bishopaccountability.org
Priests and Brothers Convicted of Sexually Abusing Minors in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland
BishopAccountability.org has identified 93 priests and brothers in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland who have been convicted of sexually abusing children or whose alleged abuses have been amply documented in the Ferns, Ryan, Murphy and Cloyne reports.
This is our fourth published database: we have maintained an accused U.S. clergy database since 2005, and we recently launched databases of publicly accused clergy in Argentina and Chile.
These databases have confirmed for us the clarifying power of lists of names. A public list makes children safer. It gives profound validation to victims. It serves as a resource for prosecutors, journalists, scholars and even church insiders: over the last few years, several church officials have asked us to add names or information to our U.S. database.
In fact, dozens of U.S. bishops and religious superiors have released their own lists of accused priests.
While we bring this simple idea of a list to the Irish clergy abuse problem, we are painfully aware of what we as outsiders do not bring. We don’t have the anguished history of Irish survivors, or the deep knowledge of the Irish crisis that many visitors to this page will have. We hope that even the most learned among you will find the list a helpful way to reflect on clergy abuse in Ireland, but we also hope that you will advise us and help us make this database better.
Lists are contentious, especially in Ireland. Many have told us that this list is a risky thing. The Christian Brothers notoriously took legal action to prevent the naming of names in the Ryan Report. The names of accused priests usually appear in the Irish press only if the priest is convicted in a criminal court. Elsewhere in Europe, even convicted child molesters enjoy anonymity. This is very different from the situation in the U.S., where the parties in a civil suit are often publicly known. As a result, we have nearly 4,500 accused priests in our database, though only 500 or so have been criminally charged, let alone convicted.
We hope that this Irish database will encourage an open debate about how societies balance an accused person’s privacy rights against a child’s right to be safe and the public’s right to know.
The clergy named in this database constitute a small percentage – approximately six percent — of the total number of accused priests known to the Irish church. According to an analysis [1 2 3 4 5] by researcher and survivor advocate Mark Vincent Healy of the audits by the National Board for Safeguarding Children, more than 1,300 clergy have been reported to Irish dioceses and religious orders since 1975.
Many of these 1,300 accused clergy committed crimes against children, though for various reasons they have not been brought to justice. Some may still be in ministry; others may have left the priesthood and now live in unsuspecting communities. What are the implications of such significant concealment for the safety of children? For the Irish citizen’s understanding of the clergy abuse crisis? For the behaviour of the church, most of whose misdeeds are not yet known? For the thousands of survivors whose perpetrators are not known except to them personally, to their great cost?
This Irish database is a work in progress; please refresh the page each time you visit to see the latest improvements. We have worked carefully, but no doubt we have made mistakes. Please call them to our attention confidentially. The Irish news media have reported the crisis well, but our access to their work, recent and especially pre-internet, is only partial. Let us know about other articles and commentary that would help us understand the Irish abuse crisis better.
In an abundance of caution, we’ve redacted from this database accused clergy whose inclusion might be problematic. All of them have been covered in mainstream news media, but it’s not clear that our organization is free to publish their names and information. In addition to clergy convicted of abusing children, we have included some clergy discussed in the reports of inquiries, and some clergy whose abuse history has been aired at length in the United States.
Thank you to readers who have sent us additions and corrections. We are preparing improvements based on your advice. We began the latest revision of this database on January 8, 2019. Last revised on March 6, 2019.
• Fr. Andrew Allen OP
• Br. Stephen Allen CFC
• Fr. Ronald Bennett OFM
• Fr. Dominic Savio Boland OFM Cap
• Fr. John Brosnan
• REDACTED
• Br. Edward Bryan CFC
• REDACTED
• Fr. John Calnan
• Fr. Michael Carney
• Fr. William Carney
• Fr. Arthur Carragher CSSp
• Canon Martin Clancy
• Mr. Gerard Cleere
• REDACTED
• Fr. Donal Collins
• REDACTED
• Br. Christopher Cosgrove FMS
• Fr. Patrick Crowley
• Fr. Daniel Curran
• REDACTED
• Fr. Tadhg Daly OMSH
• Fr. Con Desmond FSC
• Fr. Daniel Doherty
• Fr. James Donaghy
• Fr. Camillus Donovan OCSO
• REDACTED
• Br. Vincent Downey SG
• Fr. James Doyle
• Br. Seán John Drummond CFC
• REDACTED
• Canon Peter Duffy
• Fr. Michael Dunn
• Br. Donal Dunne CFC
• Br. Paul Farrell CFC
• Fr. Malachy Finnegan
• Fr. Seán Fortune
• Fr. Bernard Gallagher
• Fr. Donal Gallagher CM
• Fr. Martin Greaney
• Fr. Eugene Greene
• Fr. Jim Grennan
• Fr. Gus Griffin CSSp
• Br. Brendan John Halpin CFC
• Br. John Hannon OFM
• Fr. Patrick Hughes
• Fr. Gerry Kearns
• Br. Joseph Keegan OFM
• Br. James Kelly CFC
• Br. Patrick John Kelly CFC
• Fr. Peter Kennedy
• Br. Robert Keoghan OFM
• Fr. Christopher Kilkelly
• Fr. John Kinsella of Dublin
• REDACTED
• REDACTED
• Fr. Eugene Lewis WF
• Br. Vincent Lewis OCSO
• Fr. Donncha Mac Cárthaigh MSC
• Fr. Patrick Maguire SSC
• Br. Francis Patrick Mallon OSM
• Fr. Henry Maloney
• Fr. Francis Markey
• Fr. Patrick McCabe
• Fr. John McCallum
• Fr. Gerard John McCallion OCSO
• Br. Thomas McCarry CFC
• Fr. Francis (Frank) McCarthy
• REDACTED
• REDACTED
• Fr. Paul McDaid
• Fr. Patrick McDonagh SDS
• Fr. Paul McGennis
• Br. John McKenna CFC
• Fr. Tom McNamara
• Fr. James McNamee
• Fr. Michael Gerard McQuillan
• Fr. Vincent Mercer OP
• Fr. John Molloy
• Fr. Michael Molloy
• Fr. Henry Moloney CSSp
• Fr. Harry Moore
• Fr. Michael Mullins
• Fr. James Murphy of Ossory
• Fr. James Murphy of Cork and Ross
• Fr. Thomas Murphy
• Mr. David Murray
• Fr. Thomas Naughton SPS
• Fr. Denis Nolan
• Fr. Oliver O’Grady
• REDACTED
• Br. Diarmuid Ó Luanaigh CFC
• Fr. James J. O’Malley
• Fr. Ivan Payne
• Fr. James Prunty
• Br. Dennis Quirke FC
• Fr. Terence Rafferty
• Br. James Redmond FC
• Fr. Noel Reynolds
• Fr. Andrew M. Ronan OSM
• REDACTED
• Fr. Brendan Smyth O Praem
• Fr. Joseph M. Steele CSSp
• Fr. Joseph Summerville
• REDACTED
• Br. Maurice Tobin CFC
• Br. James Treacy CFC
• REDACTED
• Fr. Tony Walsh
• Fr. Brendan Wrixon
Note: Priests and Brothers Convicted of Sexually Abusing Minors in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland is based generally on reports published by reputable news sources in the media, as well as the reports of government inquiries commonly known as the Ferns report, the Ryan report, the Murphy report, the Cloyne report, and the HIA Inquiry report. Unless a source expressly reports that an individual has been convicted of a criminal offense, the reports contained in the database are mere allegations and this database does not state or imply that individuals facing allegations are guilty of a crime. BishopAccountability.org is committed to truth, accuracy, and fairness. Corrections and comments on information appearing in the database are encouraged and can be sent to staff@bishop-accountability.org. If BishopAccountability.org discovers facts establishing that any information appearing in the database is inaccurate, we will promptly take appropriate action, including but not limited to revising, correcting, or withdrawing the information.
Name
Diocese
Order
Notes
Sources
Fr. Andrew Allen OP
• ARMAGH
Dominicans
On missionary duty in Trinidad and Tobago. Pleaded guilty to four sample charges of indecent assault on two brothers in 1981-1985. Given a two-year suspended sentence and ordered to pay £150,000 compensation. The brothers had been abused by Allen during his visits back to Ireland. He had been jailed for a year in Drogheda in 1993 for sexually assaulting an altar boy in 1991-1992.
• £150,000 must be paid by priest over abuse, Irish Times (March 15, 2001)
• Local family of abused boy express disgust, Independent (March 23, 2001)
• Suspended jail sentence for sex abuse priest, Independent (March 23, 2001)
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
Br. Stephen Allen CFC
• DUBLIN
Irish Christian Brothers
Sentenced to one year in prison in March 2009 for sexually abusing four boys in 1961-1964 at an industrial school.
• Some of Those Convicted in Abuse Cases, Irish Independent (November 25, 2009)
• Christian Brother to be sentenced over sex abuse, Irish Times (February 24, 2009)
• Christian Brother jailed for one year for abusing boys, The UK & Ireland Database (March 2009)
Fr. Ronald Bennett OFM
• DUBLIN
Franciscans
Bursar, spiritual director, and sports master at Gormanston College in Co. Meath, a secondary boarding school run by the Franciscans. Pleaded guilty of sexual abuse and was jailed in 2007. Sexually abused at least 6 boys.
• Priest Admits 1970s Abuse at Gormanston, Irish Independent (July 5, 2006)
• Fury at Suspended Sentence for Child-Molesting Priest, by Colm Heatley, Irish Examiner (August 2, 2006)
• Court Increases Priest’s Prison Sentence, RTE (March 5, 2007)
• Jailed priest was in regular contact with abuse swim coaches, by Jason O’Brien, Independent (March 10, 2007)
• Swimming against the tide, by Justine McCarthy, Magill (April 4, 2007)
• Convicted Priest Pleads Guilty to Further Sex Assaults, Irish Times (February 27, 2010)
• Priest given suspended term for abuse of schoolboy, by Elaine Keogh, Irish Times (March 6, 2010)
Fr. John (Dominic Savio) “Domo” Boland OFM Cap
• DUBLIN
Capuchins
Boland was convicted in 2001 of 9 counts of indecent assault of a boy age 11 in 1977-1979. The conviction and one-year suspended sentence were apparently not reported by the Capuchins, the Dublin archdiocese, or the press. So the 2009 Murphy report was the first public information about serial offender Boland, although he first molested a boy in 1946, when Boland was age 16. In the 8 years between his conviction and Murphy, Boland visited at least one family ‘on a regular basis’.
The Murphy report described 6 complaints of abuse by Boland and 2 ‘suspicions/concerns’, altogether involving 9 victims whose names were known to the Commission – 8 boys and 1 girl. But 2 victims – a girl at a school retreat and a boy in a boy’s club – reported that there were other victims. In addition, the matron of a hospital and a mother visiting a hospital both expressed concern about Boland’s behavior with children. According to the Murphy report, a ‘UK therapeutic facility’ said in 1996 that Boland admitted ‘about 100 offenses against 20 children’.
The Murphy report also described Boland’s methods as he detailed them to the UK facility. He used ‘holy medals and pictures’ (32.17) to engage children, befriended their parents, separated the child, and introduced and normalized sexual touching. He had ‘a well-developed belief system which supported and legitimized his sexual interest in children’.
An account after the Murphy report describes Boland’s saintly reputation, devotion to the Virgin Mary, Christ-like beard, use of relics, and power to heal the sick. ‘Mothers loved him’ and raised money in bake sales and the like to buy him a car despite his vow of poverty. ‘Parents considered him both harmless and trustworthy.’ He organized a boys’ soccer team in Dublin’s northside inner city that ‘traveled all over the country and abroad’. Boland’s left arm was paralyzed in a birth injury, a ‘distinguishing physical characteristic’ cited in the Murphy report, which he considered a blessing. ‘Out of devotion to his Italian boy-hero saint, [he] had taken the adolescent’s name, Dominic Savio, as his own.’ The Murphy report states that he claimed he’d been ‘frequently abused at age 8’.
Boland’s charisma was apparently at work in his suspended sentence, the failure to report his conviction, and the continued free movement afforded him by that silence. Much remains unknown about his whereabouts (e.g., his fill-in work at parishes), the lack of coordination between the Capuchins and the dioceses, the documents lost from the files, etc. The Murphy report discusses 2 Boland child victims who went on to join religious orders (the Capuchins and another unnamed religious institute). The persuasiveness of Boland’s religious example and his extensive abusive behavior merit more attention.
• Murphy report, ch. 32
• Probe Reveals Sins of the Fathers, by Shane Phelan, Dearbhail Mcdonald, and Fiach Kelly, Irish Independent (November 27, 2009)
• Priests and Their Depraved Crimes, Belfast Telegraph (November 27, 2009)
• Martin: Is there a paedophile ring? by Maeve Sheehan, Irish Independent (November 29, 2009)
• Abuse priests ‘frequently escaped jail’, by John Downes, Sunday Tribune (November 29, 2009)
• The Priest Who Shattered My Faith in the Catholic Church, by Professor Chris Fitzpatrick, Irish Times (November 18, 2017)
Fr. John Brosnan
• Kerry
Diocesan
Served four years in prison after he was convicted in 1997 of abusing five children in the Kerry area during the early 1980s. pleaded guilty at Tralee Circuit Criminal Court to 53 counts of sexual assault against five members of the same family, aged between nine and 16 years, on dates between 1965 and 1973.
