, and which led to his jailing on Thursday, is one of his own making, with no nobility involved. His actions changed the lives of least 23 former pupils.
The former Terenure College English teacher and rugby coach, with an address at Casimir Avenue, Harold’s Cross, Dublin, was sentenced on Thursday to eight years in prison for indecently assaulting 23 pupils between 1973 and 1990.
The victims were aged between 12 and 17, and several recounted multiple instances of abuse at the hands of the teacher, who taught at the private school until 1996 before going on to coach rugby at UCD.
The reasons for his nickname, Doc, are lost to time. Some say it was a nod to his teaching skills, others because he fancied himself as an “enthusiastic amateur physiotherapist”. A few remembered he often carried a leather doctor’s bag.
Remembering McClean as a “good teacher and an exceptional rugby coach”, a former pupil said he was a “perfectionist” who brought out high performances in students academically, on stage, and on the rugby pitch.
Solitary
Described as “very serious”, and “impeccably dressed”, McClean usually wore a three-piece suit when not on a sports field. He lived with his parents in Harold’s Cross. He was a solitary individual with few interests outside of the college, former students said.
“At the time Terenure was the top rugby school, regularly winning school cups and producing many top players. He would have played a big part in all that happening... If he wasn’t such a sick man, he was actually a good coach,” a former pupil, who attended during the 1970s, said.
But the plays, the accompanying costume fittings, the sports and the volunteer physio work were manipulated by McClean to get physically close to the young boys that he had targeted for abuse.
The court heard McClean massaged a 13-year-old student’s injured leg, during which he brushed his hand against the boy’s genital area. Another time the teacher pretended to help another boy, aged around 13, put on a costume, when he put his hands down the boy’s underwear to touch his genitals, while masturbating himself. McClean had denied all offences when interviewed by gardaí, before he finally pleaded guilty in November 2020.
Michael*, who had been a student at the school during the 1970s, remembered McClean as a “good teacher, he ran the plays, and he was a good coach, but those were all fronts for the devious behaviour”.
Prey
“He tended to prey on the younger guys. This guy was very manipulative... I think the dogs on the street knew this guy wasn’t quite right,” Michael said, adding that he brought injured players to his office to “look after them”.
“I didn’t know what exactly was going on behind the closed door, but I knew it wasn’t right that an adult was taking a minor into his private room,” Michael said. Sometimes, he went in looking “for an ice pack” if he knew McClean had a young boy in the room.
The Irish Times understands that a prefect was approached in the late 1970s by a younger pupil who made an allegation of an unwelcome advance by McClean.
Taking the allegation as credible and serious, the prefect raised the matter with a senior Carmelite, passing on full details. The Carmelites did not respond on Thursday night to questions from The Irish Times on this matter.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that McClean was removed from costume-fitting duties around 1979, following allegations that he touched one boy’s genitals. However, in the early 1980s he was made the first year “form master”.
He was given his own office, where many of the assaults would later take place. McClean would remain art the school until 1996, when new allegations were made. The first complaint to gardaí was made in 2016.
David*, who attended the school in the 1980s and was not one of the teacher’s victims, recalled a time, aged 14 or 15, when he found himself alone in a changing room with McClean.
Rumours
“I was slightly on my guard because I had heard the rumours. He was pacing the floor,” he said. David said he felt a need to act normal so he stripped down to his boxers, but he felt the eyes of McClean fixed on his crotch area while he changed.
“You cannot report somebody for staring at you,” he said, adding: “I consider myself lucky, but at the same time it seemed to show to me that he was very calculating with who he picked. I felt very intimidated, but he didn’t do anything to me.”
Saying it is strange and uncomfortable now to look back, the former pupil told The Irish Times: “What you have got to remember is that back then nobody talked about these things in serious terms. We were all very innocent.”
He was not surprised when the abuse allegations finally emerged, but he was “shocked” by the number. “I am surprised that he managed to get away with abusing so many people over so long.”
Another past pupil, Seamus*, remembered a “nervous jokiness” amongst pupils in the 1970s and ’80s. “You knew from second year what he was up to... He was opportunistically touching young boys.
“The college didn’t handle it [the allegations] right” and failed to keep all students safe. It has left a “horrendous” mark on all of the boys. “But do you think this guy cornered the market? No, this was happening in other schools,” said Michael.
Noting the failings of Terenure College in dealing with McClean, many past pupils still speak with fondness about their days there and the “real community” that exists to this day amongst past pupils.
For the majority the college was “far from hell”, Michael said, adding: “The majority have very fond memories of their time at the college. As a result many are deeply saddened and are really hurting by this.”
*Names have been changed
