Scotland's Redress Scheme: combined annual report 2025

4.7 Congregation of Christian Brothers

St. Ninian’s Falkland

The Congregation of Christian Brothers was founded in 1802 in Waterford, Ireland by Edmund Rice. Since then, many schools were established by the Christian Brothers in Ireland, England and throughout the world. The Christian Brothers ran one residential school in Scotland called St. Ninian’s. St. Ninian’s in Falkland, Fife opened in January 1951 and closed in July 1983.

This report includes information on supports provided by the Christian Brothers for former residents of St. Ninian’s.

Funding for emotional, psychological or practical support

The Christian Brothers have not been approached by any former residents of St. Ninian’s with requests for funding for emotional, psychological or practical support during the reporting period 7 December 2023 to 6 December 2024. The Christian Brothers have previously offered assistance with financial and emotional support in terms of providing funding for counselling and arranging meetings with members of the Leadership Teams of the Congregation and Safeguarding Office.

The Congregation has settled civil claims brought by former residents of St. Ninian’s and has provided financial compensation.

Advice and assistance on accessing historical records

The Christian Brothers have in their employment a professional archivist who responds to requests from former residents, their families, their solicitors or other bodies such as Birthlink, Wellbeing Scotland and the Redress Scheme in order to help former residents access their records and to confirm their residency in St. Ninian’s. The St. Ninian’s records have been digitised, indexed and transcribed so any references to individual former residents are easy to find and requests can be responded to quickly. As the entries in the admission register are quite brief and focus on admission and discharge dates, we do supplement the register entry with entries from the logbooks or school newsletters where possible.

Sometimes advice is given on how to further a search for records if the applicant was found not to have been a resident in St. Ninian’s Falkland but may have been in another school.

During the reporting period the Christian Brothers’ archives responded to 15 Subject Access Requests (These were received from Birthlink, Wellbeing Scotland, directly from former residents, from solicitors for former residents and there were three who were found not to have been admitted to St. Ninian’s Falkland).

During the reporting period the Christian Brothers responded to 18 enquiries from Scotland’s Redress Scheme seeking to confirm residency documents or to confirm if previous payments have been made to former residents of St. Ninian’s (including one not found in the St. Ninian’s register).

Advice and assistance on tracing and reuniting families

St. Ninian’s Falkland only opened in 1951 with many of its residents having relatively short periods of residency there. Therefore, requests for tracing family history and reuniting families have not been received by the Congregation in relation to St. Ninian’s Falkland. We do receive and respond to many requests such as these for the residential schools the Congregation ran in Ireland dating back to 1870. We are aware that Birthlink and In Care Survivors Scotland have services available to former residents in Scotland and should we in the future receive requests for advice in this area their contact details will be provided.

Activity relating to the acknowledgment of abuse and provision of an apology to those abused

In 1998 The Christian Brothers in Ireland issued a message and apology to anyone who suffered ill treatment while in their care. They apologised to those who experienced physical or sexual abuse by a Christian Brother. This message was published in national newspapers at the time. Contact details for the Brothers in Ireland and Northern Ireland were given with contact details of Faoiseamh (now Towards Healing), a counselling service funded by Religious Congregations in Ireland including the Christian Brothers. Shortly after the apology in Ireland, the then English Province of the Christian Brothers (under whose jurisdiction St. Ninian’s was in) made a public statement. It referred to the message and apology in Ireland and stated that the Province Leader in England was ready to respond to people who may wish to make contact. It emphasised that the Brothers were ready to listen sympathetically to any complaints and were ready to offer practical help and advice. The English Province has since amalgamated with the Irish Provinces of the Christian Brothers.

The Christian Brothers have cooperated fully and positively with the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry since 2017 and have responded to all requests from the Inquiry including extensive requests for records relating to St. Ninian’s. Members of the Congregation attended and gave evidence at the Inquiry in 2019. The Congregation has acknowledged that children were abused within St. Ninian’s Falkland, has apologised unreservedly for this, and has acknowledged that the abuse of children is always reprehensible and intolerable. Apologies have also been given to individual former residents of St. Ninian’s that have made direct contact with the Christian Brothers’ Safeguarding Office. No individual apologies were requested during this reporting period in relation to St. Ninian’s.

Any other support

A Director of Safeguarding with training in psychology and counselling experience has been employed by the Christian Brothers and is available to former residents or past pupils of Christian Brothers’ schools should they wish to make direct contact with the Congregation for support in any area. The Province Safeguarding Statement is updated as and when necessary and is reviewed by the Trustees and the Safeguarding Team. The Christian Brothers do not currently have children under their care in Scotland. The Congregation is compliant with the policies and guidelines of the Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service (CSAS) and more recently the Religious Life Safeguarding Service (RLSS) and the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (CSSA) in England.