• Chaplain inflicted nine-year reign of terror, Independent (November 12, 1997)
• ‘No diocesan record’ of abuse claim, Irish Times (November 13, 1997)
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
• Former Priest Abused Children While a Student at Maynooth, The Kerryman (January 23, 2008)
• Former priest jailed for abusing children, by Anne Lucey, Irish Times (February 23, 2008)
Br. Edward Bryan CFC
• Cork and Ross
Irish Christian Brothers
Pleaded not guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court when a third trial opened, after the jury failed to reach a verdict in the first trial, and after a November 2012 mistrial in the second one. Convicted of indecent assault on three boys at North Monastery School in Cork City, and sentenced on March 1, 2013 to five years imprisonment: eight concurrent five-year sentences for eight counts of indecently assaulting the three boys.
Bryan appealed, and the conviction appeal was heard in May 2015. One count was quashed, the rest were upheld, and the appeal was dismissed.
Jailed for 12 months in July 2015 at Cork Circuit Criminal Court after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting two boys in North Monastery secondary school: one boy 1979-1981 and the second boy in 1986.
• Former cleric on trial for indecent assault of boys, by Barry Roche, Irish Times (June 20, 2012)
• Former Christian Brother Sentenced to Five Years for Indecent Assaults, RTÉ News (March 1, 2013)
• ‘Not a shred of remorse for victims’, by Liam Heylin, Irish Examiner (March 2, 2013) [includes victim impact statements]
• Ex-Christian Brother returned to jail following appeal, by Ruaidhrí Giblin, Irish Examiner (June 26, 2015)
• Former Christian Brother jailed for abusing two boys in Cork school, by Barry Roche, Irish Times (July 28, 2015)
• Former christian brother pleads guilty, by Niamh Aine Ryan, Cork Independent (July 29, 2015)
Fr. John Calnan
• Cork and Ross
1964
ordination
Diocesan
Calnan pleaded guilty in 2012 at the Central Criminal Court to attempted rape and three counts of indecent assault of a girl and one count of indecent assault of a boy; sentenced to 8 years in prison with 3 years suspended.
Pleaded guilty in February 2015 at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to one count of indecent assault of a young girl.
In April 2015, Calnan pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a girl age 7 in West Cork in 1989, digitally penetrating her while he heard her first confession; sentenced to three years in jail, with the final year suspended.
Pleaded guilty in March 2018 to digitally penetrating a little girl in the late 1980s while hearing her first confession; received a suspended sentence because of his age. She stated in court: ‘I knew before ever entering the room for this man to hear my confession that something bad was going to happen. I went through my life never feeling believed.’
In April 2018, Calnan received a suspended sentence of 18 months for digitally penetrating three girls, 6 to 12 years of age, in 1974-1978
• Former priest jailed for abusing siblings, Irish Times (July 2, 2012)
• Abuse priest sentenced to eight years, Breaking News.ie (July 2, 2012)
• Jail for priest who assaulted sister and brother, by Emer Connolly and Fiona Ferguson, Irish Independent (July 3, 2012)
• ‘I weep for all the other little children that Calnan may have abused’, by Kathy Sheridan, Irish Times (July 5, 2012)
• Priest jailed for sex assault on young girl, The Southern Star (February 21, 2015)
• Priest sexually abused girl while hearing her first confession, by Barry Roche, Irish Times (April 24, 2015)
• Priest Jailed for Abusing Girl (7), by Ralph Riegel, Irish Independent (April 25, 2015)
• Priest jailed for abusing girl (7) during First Confession, by Ralph Riegel, Herald (April 25, 2015)
• Sex assault during girl’s First Confession, by Liam Heylin, Irish Examiner (April 25, 2015)
• Priest abused girl during her First Confession, The Southern Star (April 30, 2015)
• Suspended sentence for former priest who abused girl as she made First Confession, by Liam Heylin, Evening Echo (March 17, 2018)
• Abusive priest ‘robbed me of religion’, by Noel Baker and Liam Heylin, Irish Examiner (March 17, 2018)
• West Cork priest pleads guilty to sexually assaulting girl during her first confession, The Southern Star (March 25, 2018)
• Priest pleads guilty to three more assaults on young girls, The Southern Star (April 16, 2018)
• Suspended sentence for priest who abused girls during first confession, by Barry Roche, Irish Times (April 24, 2018)
• Priest who sexually assaulted girl (6) during First Confession avoids jail due to ‘old age and health problems’, by Ralph Riegel, Irish Independent (April 24, 2018)
• Suspended Sentence for Former Priest Who Sexually Abused Girls during Confession, by Olivia Kelleher, Extra.ie (April 25, 2018)
• Young girls were abused by priest at their First Confession, The Southern Star (May 1, 2018)
Fr. Michael Carney
• Galway, Kilmacduagh & Kilfenora
1953
ordination
Diocesan
Received a suspended sentence in April 1994 for assaulting an 18-year-old hitchhiker. Carney was on his way back to Sacred Heart Parish in Galway from a priests’ reunion at Maynooth when he picked the hitchhiker up in Athlone. After the sentence, Carney is listed in the Irish Catholic Directory as c/o Diocesan Office, The Cathedral, Galway. First listed as retired in the 2009 Directory; so listed on the diocesan website as of August 11, 2018.
Carney was born in 1928 trained for the priesthood in Maynooth College. Ordained 1953. He worked first as a teacher at St. Mary’s College (1953-1957), a boys’ secondary school, and then at Our Lady’s College Gort (1957-1986), also a boys’ secondary school, first as teacher and assistant to founder Fr. Christy Burke for 20 years and then for 9 years as Second President. Carney took a great interest in the hurling team. ‘Day after day, year after year, his evenings were given over to hurling training and then to ferrying home the players in his car to the various parishes of South Galway and North Clare.’ A pupil from the 1960s stated that Carney had ‘a consuming interest in the lads’. Carney was made first Parish Priest at Sacred Heart Parish in Galway in October 1986.
• Fr. Michael Carney, by Breandán Ó Ceallaigh, Guaire (December 1986)
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
Fr. William Carney
• DUBLIN
1974
ordination
Diocesan
The Murphy report describes Carney as ‘one of the most serious sexual abusers investigated by the Commission’. He was born in 1950 and began abusing children in care before his ordination in 1974. In 1983 Carney was prosecuted in respect of 6 boys abused in Ayrfield parish, Dublin (St. Paul’s). He pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault of the boys, with 4 charges withdrawn. The judge granted the Probation Act, having been told (incorrectly) that Carney was receiving psychiatric treatment. Despite his conviction, Carney enjoyed continued access to children and was assigned to another parish in 1986, Clogher Road in Dublin (St. Bernadette’s).
The Murphy report states that ‘the Commission is aware of complaints or suspicions of child sexual abuse against him in respect of 32 named individuals. There is evidence that he abused many more children’; he had access to children in residential care, groups of children he took on holiday, groups he took swimming, and boy scouts in the troop he ran.
Murphy was aware of 6 residents of children’s homes who later alleged abuse by Carney when he was a seminarian at Clonliffe College (1968-1974). Long after, in 1988, Msgr. Stenson established that Carney was living with a former resident of a care home. This was a pattern. The father of one of the Ayrfield victims complained to no avail of Carney’s return to places where he had abused children previously. In 1989, Bishop O’Mahoney reported to then-Archbishop Connell that the mother of an Ayrfield victim ‘ was looking for pastoral and spiritual help as her husband and son had stopped practicing their religion’. O’Mahoney thought this was the first time Connell ‘became fully aware of the serious spiritual harm inflicted on children and young people through clerical sex abuse’.
Another common thread was Carney’s ability to put off the Archdiocese. Carney resisted being moved from Clogher Road to a diocesan house in Cappaghmore (Clondalkin), and then resisted moving out of that house, even after a church penal process ended with his laicization on March 9, 1992. He finally left in January 1994, 4 years after he was first asked. ‘He received a lump sum of £30,000 from the Archdiocese.’
Since then, there have been a number of civil claims. One Ayrfield victim, Paul Dwyer, reportedly went to the police in 2004, but after the DPP decided it did not have enough evidence to prosecute, Dwyer committed suicide. That same year, Carney got married in Scotland, where he ran a family-friendly guest house. Carney disputes the entire Murphy report except for its account of his 1983 guilty plea and sentencing.
The Murphy report concluded that ‘the handling by the Archdiocese of the large number of allegations and suspicions in relation to Fr Carney is nothing short of catastrophic.’
• Cardinal Secrets, by Mike Peelo, RTE (October 17, 2002) [segment beginning at 17:52; no longer available online]
• Murphy report, ch. 28
• Probe Reveals Sins of the Fathers, by Shane Phelan, Dearbhail Mcdonald, and Fiach Kelly, Irish Independent (November 27, 2009)
• Priests and Their Depraved Crimes, Belfast Telegraph (November 27, 2009)
• Family had to move to get away from priest, by Mary Minihan, Irish Times, November 27, 2009
• Martin: Is there a paedophile ring? by Maeve Sheehan, Irish Independent (November 29, 2009)
• Abuse priests ‘frequently escaped jail’, by John Downes, Sunday Tribune (November 29, 2009)
• Altar Boys Were Abused during Kerry Holidays, by Dónal Nolan, Kerryman (December 2, 2009)
• Paedophile Priest Left Unmolested by Church and State, by Olenka Frenkiel, BBC (March 9, 2010) with full video report
• Paedophile Priest Denies Findings of Abuse Report, by John Cooney, Shane Phelan, and Tom Brady, Irish Independent (March 9, 2010)
• Notorious clerical sex abuser dies in prison awaiting trial, by Conor Lally, Irish Times (September 6, 2015)
Fr. Arthur Carragher CSSp
• DUBLIN
• ONITSHA, Nigeria
• Nsukka, Nigeria
• Hamilton, Canada
• TORONTO, Canada
• ARMAGH
Holy Ghost Fathers
aka Spiritans
In 1951, soon after his ordination, Carragher was sent by the Spiritans, a.k.a. the Holy Ghost Fathers or Congregation of the Holy Spirit, to serve as a missionary in Nigeria.
He spent 17 years there, working in Obollo Eke, Nsukka, Nonokwa and Onitsha. In the late 1960s, he returned to Ireland, where he was assigned to teach at St. Mary’s College Rathmines in Dublin, a Spiritan-run school for boys.
In the short time Carragher was in Dublin, he sexually abused at least seven boys. The victims included Mark Vincent Healy, then aged 9 and a student at St.Mary’s, and two young brothers, aged 8 to 15, who were related to Carragher.
Following a parent’s complaint about Carragher’s abuses in 1971, the priest was transferred to Canada to join the Spiritans’ Trans Canada province. From 1971 to the late 1980s, Carragher worked at various parishes in Ontario, including in the cities of Guelph, Hamilton, Scotland, and West Hill.
In 1989, he returned to Ireland, not to Dublin, but to Armagh, where he worked for several years as an associate pastor. In 1995, he decided to retire to Toronto, a year before formal accusations began to emerge in Ireland.
In 1999, the two brothers who were related to him reported their abuse to the public prosecutor’s office in Dublin, which ordered the priest to return to Ireland to face seven charges of child sex crimes. The priest refused to return, citing a medical report that said he was too sick to travel. Ireland and Canada had no extradition treaty at the time.
In late December 2001, after the brothers filed a civil claim against the Spiritans, an Irish newspaper called the Sunday World tracked the priest down at Laval House, a home for retired priests near to a Catholic boys’ school in Toronto. He admitted to sexually abusing the two young brothers in Dublin in the 1960s.
Despite the public admission of guilt, Carragher remained in ministry in Ontario for years. He died a free man on January 10, 2011.
• Tracked Down: Sex Abuse Priest Who Is Hiding Out in Canada Says: I’m Not Coming Back, by Paul Williams, Sunday World (December 23, 2001)
• Child abuse priest is safe from extradition, by George Clogg, Ireland on Sunday (December 30, 2001)
• Teacher who admitted abusing children was returned to ministry, Irish Times (October 29, 2012)
• More claims emerge of abuse by Spiritan priests, by Patsy McGarry, Irish Times (October 29, 2012)
• Terrible discovery ruins story of inspiring priest, by Troy Bridgeman, Guelph Mercury (November 13, 2014)
• Father Arthur Carragher CSSp, by Sylvia MacEachern, The Inquiry (2018) [includes links to additional sources]
• Fr. Arthur Carragher, 1912-2011, in Irish Spiritans Remembered (2018)
• Irish man shares story of sexual abuse by priest who later moved to Canada, Daniele Hamamdjian, CTV News (August 23, 2018)
Canon Martin Clancy
• Ferns
Diocesan
The Ferns report describes the abuse by Clancy of five girls out of many whom he violated, from ‘Maeve’, who was first abused in 1965, to ‘Kate’, whose abuse ended in 1991, when Bishop Comiskey transferred Clancy because of a complaint, from Ballindaggin, where he controlled the national school, to Kiltealy, about three miles away. The report summarizes the rape of a girl it calls ‘Ciara’:
‘Ciara (4.7.3) told the Inquiry of being raped by Canon Clancy from the age of 12. She said that she gave birth to Canon Clancy’s daughter when she was 15 years of age but did not disclose the identity of the father to anybody. She said that Canon Clancy eventually acknowledged his daughter but threatened to have her taken away from her if she ever told anybody that the child was his. Fr Sinnott, who succeeded Canon Clancy in Ballindaggin and who was executor of his will, advised her that Canon Clancy had left a £3,000 donation for her daughter to continue her musical education and this money was duly forwarded to her by Fr Sinnott after Canon Clancy’s death [in 1999].’
