Sir, - Fintan O'Toole's column of December 10th does little to promote the cause which it espouses - promoting the truth. He refers to the dangers of treating claims as if they were now an established fact. Unfortunately, his own article goes even a step further and treats claims, misinformation and inference as if they were established fact.
He states that the Raftery/ O'Sullivan book Suffer the Little Children "cites eyewitnesses who suggest that the death of a boy in the early fifties was the result of deliberate violence". The book cites one person who claims he was an eyewitness. However, this witness has presented the public with three quite different versions of the event; one in which the boy fell 40 feet, brushing past the witness; a second in which the boy was actually thrown over the banisters by a Brother and fell a distance of 120 feet; and a third in which both boy and Brother crashed into the witness, knocking him down several steps.
The witness also describes injuries which are totally at variance with the injuries described by the surgeon in the Mater Hospital and by the pathologist. The witness states that the event took place in the winter of 1956. In fact the sad accident occurred on February 18th, 1951.
Despite all these discrepancies, Fintan O'Toole is of the opinion that such evidence is sufficient cause to raise "entirely legitimate questions" about the contemporary coroner's verdict.
Mr O'Toole's throwaway comment concerning the evidence - "which of course came from the Christian Brothers" - is both mischievous and telling. The implication seems to be that the sworn evidence of the Brothers may have been false. If this inference was not intended then I fail to see the purpose of the comment. In actual fact, the evidence at the inquest did not come solely from the Brothers. A Garda sergeant, a surgeon, a pathologist and a student who witnessed the accident also gave evidence. Mr O'Toole owes it to all concerned to clarify what exactly he meant by his comment on the origin of the evidence. - Yours, etc.,
Br M. Reynolds, On behalf of Province Leadership Team, Christian Brothers' Provincialate, North Circular Road, Dublin 7.