A series of criminal cases and Irish government enquiries established that hundreds of priests had abused thousands of children over decades. 
A lengthy report detailing cases of emotional, physical and sexual abuse of thousands of children over 70 years was published on 20 May 2009. The report drew on the testimony of nearly 2,000 witnesses, men and women who attended more than 200 Catholic-run schools from the 1930s until the 1990s. However the victims on one side and the Roman Catholic brothers and Irish government on other side, all those who accepted the state/Brothers settlements had to waive their right to sue both the church and the government. Their abusers' identities are also kept secret.
Like the Catholic Church sex abuse cases in the United States and elsewhere, the abuse in Ireland included cases of high-profile, supposedly celibate Catholic clerics involved in the widespread physical abuse of children in the Catholic-run childcare network. In many cases, the abusing priests were moved to other parishes to avoid embarrassment or a scandal, assisted by senior clergy. 
By 2010 a number of in-depth judicial reports had been published, but with only a limited number of criminal convictions.