• Ferns Report Section 4.7
• The evil in Ferns, by Fergal Keane, Magill (October 26, 2005)
• Canon Martin Clancy (deceased), Irish Times (October 26, 2005)
• Trying to pick up the pieces, Irish Times, October 29, 2005
• At St Peter’s, by Colm Tóibín, London Review of Books (December 1, 2005)
Gerard Cleere
Student Priest
• Ardagh and Clonmacnoise
• Galway, Kilmacduagh & Kilfenora
Redemptorists
Pleaded guilty in October 2006 and was given a 5-year suspended sentence for sexually assaulting two young boys at Mount Carmel Orphanage in Moate, Co. Westmeath (Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise) in 1978. The boys were 6 and 9 years old, and Cleere was an 18-year-old ‘house person’ at the orphanage. The judge reprimanded the orphanage authorities and health board officials for not notifying gardaí in 1988, when one of the victims came forward and Cleere admitted the offenses. At that time, Cleere was apparently treated at the Granada Institute.
In April 2010, Cleere was found guilty by a jury of sexual assault of a 10-year-old boy in Galway city in 1973 or 1974. Cleere had been extradited from England and had pleaded guilty to indecent assault of the boy, but denied the buggery charge on which he was convicted. In July 2010 Cleere was sentenced to five years in prison, with the final two and one-half years suspended, and was placed on the sex offenders register for life.
The boy and his friends played handball at a ball alley attached to the Redemptorist Monastery at Cluain Mhuire, Mervue (diocese of Galway, Kilmacduagh & Kilfenora), and Cleere, wearing ‘priestly garb’, watched the boy and his friends play and visited his home. Cleere at the time was a ‘student priest’ in the first of 3 pre-novitiate years in the formation programme at the monastery. After a year Cleere left Redemptorist formation there but maintained a connection with the family. Finding the boy alone at home, recovering from a football injury, Cleere assaulted him. The victim reported the crime to the gardaí in 2007.
• Former Priest Gets Suspended Term for Sex Abuse, One in Four (October 9, 2006)
• Suspended Sentence for Former Priest, by Tomas Mac Ruairi, Kilkenny Advertiser (October 11, 2006)
• Man Found Guilty of Sexual Assault on Boy over 35 Years Ago, by Ann Healy, Irish Times (April 30, 2010)
• Jail for Former Student Priest Who Raped Boy Thirty Five Years Ago, by Martina Nee, Galway Advertiser (July 14, 2010)
• Ex Redemptorist Student Priest Jailed for Rape of Boy in Galway City, Galway News (July 14, 2010)
Fr. Donal Collins
• Ferns
Diocesan
The Ferns Report states that 14 pupils were abused by Collins between 1960 and the early 1990s. Collins admitted the abuse in 1993. He was charged in 1995 with 21 counts of indecent assault and gross indecency and one of buggery. In March 1998 he pleaded guilty to four charges of gross indecency and one of indecent assault. He was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment and served one year at the Curragh Prison. Laicized in 2004.
• Priest gets 4 years’ jail for sex assaults on teenage boys, Irish Times (March 26, 1998)
• Paedophile priest has three years of sentence suspended, Irish Times (March 25, 1999)
• Comiskey’s turbulent career assessed, RTÉ (April 1, 2002)
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
• Convicted paedophile at meeting briefed by bishop, by David Tucker, Wexford People (May 9, 2002)
• Pope defrocks two Irish priests convicted of sex abuse, by Shawn Pogatchnik, Associated Press (December 17, 2004)
• Ferns Report Section 4.1 on allegations against Collins (October 25, 2005)
• Ferns Report Ch. 5, section on diocesan response regarding Collins allegations (October 25, 2005)
• The Days of Sex, Secrets, Scandal and Shame at the Seminary, by Colm Toibin, Sunday Independent (November 27, 2005)
• Ferns Diocese: How the Story of Sexual Abuse Unfolded, Irish Times (March 3, 2010)
• Defrocked priest jailed in 1998 for child sex abuse dies, by Patsy McGarry, Irish Times (April 10, 2010)
• What sorrow for a calculated, controlling controlling serial sex abuser? Wexford People (April 14, 2010)
• Few mourners at funeral of disgraced former priest, by Conor Cullen, Wexford People (April 21, 2010)
Br. Christopher Cosgrove FMS
• Elphin
Marist Brothers
Found guilty on 1/19/05 of 180 counts of indecent assaults made against 6 young boys at St John’s National School in Sligo in the Elphin diocese in 1968-1977. Sentenced on 3/9/05 to 8 years in prison. Cosgrove denied the allegations and appealed.
• Former brother is guilty of assault, by Marese McDonagh, Irish Times (January 20, 2005)
• Former religious brother jailed for sex abuse, RTE News (March 9, 2005)
• Sex Attack Brother Stabbed in Jail, by Conor Lally, One in Four (July 26, 2005)
• Ex-teacher appeals abuse conviction, by Vivion Kilfeather, Irish Examiner (January 20, 2006)
Fr. Patrick Crowley
• Cork and Ross
Diocesan
Pleaded guilty to three counts of sexually assaulting an altar boy in 1988-1989 in a sacristy and parochial house, beginning when the boy was age 10. Crowley was sentenced to 8 months in jail. Pleaded guilty to a similar offence in Ballincollig District Court in 1991; that case was dismissed under the Probation of Offenders Act.
• Ex-priest jailed for sex assaults on altar boy, Breaking News (November 12, 2003)
• Ex-priest jailed for sex assault on altar boy, Irish Times (November 13, 2003)
Fr. Daniel Curran
• Down and Connor
Diocesan
Received a seven-year jail sentence in 1995 after admitting sex offences on nine young boys; given an 18-month suspended sentence in 2005 for indecently assaulting a 10th boy in the 1980s; in 2006 he received a 14-month sentence after pleading guilty to five counts of indecent assault on a boy between 1977 and 1982.
• A loner who found it difficult to communicate with others, by Suzanne Breen, Irish Times (June 15, 1995)
• Daly backs abuse inquiry, by James Penn, Catholic Herald (June 23, 1995)
• A church in holy disorder, by David McKittrick, Independent (October 3, 1995)
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
• Priest sentenced over sex abuse, BBC News (April 29, 2005 )
• Catholic Church under Pressure to Stop Sale of Paedophile’s Book, by Henry McDonald, Guardian (January 8, 2008)
• Ex-priest jailed for sex abuse of boys, Irish Times (March 1, 2012)
• Victim pleased to see ex priest back in jail, Down Recorder (March 7, 2012)
• Paedophile priest paid by church for 17 years, by Chris Moore, The Detail (April 29, 2012)
• Ex-Priest Daniel Curran Has Sex Abuse Sentence Reduced, BBC News (January 11, 2013)
• Paedophile Priest Daniel Curran in Court on Fresh Child Abuse Charges, by Deborah Mcaleese, Belfast Telegraph (November 14, 2014)
• Paedophile Priest to Be Sentenced on New Charges, News Letter (March 12, 2015)
• Paedophile Ex-priest Daniel Curran Convicted for Abusing Children for Fifth Time, by John Cassidy, Belfast Telegraph (March 13, 2015)
• Ex-priest Daniel Curran Admits Sex Assault on Boy (7), by John Cassidy, Belfast Telegraph (March 20, 2015)
• Former Priest Gets Suspended Sentence for Abusing Boy (7) in Cottage, Irish Times (March 23, 2015)
• Ex-priest Curran in court on historical sex abuse charge, Belfast Telegraph (June 11, 2018)
• Ex-priest Curran pleads guilty to child sex abuse 20 years ago, Belfast Telegraph (June 25, 2018)
Fr. Tadhg Daly OMSH
(Fr. Tadhg O Dalaigh)
• Cork and Ross
Order of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart
Pleaded guilty in 1999 to 10 charges of indecent assault of a 12-year-old boy at Sacred Heart College, Carrignavar, Co Cork, in the early 1970s. Received a custodial sentence of 3 years in Arbour Hill Prison in Dublin.
• Priest admits 10 counts of sexually abusing boy in school dormitory, Irish Times (November 13, 1999)
• Former priest in Donegal admits to sex assaults on altar boys, Irish Times (December 10, 1999)
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
• Carrignavar school ‘a concentration camp’, say ex-pupils, by Claire O’Sullivan, Irish Examiner (August 3, 2011)
• Solicitor Horrified by Deluge of Abuse Tales, by Maria Herlihy, The Corkman (September 8, 2011)
• Boarding pupils ‘beaten and kicked’ as punishment, by Ralph Riegel, Irish Independent (September 12, 2011)
Fr. Con Desmond FSC
• Killaloe
De La Salle Brothers
De La Salle brother and principal, then Killaloe diocesan priest. Received a three-year suspended sentence for 6 counts of indecent assault in 1982-1983 on a boy in De La Salle NS school in Waterford, where Desmond was principal. Another person contacted the gardai after the sentencing hearing and alleged abuse at the school in the same period.
• Priest Sentenced in Waterford Abuse Case, RTE News (December 20, 2006)
• Priest receives suspended jail sentence, Irish Times (December 21, 2006)
• Priest Who Abused Boy to Confront New Claims by Ex-Pupil, by Sarah Murphy, Irish Independent (January 6, 2007)
• Ex-priest and Principal Jailed for Two Years for Abusing Pupil, by Conor Kane, Irish Times (February 20, 2013)
Fr. Daniel Doherty
• Raphoe
Diocesan
Found guilty by a jury in May 2006 of twice raping a 13-year-old girl in a Donegal church sacristy in 1985, on the second occasion after hearing her confession there. Also found guilty of indecent assault. Appeal dismissed in February 2009..
• Priest Raped 13-Year-Old Girl in Sacristy of Church, by Tomas Mac Ruairi, Irish Examiner (June 1, 2006)
• Priest guilty of twice raping girl in sacristy, Irish Times (June 1, 2006)
• Priest Fails to Have Conviction for Raping Schoolgirl Overturned, by Tim Healy, Irish Independent (February 27, 2009)
Fr. James Donaghy
• Down and Connor
Diocesan
Donaghy was found guilty in 2011 of 23 charges of sexually abusing three teenagers between June 1983 and December 2000: an altar boy and two young trainee priests. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. In June 2013, he pleaded guilty to four charges of indecently assaulting a fourth boy in 1989 and an additional charge of common assault. Two years were added to Donaghy’s sentence, but the terms are running concurrently. While Donaghy assaulted his fourth victim, the priest reportedly told the boy that he could get his dead grandfather into heaven.
• Former priest guilty of sex abuse crimes, Irish Times (December 15, 2011)
• Ex-priest James Martin Donaghy Denies Abuse Charges, BBC News (November 22, 2012)
• Paedophile Priest James Donaghy Admits Molesting a Fourth Victim, Belfast Telegraph (June 12, 2013)
• James Martin Donaghy: Pope Dismisses Lisburn Paedophile Priest, BBC News (February 20, 2015)
• Pope Dismisses Sex Offender Priest, UTV (February 20, 2015)
• Pope dismisses Irish sex abuser from priesthood, by Patsy McGarry, Irish Times, February 23, 2015
Fr. Camillus Donovan OCSO
(Fr. Camillus O’Donovan)
(John Donovan)
• Down and Connor
Cistercian Trappists
A survivor of abuse by Donovan alerted us to his conviction and provided us with clippings documenting his sentencing in 1996 and his death in 2007. We thank her for her assistance.
Sentenced in Antrim court in Ballymena on January 18, 1996 to four years in prison, suspended for two years, on five counts of indecent assault on girls aged 10 to 16 in 1975-1984. Another Trappist at Bethlehem Abbey, Br. Vincent Lewis OCSO, was convicted of abusing boys during roughly the same period.
At Donovan’s sentencing hearing, Judge Peter Gibson was told that Dom Celsus Kelly, the abbot of Our Lady of Bethlehem Abbey in Portglenone, received a number of complaints about Donovan from the public in December 1994. He reportedly informed the RUC and Bishop Patrick J. Walsh of the Down and Connor diocese ‘immediately’. In sentencing, Judge Gibson noted the ‘gross abuse of trust’ involved. After sentencing, Donovan reportedly began living in a ‘secluded section’ of Bethlehem Abbey.
We have consulted 21 years of the Irish Catholic Directory regarding Donovan’s assignments, the earliest being the 1977 edition, when he was already at Bethlehem Abbey and the abbot was Dom Aengus Dunphy OCSO. In the 1978 ICD, the new abbot Dom Celsus Kelly OCSO is listed, and he remained the abbot through Donovan’s conviction until Donovan’s death on February 22, 2007.
Donovan is reported to have been 75 years old in January 1996, when he was sentenced, so he was likely born in about 1920. We do not know the year he was ordained, but The Furrow published his articles, reviews, and notes 1971-1986, and he is identified in that journal as a monk of Bethlehem Abbey, for example in his 1973 essay. Whether he was at Bethlehem Abbey before 1973 we do not know yet. His Furrow writings indicate an interest in ‘creative’ moral theology, confession, and youth ministry.
In 1996, the year of his sentencing, Donovan is not indexed in the Irish Catholic Directory. He is also not indexed in the 1991 ICD. It is not known whether allegations predating the 1994 allegations were a factor in his earlier disappearance from the ICD. In all other editions that we consulted, including the years after his conviction, he is indexed as a monk at Bethlehem Abbey. The Abbey’s presence in the community was extended in those years.
Before Donovan entered religious life, he was ‘John Donovan’. In the ICDs that we have reviewed, he is always ‘Camillus Donovan’, including in his death notice in the 2008 ICD. But in The Furrow and in his death notice in The Irish Catholic, he is ‘Camillus O’Donovan’.
