The Spiritan order is to sell one of the biggest farms in Co Tipperary as part of its pledge to compensate victims of abuse.
The 765-acre Rockwell Farm will be sold on the open market and is likely to fetch at least €20 million, according to industry sources.
The land was used for an agricultural college until the 1980s and is now a dairy farm with up to 650 cows.
By November of last year, 359 survivors of abuse at Spiritan schools had come forward, including 347 disclosed in the scoping inquiry report on abuse at private fee-paying schools published in September 2024.
RM Block
The schools involved were Blackrock College, its feeder junior school Willow Park, Rockwell College, St Mary’s College, St Michael’s College and Templeogue College.
In a statement, Spiritans provincial Fr Brendan Carr said the order had been upfront about not having the cash to compensate victims and would instead need to sell assets.
He said the order had been “fully transparent about their financial position” from the beginning.
“Progress is being made and Rockwell Farm will be the first of these properties to be sold, but this involves multiple legal, valuation and regulatory steps that simply take time to complete.”
He added that as a registered charitable organisation, the Spiritans are subject to the oversight of the Charities Regulator and subject to audit.
The order also felt a need “to respond clearly to the suggestion that the Spiritans are deliberately delaying or obstructing progress”.
Last Friday, the order was accused of adding to the suffering of the survivors by missing the deadline given last June in announcing a redress scheme.
The Spiritans had not provided any such update at the end of summer, the Restore Together group said, and had been seeking a meeting with the order ever since.
Responding on Wednesday, Fr Carr said “a commitment was made” but “progress has not been as fast as anyone would wish”.
Fr Carr acknowledged “the immense urgency that victims and survivors feel. We feel it too.”
He added: “We continue to meet regularly with survivors and to provide ongoing counselling and restorative meetings facilitated by the independent restorative justice team. These encounters are deeply important to us and they continue to shape how we respond and plan.”
He appealed “for understanding as we continue to navigate these complex financial and legal steps”. Fr Carr said: “We will provide a further public update as soon as key transactions are concluded and timelines can be confirmed with confidence.”
The value of Co Tipperary land was brought into focus during a recent legal action involving billionaire businessman John Magnier.
Mr Magnier lost a case at the Commercial Court claiming a verbal agreement to buy the 751-acre Barne Estate amounted to a sale.
He agreed a price of €15 million with the owner Richard Thomson-Moore in August 2023, but eventually lost out to New York-based businessman Maurice Regan who agreed to buy the estate for €22.5 million.
