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A second teacher, who has since died, was also accused by one of the three with assaulting him three decades ago.
The plantiffs allege the abuse occurred in Bergen, Rockland and Fairfield counties, as well as in Syracuse, Orlando and Ireland, IrishCentral.com reported.
One boy alleges that an instructor identified in court papers as "D.T." sexually abused him during consecutive summers at a River Edge, NJ home beginning in 1986, the report says.
Another says the instructor invited him to his hotel room during a 2006 competition in Stamford, CT, where he “ordered him to perform oral sex” and then ejaculated on the boy when he refused.
He also “openly solicit sex with minors” online, the plaintiffs allege.
None of the plaintiffs is identified. Two live in New York and the third in Massachusetts, say the suits, filed under the pseudonyms Jack Doe, John Doe and Pat Doe.
One of the plaintiffs contends that D.T. bought alcohol for him and other minors participating in a July 2016 regional Irish dance competition at the Orlando Marriott World Center in Florida, then took him outside “to a more desolate area” with the “pretense of speaking to him in private to console him.”
D.T. tried to kiss him, then asked permission when the boy refused, telling him that he was “not gay,” a lawsuit alleges.
“You don’t have to be gay to kiss me,” the boy said D.T. told him after pinning his arms in a bar hug and trying to kiss his lips.
D.T. then stuck his tongue in the boys ear, licked it and said, “You like this, you want this,” the suit alleges, adding that the boy told him that he didn’t.
Refusing to let relent, D.T. then tried reaching into the boy’s cargo shorts and eventually settled for fondling the plaintiffs genitals over his clothing, the lawsuit says.
The boy said he eventually broke free.
Another of the boys alleges in a separate lawsuit that another instructor identified as “D.I.” sexually abused him several times.
Once was during private lessons in a basement studio at a New Jersey home and another time during Thanksgiving weekend at an Irish dance competition at the Marriott Hotel in Tarrytown, both in 1985, the civil complaint says.
The same boy alleges that D.T. sexually abused him at the March 1986 Irish Dance World Championships in Limerick, at a national competition in Syracuse that same year and at another national in Chicago in 1987.
The boy’s suit says that D.T. continued abusing him at a private residence in River Edge in the summers of ’88 and ’89.
D.T. is identified only as a male Irish dance teacher who lives in New Jersey in the three lawsuits, which were filed in Superior Court at the Bergen County Courthouse under a new state law that opened a two-year window for abuse lawsuits against individuals and their employers.
They specifically name the CLRG (An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha), IDTANA (The Irish Dance Teachers Association of North America), and the Mid-Atlantic Region as plaintiffs along with the alleged abuser.
Also cited as a defendant is an unidentified school that provides “instruction in Irish dance to students in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Maryland and with a business address in the State of New Jersey.”
The plaintiffs say the alleged abuse inflicted “pain and suffering as an adult, substance abuse, social isolation, educational adjustment problems, mood swings, low self esteem, sexual identity problems, relationship and intimacy problems with women, suicidal ideation, lack of trust in people feelings of insecurity, self-consciousness about the way he dresses, family discord, medical expenses, emotional trauma, diminished childhood, diminished enjoyment of life, costs of counseling, and lost wages.”
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