• Creative Morality, by Fr. Camillus O’Donovan, The Furrow (November 1973)
• The Youth of Today, by Fr. Camillus O’Donovan, The Furrow (December 1974)
• Postcard of the Guesthouse at Our Lady of Bethlehem Abbey (1990s)
• Priest, 75, gets four years for assault (January 20, 1996)
• Repository Shop of Our Lady of Bethlehem Abbey (March 3, 2003)
• History of Our Lady of Bethlehem Abbey (October 10, 2006)
• Life at Our Lady of Bethlehem Abbey (October 10, 2006)
• Priests’ deaths higher than initial results, Irish Catholic (April 3, 2008)
Br. Vincent Downey SG
(Br. Bernard)
• Clogher
Montfort Brothers
aka
Brothers of Christian Instruction of Saint Gabriel
Vincent Downey, formerly Brother Bernard, pleaded guilty at Monaghan Circuit Criminal Court on June 6, 2007 to four charges of indecent assault against two sisters at Montfort House, a retreat center in Monaghan, when the girls were about eight and nine years old in 1977-1981. Downey faced eight sample counts of indecent assault before his guilty plea. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment.
The sisters were members of Downey’s extended family. One of them stated that she had attempted suicide. She confronted her experience in 1999 when her children were getting to be the same age she was when Downey assaulted her. She and her husband went to the police. ‘It took seven years of going in and out of courts before he finally pleaded guilty just before the jury was going to be sworn in.’
On November 27, 2007, Downey was given permission to appeal. In November 2008, the sentence was reduced by six months to two and a half years, on the grounds that he had not been given enough credit by the sentencing judge for admitting his guilt before the start of the trial.
• Former Brother pleads guilty, Irish Times (June 7, 2007)
• Ex-Brother to Appeal Assault Sentence, by Louise Hogan, Irish Independent (November 28, 2007)
• Ex-brother given leave to appeal three-year sentence for assault, by Tom Kelly, Anglo-Celt (December 5, 2007)
• Court reduces sex abuse sentence to 2 1/2 years, Irish Times (November 4, 2008)
• Mother tells how she suffered with sister in silence for 20 years after sick attacks by paedophile priest, by Maurice Fitzmaurice, The Mirror (May 22, 2009)
Fr. James Doyle
• Ferns
Diocesan
Convicted in 1990 of child abuse; received an 18-month sentence for sexually molesting a boy. Went to England after his release.
In March 2011, Judge Tom Burgess in Belfast Crown Court ordered a jury to acquit in another case. Doyle was charged with indecent assault of two girls between 7 and 10 years old in 1976-1980. The jury was directed to acquit Doyle on 15 counts of indecent assault of one of the girls, on the grounds that her evidence had been ‘innocently contaminated’ by the other girl. The 20 additional charges of indecent assault on that second girl were kept on the books.
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
• Ferns report section 4.2 on allegations against Doyle
• Ferns report ch. 5, section on diocesan response regarding Doyle allegations
• Jury told to acquit Doyle of indecent assault, Wexford People (March 30, 2011)
Br. Seán John Drummond CFC
• Limerick
Irish Christian Brothers
Pleaded guilty to 36 counts of indecent assault on pupils at Creagh Lane National School in Limerick city in the 1960s.
• School Let Brother Teach after Sex Attacks on 19 Boys, by Barry Duggan, Irish Independent (November 24, 2009)
• Some of Those Convicted in Abuse Cases, Irish Independent (November 25, 2009)
• Christian Brother assaulted young boy in Limerick, by Andrew Carey, Limerick Post (September 26, 2013)
Canon Peter Duffy
• Clogher
Diocesan
Accused of abusing three boys in the 1970s and 1980s in Donagh. The diocese has settled with the victims, and Bishop Joseph Duffy (nephew of the accused priest) met with one of the victims and acknowledged his “stolen childhood and the painful legacy of abuse which he lives daily”. At least one of the Duffy victims was also sexually abused by the McDermott brothers. Fr. Duffy died in 1994.
• Parish priest involved in Donagh abuse case, by Julian Fowler, BBC (April 11, 2013)
• Abuse Survivor Demands State Inquiry, by Sarah Stack and David Young, Irish Independent (April 24, 2013)
• Victim Speaks of His Hurt at Church’s Psychological Report, by Sarah Saunderson, The Impartial Reporter (May 2, 2013)
• Michael Connolly: ‘I grew up in a republican area, I couldn’t go and tell the RUC’, Belfast Telegraph (July 7, 2014)
Fr. Michael Dunn
• Middlesbrough (England)
Diocesan
Pleaded guilty in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in 2017 to three counts of sexual assault of a boy age 12 whom he took on holiday to Ireland in 1976 with the boy’s brother. Sentenced to 9 months in prison. Previously convicted in 2005 in England of sexually assaulting another young boy in the 1970s and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
• Priest Jailed for Molesting Boy on Holiday to Ireland in 1970s, by Sonya McLean, Irish Times (February 3, 2017)
Br. Donal Dunne CFC
“Br. John Brander”
• DUBLIN
Irish Christian Brothers
Pleaded guilty in 1998 to 17 charges of indecent assault in counties Offaly and Kilkenny in the 1960s and 1970s. Other victims came forward after that hearing. Sentenced to 2 years in prison on February 10, 1999 for sex offences in Dublin, Kilkenny, Offaly, and Longford, going back to abuse in Dublin in 1947. One survivor at the sentencing said: ‘We were all afraid of him. He was both bad and mad…. He was sexually molesting me one day and I hit him. He beat the pulp out of me and when I went home with a black eye my father said I probably deserved it.’
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
• Ryan report, ch 14 (“Br. John Brander”)
• Brother’s trail of abuse in school after school, by Eithne Donnellan, Irish Times (May 21, 2009)
Br. Paul Farrell CFC
• Galway, Kilmacduagh & Kilfenora
Irish Christian Brothers
Sentenced in July 2001 to 1 year in prison for 2 counts of indecent assault 1980-1982, when he was deputy director of St Joseph’s Industrial School in Salthill. Farrell pleaded not guilty was granted leave to appeal. His conviction was quashed on appeal.
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
• Brother’s abuse conviction is quashed by appeal court, Irish Independent (November 26, 2003)
• Indecent assault conviction is quashed, Irish Times, November 26, 2003
Fr. Malachy Finnegan
• Dromore
1953
ordination
Diocesan
Child sexual abuse allegations against Finnegan first became public in February 2018 through an investigation by BBC Northern Ireland. A BBC Spotlight episode called ”Buried Secrets” featured several of Finnegan’s victims, including one to whom the Dromore diocese had paid a financial settlement four months earlier. That victim had been sexually assaulted by Finnegan from 1989 to 1997, when he was aged 10 to 17, at the priest’s parochial house in the rural parish of Clonduff, Hilltown, County Down, Northern Ireland.
Finnegan, who died in January 2002, had also abused boys at St. Colman’s College, a prestigious Catholic boys’ secondary school in Newry, Northern Ireland. He taught there from 1967 to 1971 and again from 1973 to 1976, when he was appointed president of the school. He served in that post until 1987.
The Spotlight program reported that the allegations against Finnegan had been covered up by two successive bishops of Dromore – the late Francis Brooks (bishop from 1975 to 1999) and the then-current bishop John McAreavey (bishop from 1999 to 2018).
McAreavey said the church had received its first complaint against the priest in 1994, its second in 1998, and more allegations after the priest’s death in 2002. He admitted to knowing of a dozen other victims of Finnegan. The program also revealed that despite his knowledge of the priest’s crimes, McAreavey concelebrated a Mass with him in 2000 and presided at his funeral Mass in 2002.
The revelations of McAreavey’s prior knowledge and association with Finnegan triggered calls for his resignation. Parents in three Catholic primary schools in Dromore said they would refuse to let McAreavey confirm their children.
On March 1, 2018, McAreavey announced his resignation through a brief notice from his personal solicitor. It noted “media reports which have disturbed and upset many people in the diocese.” His resignation was accepted by Pope Francis on March 26, 2018.
Amidst the media coverage, more victims of Finnegan came forward. Clem Leneghan, the youngest brother of former president Mary McAleese, and senior Sinn Fein politician Conor Murphy both gave public accounts of being physically abused by the priest when they were students at St. Colman’s.
On a RTÉ broadcast in March 2018, Mary McAleese called for a public inquiry into the Finnegan case, and said the church had reason to suspect the priest since the 1970s, not the 1990s. She also said she hoped Pope Francis would go to Newry.
In late March 2018, following criticism of its inaction toward the priest in the 1990s, Northern Ireland’s police announced it had formed a special unit to investigate the circumstances surrounding Finnegan’s crimes. As of mid-April 2018, 18 of his victims had come forward.
• Fr Malachy Finnegan Was “Accused of 12 Abuse Cases”, BBC News (February 7, 2018)
• Fr Finnegan: Survivor Speaks of Sex Abuse “Secret”, BBC News (February 8, 2018)
• Church Settles Abuse Claims over Paedophile Priest Who Taught in Newry, by Allan Preston, Belfast Telegraph (February 8, 2018)
• Parents don’t want bishop confirming kids after he said funeral Mass for pervert priest, by Claire O’Boyle, Belfast Telegraph (February 23, 2018)
• Fr Malachy Finnegan victims complain to ombudsman, BBC News (February 27, 2018)
• Bishop John McAreavey resigns as Bishop of Dromore, by Susan Gately, CatholicIreland.net (March 2, 2018)
• Mary McAleese | Today with Sean O’Rourke, Interview of Mary McAleese, RTÉ (March 12, 2018)
• Call for public inquiry into response to child abuse allegations in NI, by Joe Little, RTÉ (March 14, 2018)
• Fr Malachy Finnegan: A child abuser and his victims, by Patsy McGarry, Irish Times (March 17, 2018)
• Paedophile priest Finnegan beat and tried to groom me, says Sinn Fein’s Murphy as he calls for answers for cleric’s victims, by David Young, PA, Belfast Telegraph (March 23, 2018)
• Fr Malachy Finegan: PSNI team investigates abuse, BBC News (March 27, 2018)
Fr. Seán Fortune
• Ferns
1979
ordination
Diocesan
Fortune was first accused of abuse when he was a student at St. Peter’s seminary in Wexford. The year of his ordination, a complaint reached Bishop Herlihy that Fortune was abusing scouts in the scout troop that he led. Colm O’Gorman made a complaint to the Garda in December 1995 that he had been raped by Fortune in the 1980s. In 1996, Fortune was removed from ministry after some delay. He challenged the charges in the High Court, delaying his trial, but the challenge was ultimately unsuccessful. Fortune took his own life on March 12, 1999. The BBC broadcast Suing the Pope on March 19, 2002, and Bishop Comiskey resigned on April 1, 2002 over his handling of the case as revealed in the documentary. O’Gorman met with Micheal Martin, the Minister for Health, and out of that meeting came Martin’s announcement of the Ferns inquiry. O’Gorman would go on to found One in Four.
• Diocese faces crisis over abuse claims, Wexford People (March 1995)
• Bishop’s praise for departing curate, Wexford People (March 1995)
• Priest charged with abuse of young males, Irish Times (November 16, 1995)
• ‘He had all the deadly sins except sloth’, by Alison O’Connor, Irish Times (March 15, 1999)
• High-profile curate’s actions and attitudes generated a great deal of local resentment, by Alison O’Connor, Irish Times (March 15, 1999)
• Man who loved the spotlight buckled under its glare, by Alison O’Connor, Irish Times (March 15, 1999)
• Cleric denied charges of sex abuse, by Alison O’Connor, Irish Times (March 15, 1999)
• RUC intended to seek extradition of priest over Belfast abuse cases, by Jim Cusack, Irish Times (March 15, 1999)
• Fortune case may put church under new sex-abuse scrutiny, by Alison O’Connor, Irish Times (March 15, 1999)
• ‘I wept for him – the tragedy now is he is a victim as well’, by Alison O’Connor, Irish Times (March 15, 1999)
• Bishop was told repeatedly about priest’s sex abuse, by Alison O’Connor, Irish Times (March 19, 1999)
• Many lived in fear of priest who caused so much pain, by Alison O’Connor, Irish Times (March 20, 1999)
• A cheat ’til the end, by Alison O’Connor, Irish Times (September 20, 2000)
• Fortune and the bishop, by Alison O’Connor, Irish Times (September 21, 2000)
• A Message from Heaven: The Life and Crimes of Father Sean Fortune, by Alison O’Connor (Dingle, Ireland: Brandon, 2000)
• Suing the Pope, BBC (March 19, 2002) see transcript
• Honourable thing for the bishop to do is apologise and then resign, by Alison O’Connor, Irish Times (March 23, 2002)
• Bishop’s statement of resignation, by Dr. Brendan Comiskey (April 1, 2002)
• The lurid litany of child sex abuse that has indicted an entire church, by Liam Collins, Irish Independent (April 7, 2002)
• Ferns report section 4.5 on allegations against Fortune
• Ferns report ch. 5, section on diocesan response regarding Fortune allegations
• Beyond Belief, by Colm O’Gorman (London, Hodder: 2010)
• Ferns Diocese: How the Story of Sexual Abuse Unfolded, Irish Times (March 3, 2010)
Fr. Bernard Gallagher
• Derry
Diocesan
Pleaded guilty in 1995 in Derry Crown Court to sexually abusing two girls in 1960-1964 beginning when the girls were age 10 and 12. Gallagher molested the girls during visits home to Derry when he was a seminarian in the Archdiocese of Southwark, England. In a later civil action claim, the two victims were awarded £60,000 compensation in the High Court in Belfast on December 4, 2003. The damages were awarded against Dr. Michael Bowen, Archbishop of Southwark.
• Sex abuse priest “not returning”, Irish Times (August 29, 1996)
• £60,000 award in case against jailed priest, Irish Independent, December 5, 2003
Fr. Donal Gallagher CM
• DUBLIN
1962
ordination
Vincentians
The Murphy report states that 14 complaints of child sexual abuse against Gallagher were known to the Commission, and that it is likely he abused many more children. He was treated for a half year at the Servants of the Paraclete facility at Stroud in 1989. Gallagher died in June 1994.
• Murphy report ch. 22
• Probe Reveals Sins of the Fathers, by Shane Phelan, Dearbhail Mcdonald, and Fiach Kelly, Irish Independent (November 27, 2009)
• Priests and Their Depraved Crimes, Belfast Telegraph (November 27, 2009)
• Sex abuse complaint lodged with Vincentians, by Claire O’Sullivan, Irish Examiner (November 28, 2009)
Fr. Martin Greaney
• TUAM
Diocesan
Sentenced in 1997 to seven years on 12 sample charges of indecently assaulting eight girls in a number of parishes over an 11-year period.
• Priest pleads guilty to five assaults in Co Mayo, Irish Times (October 24, 1996)
• Paedophile priest gets 7 years for indecent assaults on girls, Irish Times (November 20, 1997)
• Prelate deeply saddened by priest’s breach of trust, Irish Times (November 20, 1997)
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
• Court heard horrific detail of offending over three decades, by Brian McDonald, Irish Independent (October 31, 2005)
Fr. Eugene Greene
• Raphoe
Diocesan
Pleaded guilty on 12/9/99 to 40 sample charges of indecent assault, buggery, and gross indecency on 26 child victims between 1965 and 1982. There were 108 counts on the original indictment. Sentenced to 12 years in prison. Greene’s appeal of the sentence was dismissed on 7/30/01.
• Former priest in Donegal admits to sex assaults on altar boys, Irish Times (December 10, 1999)
• Appeal against 12-year prison sentence on priest is dismissed, Irish Times (July 31, 2001)
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
• Breaking the Silence: One Garda’s Quest to Find the Truth, by Martin Ridge (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 2008)
• Ex-garda lifts lid on decades of child abuse in Gaeltacht, by Anita Guidera, Irish Independent (April 4, 2008)
• Residents raise €50k for priest convicted of sex abuse, Tribune News (November 23, 2008)
Fr. Jim Grennan
• Ferns
Diocesan
Grennan was accused of molesting 10 girls while he heard their confessions in front of their assembled schoolmates in Monageer church, preparing for confirmation. The Ferns report describes the allegations of six girls (four of them survivors of the Monageer abuse), one boy (who attempted suicide rather than serve as an altar boy at Grennan’s funeral), and the parents of a fifth girl abused in Monageer.
One girl, called ‘Deborah’ in the report, alleged she was abused by Grennan starting at age 5 in the mid-1970s; at age seven Grennan tried to penetrate her. ‘Deborah’ said she wrote Bishop Comiskey in 1993 and 1995 about the abuse and didn’t get a reply. Comiskey says he didn’t receive the letters. ‘Debora’h took her own life in 2002.
Comiskey accompanied Grennan back to the Monageer church for the confirmation in 1988, and continued to support him, including in his authority over the national school, after a walkout at the confirmation ceremony.
Grennan died in 1994.
• Bishop declares he cooperated fully in sex abuse case, by Alison O’Connor, Irish Times (February 29, 1996)
• Ferns report section 4.4 on allegations against Grennan
• Ferns report ch. 5, section on diocesan response regarding Grennan allegations
• Bishop apologises to priest’s abuse victims, Irish Times (July 1, 2002)
• Victim to learn if she can access Comiskey files on sex abuse priest, by John Murphy, Irish Examiner (July 24, 2002)
• The evil in Ferns, by Fergal Keane, Magill (October 26, 2005)
• Ferns Diocese: How the Story of Sexual Abuse Unfolded, Irish Times (March 3, 2010)
Fr. Gus Griffin CSSp
• DUBLIN
1955
ordination
Holy Ghost Fathers
aka Spiritans
Former vocations director for the Holy Ghost Fathers.. Sentenced to seven and a half years in prison in 1998 for the sexual abuse of two boys. One boy was indecently assaulted at age 10 in 1976. The other was abused as a teenager 1981-1983; the abuse included buggery. One of the victims was assaulted by Griffin in the order’s headquarters, Kimmage Manor, Dublin, after the boy said he was interested in joining the order. The sentence was reduced to 18 months on appeal.
• Priest jailed for sexual abuse of boys, by Tomás Mac Ruairi, Irish Examiner (July 16, 1998)
• Priest gets 7 1/2 years for abuse of two boys, Irish Times (July 16, 1998)
• Court reduces sex abuse priest’s sentence to 18 months, by John Maddock, Irish Independent (October 13, 1998)
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
Br. Brendan John Halpin CFC
• Down and Connor
Irish Christian Brothers
Pleaded guilty to 25 charges of indecently assaulting two sisters (beginning when they were age 12 and 11) and their brother (beginning at age 8) between November 1975 and September 1981. Put on the RUC sex offenders’ register for 10 years. Jailed for two years on condition he serves two years probation on his release and attends sex therapy classes. Victims’ family chose to allow their name to be made public, so that Halpin’s name would be made public also.
• Ex Christan Brother jailed for abusing siblings, Irish Times (January 12, 2001)
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
• We all know a Tom Humphries, even if we don’t know we do, by Fintan O’Toole (October 28, 2017)
Br. John Hannon OFM
• DUBLIN
Franciscans
Received two different sentences of 10 years at different hearings after pleading guilty to a list of sexual assaults 1967-1976 in the midlands and west of Ireland. During the trial in Galway, it was stated that the mother of three of the girls victimized at Corofin in Co Galway confronted her parish priest and the education authorities, and they did nothing to prevent the abuse.Hannon was moved to Clara, Co Offaly, where he abused a boy 1973-1977. That victim made a statement to the gardai in 1996 which ultimately led to Hannon’s imprisonment. The victim received a six-figure settlement in 2004.
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
• Franciscan Brother’s victim to get six-figure sum from state, by Paul Melia, Irish Independent (July 26, 2004) (One in Four)
Fr. Patrick Hughes
Diocesan
In 2010, pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault against an altar boy aged 11 to 14 in 1979-1983. Sentenced to a year in prison.
• Cardinal Secrets, by Mike Peelo, RTE (October 17, 2002) [segment beginning at 38:02; no longer available online]
• Cardinal Criticised Over Priest Reference, Irish Times (October 17, 2002)
• Former Priest Who Sexually Abused Boy Jailed for One Year, Irish Times (February 3, 2010)
Fr. Andrew Gerard (Gerry) Kearns
• Kilmore
Diocesan
Pleaded guilty in Cavan Circuit Court on November 26, 2013 to five charges of indecent assault on two boys age 10 in the 1980s. Received a custodial sentence of four years in prison with the last three suspended, and his name was added to the Register of Sex Offenders.
At sentencing, one victim stated that the assaults meant he “never had a childhood”. He experienced “blackouts”, had “years of counselling”, was “surrounded by guilt”, was beset by trust issues and burdened with “carrying secrets”. Because of the abuse he “couldn’t love”, “couldn’t have relationships”. He has “no kids, no job… I’ve none of that”.
• Cavan Priest Jailed for Abuse of Two Boys Aged Ten Years, by Paul Neilan, The Anglo-Celt (March 20, 2014)
• Bishop Apologises to Kearns” Victims, by Paul Neilan, The Anglo-Celt (March 21, 2014)
Br. Joseph Keegan OFM
• DUBLIN
Franciscans
Pleaded guilty in April 1999 to eight sample counts of gross indecency and indecent assaults out of a total of 57 against two altar boys and three football players, all under 13 years old. Some of the boys were molested beginning at age 7 and 8. Two had attempted suicide after the abuse, and one had been assaulted more than 100 times. Keegan was sentenced to six years in prison.
• Sex assault victim lashes out at friar abuser, by Sean O’Driscoll, Irish Independent, April 23, 1999
• Franciscan brother gets six years for sexual abuse, RTE, April 29, 1999
• Franciscan brother gets six years for sex abuse, Irish Times, April 30, 1999
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
Br. James Kelly CFC
(Br. Ambrose)
“Br. Dieter”
• Galway, Kilmacduagh & Kilfenora
• Cork and Ross
Irish Christian Brothers
Jailed for 36 years in 1999 for sexually abusing numerous young boys in his care in the 1950s and 1960s in Galway, and Our Lady of Good Counsel school for children with learning disabilities at Lota. He was released after serving just three years.
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
• Ryan report, (“Br. Dieter”)
• Criminals in All but Name, Sunday Tribune (May 31, 2009)
Br. Patrick John Kelly CFC
(Br. Jack Kelly)
Irish Christian Brothers
Jailed for 8 years in 1999 for sexual assaults on 11 boys over a 12-year period.
• €250,000 For Man Abused in School, Star (9/8/04) One in Four “schools”
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
• Some of Those Convicted in Abuse Cases, Irish Independent (November 25, 2009)
Fr. Peter Kennedy
Kiltegan Fathers
St. Patrick’s Missionary Society
S.P.S.
Police in Ireland took statements from 17 people who alleged they were sexually abused by Kennedy; the alleged incidents centered around the midlands. Kiltegan Fathers settled in 2004 for €325K with a man allegedly molested by Kennedy in 1982. Persistent complaints received by the order of abuse since the late 1960s, when Kennedy was a missionary priest in Africa. Moved to London in 1980s; left England in 2003 after it emerged he was the subject of a major Garda investigation. Extradited, tried, and convicted in Ireland; sentenced in 2013 to 10 years in prison for abusing 18 boys.
• Sex case ex-priest believed to be in Brazil, by Liam Reid, Irish Times (January 7, 2004)
• Ex-Priest Kennedy fights extradition to face abuse claims, by Patsy McGarry, Irish Times (January 6, 2012)
• Former priest and missionary jailed for ten years for abusing 18 boys, Irish Times (July 9, 2013)
Br. Robert Keoghan OFM
• Galway, Kilmacduagh & Kilfenora
Franciscans
Sentenced to two years in prison in July 2001 for abusing eight boys in Galway 1969-1972. During his trial, it came out that Keoghan had been abused while a boy at the Franciscan seminary in Offaly; he was said to have not abused any child since he left the order in 1977.
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
Fr. Christopher Kilkelly
• TUAM
Diocesan
Charged in 2002 with sexually abusing a young boy at the Letterfrack Industrial School in Connemara in 1957 and 1958. Kilkelly denied the two charges and asked that his name not be made public. Judge John Garavan denied the request.
• Cleric accused of abuse fails to keep name secret, by Brian McDonald, Irish Independent (May 24, 2002)
• Letterfrack priest on abuse charges, Irish Times (May 24, 2002)
Fr. John Kinsella
• DUBLIN
1973
ordination
Diocesan
Pleaded guilty at Wicklow circuit court to four counts of indecent assault 28 years ago on two brothers, then aged 12 and 13. Sentenced to eight years in prison. Kinsella, originally from Arklow, has been working in the UK since 1973, just after the offences occurred. He admitted bringing the boys on different occasions to his hotel room in Lourdes and to his presbytery in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, where he gave them alcohol, assaulted them and forced them to engage in oral sex.
• Priest guilty of sex abuse jailed, Irish Times (February 24, 1999)
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
• Murphy report, ch. 38
• Abuse priests ‘frequently escaped jail’, by John Downes, Sunday Tribune (November 29, 2009)
Fr. Eugene Lewis WF
• DUBLIN
1958
ordination
White Fathers
Society of Missionaries of Africa
Accused of 11 charges alleging indecent assault involving three sisters in 1963-1973. Lewis denied the charges. He is the former Superior of the White Fathers’ House at St. Augustine’s College at Blacklion. He was convicted in 2010 and sentenced to four years in prison
On appeal, his legal team argued that issues around excessive delay, contaminated evidence and the admissibility of supposed “reprehensible” behaviour would cast doubt over a guilty verdict.
In 2012, the Court of Appeal overturned three of 11 counts and reduced his sentence to two years and nine months; he was released for time served.
Lewis continued to insist he was innocent and worked to overturn the remaining charges.
• Priest on Sex Charges, The Anglo-Celt (October 21, 2009)
• Priest in Tyrone Court on Sex Charges, RTE News (November 20, 2009)
• Woman Denies Making Rape Allegation against Priest to Secure Compensation, Irish Times (April 27, 2010)
• Sister Tells of Abuse by Priest in Family Home, Fermanagh Herald (April 28, 2010)
• Priest Accused of Abuse Claims He Is at Centre of ‘Family Witch Hunt’, Fermanagh Herald (May 12, 2010)
• Fr Eugene Lewis Denies He Abused Sisters, BBC News (May 12, 2010)
• He was once lauded around the world for his missionary work, Belfast Telegraph (May 28, 2010)
• Abusing Priest Fr Eugene Lewis Jailed for Four Years, BBC News (September 2, 2010)
• Priest Abuse Conviction ‘Unsafe’, UTV (November 28, 2011)
• Priest Wins Appeal over Sex Conviction, UTV (January 17, 2012)
• Jail term of child abuse priest is cut, by Alan Erwin, Belfast Telegraph (January 18, 2012)
• Priest Convicted of Sexually Abusing Young Sisters Steps up, Fermanagh Herald (November 14, 2013)
• Priest who sexually assaulted young sisters has success in appeals court, Fermanagh Herald (February 27, 2014
Br. Vincent Lewis OCSO
• Down and Connor
Cistercians
Sentenced to eight and one half years of prison for the abuse up to 1983 of three boys, and another year added on. Left the Trappists at age 50 and married. Had been assigned to Our Lady of Bethlehem Abbey in Portglenone, Ballymena, Co Antrim, where he reportedly was a printer of memorial and Mass cards. Two of his victims were brothers, one of whom was abused for four years, beginning at age nine in 1979. Brother of Fr. Eugene Lewis WF, see above.
• ‘Evil’ ex-monk (89) who abused boys after leaving monastery has jail term increased, by Michael Donnelly, Belfast Telegraph (February 10, 2018)
Fr. Donncha Mac Cárthaigh MSC
• Cork and Ross
Sacred Heart Missionaries
Named under Senate privilege by Senator Mark Daly, who told the Senate that six men and a woman had lodged allegations of sexual abuse against Mac Cartaigh between 1986 and 2008.
• Cork Priest Accused of Child Abuse Named in Senate, by Cathal Dervan, Irish Central (July 28, 2011)
• Carrignavar school ‘a concentration camp’, say ex-pupils, by Claire O’Sullivan, Irish Examiner (August 3, 2011)
Fr. Patrick Maguire SSC
• DUBLIN
Society of St. Columban
Given an 18-month sentence in England in 1988 on 4 charges of sexual assault. Sentenced to 6 years in prison in Dundalk in 2000 on 8 charges of sexual assault. Given a 3-year suspended sentence in Dublin for molesting 2 boys.
– Priest who abused five boys jailed for six years, Irish Times (March 22, 2000)
• Priest gets suspended term for molesting boys, Irish Times (February 3, 2007)
• Murphy report, ch. 16
• Probe Reveals Sins of the Fathers, by Shane Phelan, Dearbhail Mcdonald, and Fiach Kelly, Irish Independent (November 27, 2009)
• Priests and Their Depraved Crimes, Belfast Telegraph (November 27, 2009)
• Martin: Is there a paedophile ring? by Maeve Sheehan, Irish Independent (November 29, 2009)
• Most Priest Abusers Had Free Rein in Schools, by Mary Raftery, Irish Times (December 14, 2009)
• Abuse by Irish Priest Could Be Tip of Iceberg, by Michael Bradley, Japan Times (October 2, 2012)
• Half allegations against Columbans involved one priest, by Patsy McGarry, Irish Times (May 12, 2014)
Br. Francis Patrick Mallon OSM
• ARMAGH
Servites
Sentenced in May 1994 to three months in prison for abusing three girls on the grounds of the Servite Priory at Benburb, Co Tyrone.
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
Fr. Henry Maloney
• DUBLIN
Diocesan
Pleaded guilty in 2000 to 3 counts of indecent assault of 2 boys age 12 in 1971-1972 at St Mary’s College, Rathmines, Dublin, where Maloney taught 1968-1973. Sentenced to 15 months in prison.
• Priest jailed for indecently assaulting two 12-year-olds at Dublin school, Irish Times (July 21, 2000)
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
Fr. Francis Markey
• Clogher
Diocesan
Wanted in Ireland on charges of twice raping a 15-year-old boy in 1968. Extradited from the U.S., where Markey had joined the Servants of the Paraclete. Died in Ireland in September 2012 while awaiting trial for buggery.
• Priest Accused of Sex Abuse Losing Fight against Extradition, by Jeff Parrott, WSBT (February 12, 2010)
– Anderson Timeline for Markey (2012)
Fr. Patrick McCabe
• DUBLIN
• Santa Rosa CA
Diocesan
Arrested in California in August 2010 and extradited to Ireland in June 2011. Jailed in 2012 for indecently assaulting five boys. Pleaded guilty on March 22, 2013 to assaulting two boys, one at the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin in 1979 at age 13, and the other, James Moran, at Newbridge College in Kildare, Ireland, in 1977, also at age 13. On January 15, 1977, McCabe ‘changed the path of my life forever.’ The assault on Moran is related at the beginning of the restored Chapter 20 of the Murphy report, and in more detail at 20.9. This was apparently the first complaint about McCabe, made at the time of the assault. The 18-month sentence was backdated by the judge and McCabe was freed.
After two other reports of abuse, McCabe was sent first to Stroud and then to the Servants of the Paraclete facility in Jemez Springs NM in 1983. Then he was assigned in the Santa Rosa CA diocese. In 2010, four boys would file suit alleging that McCabe abused them. Three of the victims settled for $550K in 2012.
The Murphy report states that Archbishop Ryan protected McCabe, and it found the gardaí’s connivance with the church shocking.
• Murphy report, ch. 20 (November 26, 2009; partially redacted)
• Murphy report, ch. 20; enhanced text of redacted version
• Santa Rosa Diocese Sued by Alleged Abuse Victim, by Juliana Barbassa, Press-Enterprise (August 19, 2010)
• Victim Impact Statement, by James Moran, 37 Year Wait (March 1, 2013; presented March 22, 2013)
• Former priest to be freed as 18-month term for abuse backdated, Irish Times (March 22, 2018)
• Ex-priest Patrick McCabe sentenced for child abuse, BBC News (March 22, 2013)
• Murphy report, ch. 20 (with redacted portions restored after conclusion of criminal case)
• Former North Coast priest sent to Irish prison in molestation cases, Press Democrat (March 24, 2013)
Fr. John McCallum
• Down and Connor
Diocesan
Former hospital chaplain and parish priest of Kilcoo, Newry, Co Down. Sentenced to a year in prison for possession of child abuse images. Admitted 25 sample charges covering 320 photographs and nine movie files was also put on the police sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
• Priest jailed for child porn offences, Irish Times (October 28, 2005)
• The Ferns Report: Catalogue of abuse spreads throughout the north, by Diana Rusk, Irish News (October 27, 2005)
Fr. Gerard John McCallion OCSO
• Derry
Cistercian Trappists
Sentenced to two years in prison in January 1996 after pleading guilty to nine charges of indecent assault of two girls aged nine and 10 between May 1987 and August 1988.Laicized in the 1990s after admitting abuse of three Derry primary school girls in the Creggan parochial house. In November 1997 admitted indecently assaulting a young female patient in Altnagelvin Hospital after a charge of raping her was dropped at Belfast Crown Court. Judge called McCallion a ‘sexual parasite’. Given an 18 month jail-term, suspended for three years. At Letterkenny Circuit Court in 1998 he admitted indecently assaulting a seven year-old girl at a house in Lifford. Reportedly investigated in 2010 for alleged abuse of a boy in the town of Derry.
• The Ferns Report: Catalogue of abuse spreads throughout the north, by Diana Rusk, Irish News (October 27, 2005)
• Ex-priest faces more child abuse claims, Derry Journal, April 16, 2010
• Fresh allegations against former Derry priest, BBC, April 16, 2010
Br. Thomas McCarry CFC
• Meath
Irish Christian Brothers
Pleaded guilty on July 15, 2014 to six charges of indecently assaulting two young boys in the late 1980s at St Mary’s CBS primary school in Mullingar, where McCarry taught for more than 20 years.
Admitted on October 9, 2014 to sample charges of indecently assaulting four boys as young as 10 at St Mary’s CBS primary school in Mullingar between 1984 and 1987. Jailed for two years at Mullingar Circuit Court sitting in Tullamore. This concluded a ten-year investigation by detectives in Mullingar.
Two of the four victims had attempted suicide, one writing his impact statement from a psychiatric ward after the attempt. ‘I tried my best to fight the shame, depression, fear, anger.’
All the victims described McCarry approaching them from behind in class and fondling them skin to skin. One remembered McCarry threatening him, saying, ‘I’ll frighten the life out of you,’ as he started to assault him. ‘I was afraid of him.’
• Christian Brother facing 18 charges of indecent assault, Westmeath Examiner (February 21, 2013)
• Christian Brother in court over alleged indecent assault, Mullingar Advertiser (February 22, 2013)
• Former Christian Brother pleads guilty to indecent assault charges, Westmeath Examiner (July 16, 2014)
• Horrific: Court hears as how a former Christian Brother sexually abused boys as young as 10 in classroom, by Michael McKeowen, The Liberal (October 1, 2014)
• Christian Brother jailed for sexually abusing schoolboys, Irish Times (October 9, 2014)
• Christian Brother jailed for sexually abusing boys, Irish Examiner (October 10, 2014)
• Christian Brother jailed for sexually abusing schoolboys, Westmeath Topic (October 22, 2014)
Fr. Francis (Frank) McCarthy
• DUBLIN
Diocesan
Pleaded guilty to abusing an orphan and a young victim from Dunlavin in 1997. Received a suspended sentence.
• Cardinal Secrets, by Mike Peelo, RTE (October 17, 2002) [segment beginning at 17:52; no longer available online]
• Murphy report, ch. 41
• Probe Reveals Sins of the Fathers, by Shane Phelan, Dearbhail Mcdonald, and Fiach Kelly, Irish Independent (November 27, 2009)
• Priests and Their Depraved Crimes, Belfast Telegraph (November 27, 2009)
• Martin: Is there a paedophile ring? by Maeve Sheehan, Irish Independent (November 29, 2009)
Fr. Paul McDaid
• Raphoe
1989
ordination
Diocesan
Pleaded guilty to having child pornographic images in his possession; a total of 3,474 child abuse images were found between a laptop computer, a CD and a floppy disk seized by the gardai.
• Former priest convicted of child porn offence, Irish Times (October 15, 2003)
Fr. Patrick McDonagh SDS
Salvatorians
Pleaded guilty to eight counts of sexual and indecent assault on 4 girls in Dublin, Limerick, and Roscommon in 1965-1990. The victims were 7, 6, 10, and 6 years old at the time of the abuse. Admitted he abused 6 more victims but refused to name them.
• Priest gets four years for sexual abuse, Irish Times, December 20, 2007
• Religious Order Covered up for Paedophile Priest Who Abused up to 100 Children, by Sarah MacDonald, Irish Independent (May 5, 2016)
Fr. Paul McGennis
• DUBLIN
1957
ordination
Diocesan
Fr. Paul McGennis is a serial abuser of many little girls; he also photographed and taped his victims. Archbishop John McQuaid learned that McGennis was producing child abuse images in 1960, when a film developer in England found in his film (according to McQuaid’s own notes) ’26 transparencies … of the private parts of two small girls, aged 10 or 11 years’ and notified the authorities, who turned the investigation over to McQuaid. The archbishop prevented it from going forward.
The girls were patients at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, a Southside suburb of Dublin. Marie Collins, 13 years old and recovering from surgery, was assaulted and photographed by McGennis at the same hospital in 1960. She reported the abuse in 1985 to her local curate, Fr. Eddie Griffin, who told her it was probably her fault, offered her absolution, and refused to hear McGennis’s name. ‘This response shattered me,’ Collins would later say.
In 1993, the Dublin archdiocese received a report that McGennis, now a curate in Edenmore in north Dublin, was behaving inappropriately with girls. These reports were not investigated, but would later be confirmed. Collins wrote to Cardinal Desmond Connell in 1995, beginning the ‘two most difficult years of my life.’ McGennis was left in ministry with access to children, though he had admitted his guilt, and Connell was not candid with Collins or the gardaí. He considered the new archdiocesan abuse guidelines to be optional.
In 1996, a woman came forward who had been molested by McGennis in Co Wicklow in 1977-1979 beginning at age nine. McGennis was arrested; he pleaded guilty in June 1997 to abusing Collins, the ‘beginning of recovery’ for her; he pleaded guilty to the Wicklow assaults also. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, reduced to nine on appeal.
After revelations beginning in 2001, the Murphy report, released on November 26, 2009, described in detail the case of Fr. McGennis, whom it called Fr. Edmondus. The report assessed McQuaid’s actions in 1960 to have been a ‘disaster’ – he established ‘a pattern of not holding abusers accountable which lasted for decades.’ Murphy credited Collins ‘in her brave and often lonely campaign’ with being ‘instrumental in changing the Archdiocese’s understanding and handling of these cases.’
In 2011, McGennis pleaded guilty to assaulting a girl in 1980-1984, beginning at age 11, raping her every other week, and threatening her family with excommunication if she told. The victim attempted suicide twice in later life. McGennis was sentenced to two years in prison. He is still a priest, albeit under restrictions.
Collins served 2014-2017 on the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
• McQuaid told of priest’s ‘indecent’ pictures, by Patsy McGarry, Irish Times (July 4, 1997)
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
• Cardinal’s apology ‘pretaliation’, by Liam Reid, Tribune (October 6, 2002)
• Cardinal Secrets, by Mike Peelo, RTE (October 17, 2002) [segment beginning at 41:16]
• Abusive priests moved from parish to parish as complaints ignored, by Patsy McGarry, Irish Times (November 9, 2005)
• Abuse Probe ‘Worse Than Expected’, by John Cooney, Irish Independent (February 21, 2006)
• Cardinal Is Accused of Abuse Files Cover-Up, by Dearbhail McDonald and John Cooney, Irish Independent (February 1, 2008)
• Abuse of Trust, Jerome Hughes, TV3 (2009) 1 2 3 4 5
• Murphy report, ch. 13 (“Fr. Edmondus”)
• Probe Reveals Sins of the Fathers, by Shane Phelan, Dearbhail Mcdonald, and Fiach Kelly, Irish Independent (November 27, 2009)
• Priests and Their Depraved Crimes, Belfast Telegraph (November 27, 2009)
• Abuse priests ‘frequently escaped jail’, by John Downes, Sunday Tribune (November 29, 2009)
• Victim Impact Statement, Irish Examiner (July 1, 2011)
• Ex-priest’s apology for ‘torture’ of sex abuse, by Niamh O’Donoghue, Irish Examiner (July 2, 2011)
• Priest ‘Profoundly Sorry’ for Abusing Girl from Age of 11, by Dearbhail McDonald and Niamh O’Donoghue, Irish Independent (July 2, 2011)
• Justice Finally Catches up with Disgraced Paedophile Priest (81), by Breda Heffernan, Irish Independent (July 30, 2011)
• Collins’s determination helped end church cover-up of decades, by Patsy McGarry, Irish Times (July 30, 2011)
• Abuse Survivor Battled Secretive Church for 26 Years, by Breda Heffernan, Irish Independent (July 30, 2011)
• McQuaid’s Actions Aimed at Avoiding Scandal – without Concern for Young, by Patsy McGarry, Irish Times (December 8, 2011)
• Talk at the Toward Healing and Renewal Conference, Pontifical Gregorian University, by Marie Collins, February 6, 2012
• ‘His house was always filled with children but as a teenager I shrugged it off’, by Derek Scally, Irish Times (January 26, 2017)
Br. John McKenna CFC
• Galway, Kilmacduagh & Kilfenora
Irish Christian Brothers
After the Letterfrack investigation, charged with 15 counts of indecently assaulting three boys at Letterfrack Industrial School 1968-1970. Given a three-year suspended sentence in 2002.
• Many Concealed by Pseudonyms Were Known Paedophiles, Sunday Business Post (May 31, 2009)
• Some of Those Convicted in Abuse Cases, Irish Independent (November 25, 2009)
Fr. Tom McNamara
• Killaloe
Diocesan
Identified by the St. Augustine diocese in FL in US as accused of “inappropriately touching” three youths 1966-1968. McNamara also perpetrated similar assaults on ‘a number of victims’, all of them teenage boys, in Ireland during the 1970s and 1980s, Bishop Willie Walsh confirmed.
• Book reveals murderer was abuse victim, by Gordon Deegan, Irish Times (June 25, 2004)
• Abusive Priest Left Sex Trail in Ireland, by Jeff Brumley, Florida Times-Union (December 4, 2004)
Fr. James McNamee
• DUBLIN
1942
ordination
Diocesan
According to the Murphy report: ‘At least 21 people have made complaints of sexual abuse against Fr McNamee. These complaints date back to his period as a curate in Rolestown between 1950 and 1952, as a curate in Halston Street and Arran Quay between 1952 and 1960, as a curate in Harrington Street from 1960 to 1968 and in Crumlin, both as a curate between 1968 and 1973 and as parish priest between 1973 and 1979. ‘
• Murphy report, ch. 12
• Probe Reveals Sins of the Fathers, by Shane Phelan, Dearbhail Mcdonald, and Fiach Kelly, Irish Independent (November 27, 2009)
• Priests and Their Depraved Crimes, Belfast Telegraph (November 27, 2009)
• Abuse priests ‘frequently escaped jail’, by John Downes, Sunday Tribune (November 29, 2009)
Fr. Michael Gerard McQuillan
• ARMAGH
Diocesan
Convicted in November 2004 of 40 sexual abuse charges involving five children, four boys and a girl who was the sister of one of the boys. McQuillan met the children when he was the chaplain at a school in County Armagh. Sentenced to 12 years in prison.
• Priest jailed for child sex abuse, BBC (November 12, 2004)
• The Ferns Report: Catalogue of abuse spreads throughout the north, by Diana Rusk, Irish News (October 27, 2005)
Fr. Vincent Mercer OP
• Cork and Ross
Dominicans
Pleaded guilty to 13 sample charges of indecently assaulting 5 boys at Dominican colleges in Newbridge and Knockadoon Camp in Cork in 1970-1977. Originally faced 49 charges of sexually abusing young boys.
• Man pleads guilty to indecent assaults, RTE News (February 15, 2005)
• Ex-principal of college sentenced for abuse, by Martin Wall, Irish Times (March 2, 2005)
• Dominican Priest Remanded over Abuse, by Barry Roche, Irish Times (November 15, 2012)
Fr. John Molloy
• TUAM
Diocesan
Convicted of gross indecency against a boy under six between 1985 and 1987 and sexual assault of a 10-year-old boy in 1991. Sentenced in 2003 to a prison term of 12 months on each count, to run concurrently.
• Ex-priest jailed for 12 months for sex abuse, Irish Times (January 22, 2003)
Fr. Michael Molloy
• Kilmore
Diocesan
Pleaded guilty to two counts of defilement of a boy in his early teens and one of possession of child pornography in 2006-2007. Molloy compelled the boy to give him oral sex and surrepticiously filmed the boy doing so. Sentenced to five years in prison.
• Priest Jailed for 5 Years for Abuse, by Elaine Keogh, Irish Times (November 23, 2009)
Fr. Henry Moloney CSSp
Holy Ghost Fathers
aka Spiritans
Convicted of sexually abusing 4 boys in the late 1960s and early 1970s at St Mary’s College in Rathmines, where Moloney was dean of discipline, junior form tutor, and rugby coach.
• Priest gets suspended term for sex assaults on students, Irish Times (March 20, 2009)
• Ex-priest Guilty of Indecent Assaults on Pupil, by Conor Kane, Irish Examiner (December 2, 2015)
• Ex-Rockwell Priest Jailed for Four Years for Abusing Schoolboy, by Conor Kane, Irish Times (December 15, 2015)
Fr. Harry Moore
• DUBLIN
Diocesan
Pleaded guilty to buggery and indecent assault 1984-1985. Given suspended sentences of seven years for the two counts of buggery and three years for the indecent assaults. Charges reduced to four from the original 18, according to the Murphy report.
• Suspended jail terms for priest who sexually abused teenager, Irish Times (May 12, 2005)
• Murphy report, ch. 26
• Probe Reveals Sins of the Fathers, by Shane Phelan, Dearbhail Mcdonald, and Fiach Kelly, Irish Independent (November 27, 2009)
• Priests and Their Depraved Crimes, Belfast Telegraph (November 27, 2009)
Fr. Michael Mullins
• Cork and Ross
Diocesan
Pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault. Sentenced in 1991 to eight years in prison by the Central Criminal Court for ‘a brutal assault’ of a boy age 17 he had brought to his rented home in Cork that year. Mullins was a native of Cork, based in Ottawa.
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
Fr. James Murphy
• Ossory
Diocesan
Pleaded guilty in 2000 to 3 charges of indecently assaulting 2 girls in a south Leinster town in 1969-1970, and was given a 5-year suspended sentence. The girls were aged 14 and 10 when the abuse began.
• Ex-priest admits sexual assaults, Irish Times (October 28, 2000)
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
Fr. James Murphy
• Cork and Ross
Diocesan
Sentenced in an English court on 7/28/00 on charges of indecent assault. After that abuse, Murphy had worked as a parish priest in Ireland in 1992-1999.
• Cork curate pleads guilty to abuse of boys in London 20 years ago, by Dick Horgan, Irish Times (June 27, 2000)
• Bishop says diocese did not know of priest’s sex abuse, Irish Times (July 31, 2000)
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
Fr. Thomas Murphy
• Cloyne
Diocesan
Estate of this deceased priest was sued in 2009 for damages relating to his alleged sexual abuse in 1991 of a 14-year-old boy at St Colman’s College, Fermoy, where Murphy taught. Murphy denied the abuse. Called “Fr Baird” in Cloyne report. Died in August 2004.
• Priest’s Estate Sued over Alleged Abuse, by Barry Roche, One in Four (April 12, 2008)
• Only one priest in report has been convicted in court, by Barry Roche, Irish Times (July 15, 2011)
Mr. David Murray
“Thomas Pleece”
• Ossory
Layperson
According to the Ryan report, ‘Thomas Pleece’, Ryan’s pseudonym for Murray, ‘admitted sexual abuse in St Joseph’s, as well as in St Augustine’s where he had worked previously, and also to abusing two boys fostered by him after he left St Joseph’s. He was indicted on 271 counts and received a 10-year sentence in October 1997.’
• €370,000 for man abused by care worker, Irish Times (March 2, 2005 )
• Ryan Report 14.202-214 (May 20, 2009)
• Homeless activist denies knowledge of abuse at school, by Alison Healy, Irish Times (May 23, 2009)
Fr. Thomas Naughton SPS
• DUBLIN
Kiltegan Fathers
St. Patrick’s Missionary Society
St. Patrick’s Missionary Society priest working in Dublin archdiocese. Sentenced in 7/98 to three years in prison for abusing 4 altar boys. Settlement in 1/03 with survivor Mervyn Rundle, reportedly for over 300K euros.
• Priest (67) gets three years’ prison for sexual abuse of four altar boys, Irish Times (July 23, 1998)
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
• Cardinal Secrets, by Mike Peelo, RTE (October 17, 2002) [segment beginning at 33:03; no longer available online]
• The Rundle case: How it unfolded, Irish Times (January 29, 2003)
• Abusive priests moved from parish to parish as complaints ignored, by Patsy McGarry, Irish Times (November 9, 2005)
• Murphy report, ch. 29
• Probe Reveals Sins of the Fathers, by Shane Phelan, Dearbhail Mcdonald, and Fiach Kelly, Irish Independent (November 27, 2009)
• Priests and Their Depraved Crimes, Belfast Telegraph (November 27, 2009)
• A Cop, a Priest and a Campaign of Vilification, by Maeve Sheehan, Irish Independent (August 2, 2009)
• Abuse priests ‘frequently escaped jail’, by John Downes, Sunday Tribune (November 29, 2009)
• Most Priest Abusers Had Free Rein in Schools, by Mary Raftery, Irish Times (December 14, 2009)
• Priest Jailed for Two Years for Abusing Boy, by Alison Healy, Irish Times (December 16, 2009)
Fr. Denis Nolan
• DUBLIN
Diocesan
Convicted in March 2016 of six counts of oral rape, defilement, and sexual assault of a boy age 10-11 in Nolan’s home 2005-2006 and sentenced to eight years in prison. Was already serving time for sexually abusing a different child.
• Ex priest raped boy he paid for gardening, Sunday World (May 16, 2017)
Fr. Oliver O’Grady
• CASHEL AND EMLY
Diocesan
Seminarian at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Thurles in the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly, where it may have already been known that O’Grady was a pedophile. Moved to U.S. in 1971 and worked in the Stockton CA diocese. Imprisoned for 7 years in California for sexual abuse and then deported to Ireland in 2000, where he initially lived in Dublin. Now reportedly living in Holland.
• US victims may sue Irish training dioceses, by Seán O’Driscoll and Patsy McGarry, Irish Times (November 15, 2005)
• ‘Hannibal’ priest faces new abuse lawsuits, by Ali Bracken, Sunday Tribune (June 8, 2008)
• Paedophile priest O’Grady flees Ireland for Holland, by Ali Bracken, Tribune News (May 17, 2009)
Br. Diarmuid Ó Luanaigh CFC
(Br. Cyril)
• DUBLIN
Irish Christian Brothers
On June 23, 2010, just before trial in Circuit Criminal Court, Ó Luanaigh pleaded guilty on 10 charges of indecently assaulting 7 boys age 8 to 10. As a maths teacher, he assaulted some boys at Synge St primary school in 1965-1967. As principal at Colaiste Padraig secondary school at Roselawn in Lucan, he assaulted boys in 1970-1972. On July 13, 2010, Ó Luanaigh was sentenced to 12 months in jail for indecently assaulting six of the boys.
Ó Luanaigh reportedly left the Christian Brothers in 1972, married in 1974, and had 3 children. His wife attended the hearing when he pleaded guilty, as did three of his victims.
The Granada Institute stated he was at a very low risk of reoffending, but Judge Katherine Delahunt imposed the custodial sentence in light of the serious nature of the crimes, the very late guilty plea, the gross breach of trust, and the effect the crimes had on the victims.
One victim testified that he was abused more than 20 times and the abuse only stopped after he told his parents and they kept him out of school for three weeks.
• Ex-Brother to be sentenced for boys’ abuse, by Charlie Mallon, Herald (June 23, 2010)
• Former Brother jailed for assaulting children, RTÉ (July 13, 2010)
Fr. James J. O’Malley
• CASHEL AND EMLY
Diocesan
Ordained in Ireland in 1946 and worked there until he was transferred in 1950 to the Spokane diocese in the U.S. Accused of molesting at least 7 altar boys there, and possibly as many as 15, including one who filed suit in 2003, alleging abuse in 1981-1982, and others who filed suit in 2004. Included by the Spokane diocese in its list of “admitted, proven or credibly accused perpetrators of sexual abuse.” Died April 2007 in Ireland.
• Suit claims diocese knew priest was pedophile, by Virginia de Leon, Spokesman Review (July 10, 2003)
• Priest removed from US post after sex abuse claims, by Sean O’Driscoll, Irish Times (July 26, 2003)
• Spokane diocese settles second sex abuse claim, The Associated Press (September 20, 2003)
• Lawsuits Allege Abuse by Priests, by Benjamin Shors and Kevin Blocker, Spokesman Review (January 21, 2004)
• Abuse lawsuits divide victims, by Virginia De Leon, The Spokesman-Review (January 30, 2005)
• Admitted, Proven or Credibly Accused Perpetrators of Sexual Abuse, Catholic Diocese of Spokane (November 3, 2009)
Fr. Ivan Payne
• DUBLIN
Diocesan
Pleaded guilty in January 1998 to sexually abusing 10 boys, including Andrew Madden, whose abuse was reported to the archdiocese in 1981, and who went public in 1994-1995 after the archdiocese funded Madden’s May 1993 settlement and then denied financial involvement. After Madden went public, other survivors made complaints to the archdiocese and to the Gardaí. Payne was in prison 1998-2002. The Commission was aware by 2009 of 31 people who had accused Ivan Payne of sexually abusing them when they were children – 16 allege abuse at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Payne’s second assignment (1968-1974), and 15 allege subsequent abuse, while Payne was working in parishes and on the Dublin Regional Marriage Tribunal (1976-1995), and serving as archdiocesan Vice Officialis (1985-1995) and President of the Canon Law Association of Great Britain and Ireland (1991-1995).
• By the time I was four years old, by Andrew Madden, Sunday World (May 3, 1998)
• Payne got £30,000 church loan, by Patsy McGarry, Irish Times (June 24, 1998)
• Five to take civil actions after priest is jailed for two years, by Patsy McGarry and Colm Keena, Irish Times (June 24, 1998)
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
• Cardinal’s apology ‘pretaliation’, by Liam Reid, Tribune (October 6, 2002)
• Cardinal Secrets, by Mike Peelo, RTE (October 17, 2002) [segment beginning at 22:56; no longer available online]
• Altar Boy: A Story of Life After Abuse, by Andrew Madden (London: Penguin, 2003)
• Abusive priests moved from parish to parish as complaints ignored, by Patsy McGarry, Irish Times (November 9, 2005)
• Paedophile priest Ivan Payne lives near school, by Claire Murphy, Herald.ie (February 24, 2009)
• Murphy report, ch. 24
• Probe Reveals Sins of the Fathers, by Shane Phelan, Dearbhail Mcdonald, and Fiach Kelly, Irish Independent (November 27, 2009)
• Priests and Their Depraved Crimes, Belfast Telegraph (November 27, 2009)
• The Victim Who Opened the Floodgates on Our Nation’s Darkest Secret, by Gemma O’Doherty, Irish Independent (May 23, 2009)
• Every Day Is like It Happened Yesterday, by Carl O’Brien, Irish Times (November 27, 2009)
• Abuse priests ‘frequently escaped jail’, by John Downes, Sunday Tribune (November 29, 2009)
Fr. James Prunty
• Ardagh and Clonmacnoise
Diocesan
Sentenced on 2/12/02 to 12 months in prison for indecently assaulting three girls in a midland town in 1956-1959. Originally charged in 1999 with 76 counts of indecent assault against seven young female victims. Concurrent sentences of 12 months on each of 13 sample counts of indecent assault were imposed. Prunty pleaded guilty to the 13 sample counts from the original total of 76 charges. He abused the girls in their homes, in the parish church, and in the confessional. One of the girls was age 10 when the abuse began. She told Judge Anthony Kennedy: “It ruined my life then and will continue to do so.” Prunty was released from Curragh prison in less than 9 months.
• Priest (77) gets year’s jail for abuse of 3 girls, Irish Times (February 13, 2002)
• Priest jailed for sex assault on three young girls, Irish Independent (February 13, 2002)
• Father Evil, by Allison Bray, The Mirror, February 13, 2002
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
• Paedophile priest, 77, to be freed, Sunday Mirror (November 10, 2002)
Br. Denis Quirke FC
Brothers of Charity
Semtenced to prison jailed in 1996 for sexual abuse of a Brothers of Charity novice. Sentenced in 1999 to two years in prison for sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy he met at a prayer group in Waterford. Had been removed from any contact with children in 1990.
• Brother of Charity jailed for two years for boy’s sex abuse, Irish Times (July 14, 1999)
• Jail for brother who duped family over abuse of boy, by Michael Quinn, Irish Independent (July 14, 1999)
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
• Brothers of Charity reveal sex abuse allegations, by Conor Ryan, Irish Examiner (July 29, 2013)
Fr. Terence Rafferty
• Dromore
Diocesan
An allegation was reported in April 2011 to the Diocese of Dromore, which reported it to the PSNI, social services, and the National Board for Safeguarding Children. Fr. Terence Rafferty (often incorrectly Terrence in media reports) initially denied all charges, but on December 10, 2012, the day his trial was due to begin, he pleaded guilty to four specimen charges of indecent assault of a 16-year-old girl relating to offenses in 2001. Five other charges of indecent assault between December 2000 and January 2002 were left on the books. On December 13, 2012, a court ban protecting Rafferty’s identity was lifted at the request of the victim.
The four specimen charges to which Rafferty pleaded guilty reportedly related to ‘various acts from kissing the underage girl to touching her buttocks and breasts’. At the time, Rafferty was age 38 and a priest at Shankill, St. Peter’s (Lurgan). Rafferty had met the girl on a choir trip to Canada in 2000.
In his career, Rafferty has also worked as spiritual director at St. Colman’s College; as parish priest at Clonallen, St. Peter’s (Warrenpoint); as a member of the presbytery of St. Patrick and St. Colman’s Cathedral, Newry; as Music Director and Administrator of the Newry Cathedral; and as as parish priest of Donaghmore. In the 2014 Irish Catholic Directory, he is listed as Very Rev. Terence Rafferty c/o Bishop’s House (Dromore).
At his sentencing on January 31, 2013, Rafferty was given 100 hours of community service and a three-year probation order, and was banned from working with children or vulnerable adults for 10 years. Rafferty’s barrister had offered character references and stated that during the Troubles, Rafferty ‘had to deal with some harrowing and troubling things’. At sentencing, Judge Gemma Loughran described Rafferty’s conduct as ‘deplorable’ and a ‘breach of trust’, and pointed out that many Catholic priests had worked during the Troubles without engaging in ‘inappropriate activity’. Msgr. Aidan Hamill, Vicar General of the diocese, apologized for the ‘anguish and distress which the complainant and her family have suffered’ because of ‘a betrayal of sacred trust’.
• Donaghmore priest Fr Terrence Rafferty guilty of indecent assault, BBC News (December 14, 2012)
• Sex abuse priest unmasked by court, Lurgan Mail (December 24, 2012)
• Former town priest to be sentenced for assault on young girl, Lurgan Mail (January 24, 2013)
• Fr Terrence Rafferty avoids prison after sex assault, BBC News (January 31, 2013)
• Former Town Priest Avoids Prison Sentence, Lurgan Mail (January 31, 2013)
• Ex-priest sentenced for indecent assault, UTV (January 31, 2013)
• Priest sentenced to 100 hours of service for indecent assaults, by Gerry Moriarty, Irish Times (February 1, 2013)
• Fury as priest guilty of abusing choirgirl aged 16 walks free, by Chris Kilpatrick, Belfast Telegraph (February 2, 2013)
Br. James Redmond FC
(Br. Eunan)
• Cork and Ross
Brothers of Charity
Convicted of sexuak abuse in 1997 and given a four-year sentence. Pleaded guilty to 17 sample counts of abusing two boys at a home for boys with learning difficulties at Lota in Cork. The boys were aged 10 or 11, and continued to be abused until age 16 or 17. In one of the cases, Redmond pleaded guilty to 14 sample counts of abusing one boy between 1965 and 1972, while in the other he pleaded guilty to three sample counts of abusing the other boy between 1972 and 1979.
In testimony, Redmond “spoke openly about how he first abused a 12-year-old boy at a home in England in 1936, and then intermittently abused boys over 40 years.’
• Brother questioned about sex abuse allegations at Cork residential homes, Irish Times (January 21, 1999)
• Retired brother sexually abused boys over 40 years, Irish Times (June 26, 2004)
• Nine-year Garda inquiry into abuse at boys’ home, Irish Times (June 26, 2004)
• Sex-abuse Brother is local man, Enniscorthy Echo (July 12, 2004)
• Many Concealed by Pseudonyms Were Known Paedophiles, Sunday Business Post (May 31, 2009)
• Disgraced Order in Spotlight Again As New Horrors Emerge, by Brian McDonald, Irish Independent (August 15, 2011)
Fr. Noel Reynolds
• DUBLIN
Diocesan
Admitted to sexually abusing over 100 children. The Murphy report stated that ‘nine females and six males claim they were abused by Fr Reynolds. They were aged between six years and 11 years at the time of the abuse. Of course, he has admitted to many more cases of abuse, at least 20 in Kilmore alone.’ Reynolds admitted that he had raped one of his female victims with a crucifix.
• Cardinal Secrets, by Mike Peelo, RTE (October 17, 2002) [segment beginning at 50:01; no longer available online]
• The Final Insult, by Pat Flanagan and Niall Moonan, The Mirror (October 24, 2002)
• Terrified girls never revealed abuse, by Patsy McGarry, Irish Times (June 10, 2003)
• Abusive priests moved from parish to parish as complaints ignored, by Patsy McGarry, Irish Times (November 9, 2005)
• Murphy report, ch. 35
• Probe Reveals Sins of the Fathers, by Shane Phelan, Dearbhail Mcdonald, and Fiach Kelly, Irish Independent (November 27, 2009)
• Priests and Their Depraved Crimes, Belfast Telegraph (November 27, 2009)
• Abuse priests ‘frequently escaped jail’, by John Downes, Sunday Tribune (November 29, 2009)
• Most Priest Abusers Had Free Rein in Schools, by Mary Raftery, Irish Times (December 14, 2009)
• Bishop Drennan Has Questions to Answer on Case of Noel Reynolds, by Patsy McGarry, Irish Times (December 29, 2009)
Fr. Andrew M. Ronan OSM
• ARMAGH
Servites
Lawsuit filed in the U.S. on 4/2/02 alleged that while assigned to Our Lady of Benburb Servite Priory in Co. Tyrone, Ronan sexually abused a boy in the mid-1950s. In 1963 or 1964, Ronan was transferred to the Chicago archdiocese, where he sexually abused 3 boys in a high school. In 1965, Ronan was transferred to the Portland archdiocese, where he abused a boy age 15 or 16. Ultimately that victim filed suit.
Fr. Andrew Ronan, who left the priesthood in 1966 and died in 1992, was at the center of a U.S. legal dispute over whether the Vatican could be held legally responsible for predatory priests. The lawsuit, John V. Doe v. The Holy See, was filed in 2002 against the Vatican by a man who said he was sexually abused by Ronan on several occasions in the mid-1960’s, when he was 15 or 16 years-old. According to court documents, Ronan admitted molesting boys in the mid-1950’s at Our Lady of Benburb, Servite Priory, in Co. Tyrone, and in Chicago, where he was assigned to St. Philip High School from 1959 to 1965. In 1965, Ronan was transferred to a church in Portland, Oregon, where he allegedly abused the victim who filed the lawsuit.
The Vatican cited sovereign immunity in seeking to dismiss the claims. A district court rejected that argument. The Vatican appealed but the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals backed the district court. In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene, allowing the case to proceed.
The legal battle then focused on whether the Vatican was Ronan’s employer and responsible for moving him into unsuspecting parishes. The lawsuit is believed to be the first to require the Vatican to produce documents about its involvement in an U.S. priest’s career path. In 2012, a federal judge declared that the Vatican could not be shown to be Ronan’s employer. Ultimately, the lawsuit was dismissed in 2013 at the victim’s request. His lawyer said he was tired of the long legal battle.
• John V. Doe v. Holy See et al. Complaint (April 1, 2002)
• Suit Blames Catholic Hierarchy, by Mark Larabee, The Oregonian (April 4, 2002)
• John V. Doe v. Holy See et al. Opinion (March 3, 2009)
• Vatican says it can prove it is not legally responsible for Oregon priest’s sex abuse of minors, Reuters (June 29, 2010)
• U.S. Lawyer Says Vatican Knew of Priest’s Sex Abuse, The Reuters (August 22, 2011)
• US judge dismisses clergy abuse case that accused Vatican, by Andrew Stern, Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Reuters (August 20, 2012)
• Appeals Court Dismisses Sexual Abuse Lawsuit against Vatican, by Cindy Wooden National Catholic Reporter (August 7, 2013)
Fr. Brendan Smyth O Praem
• Rome
• Kilmore
Norbertines
Smyth trained for the priesthood at Holy Trinity Abbey, in Ballyjamesduff, Kilnacrott, County Cavan, in the Kilmore diocese, and in Rome at the Gregorian University. Sexual misconduct might have already been at issue in the novitiate, and there are indications in the file that he may already have been engaged in child abuse while in Rome. The Norbertines considered not ordaining him, but ultimately he was ordained.
Smyth sexually abused a girl at Holy Trinity Abbey beginning in 1952, when the girl was 8 years old; the abuse included taking the girl on his lap while he had an erection, fingering the girl’s genitals under her clothes, and ordering her to strip; Moore calls the girl ‘Mary’; in this early context, Smyth was already telling his victim to ‘look away’ during the abuse, plying his victim with candy, and abusing in disciplinary contexts – in this case, on the pretext that Mary had sung poorly in choir.
In 1957-1959, Smyth worked at Saint Columba’s parish in Annan, Scotland, in the Diocese of Galloway, and returned to Kilnacrott under a cloud. Then Smyth lived briefly in the presbytery of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Wrexham, Wales, in the Diocese of Menevia; he was gone by Christmas 1958. Smyth took 11-year-old John Russell, who wanted to become a priest and whose family was ‘very Catholic’, on a holiday to Ireland in 1958 and abused him each night.
In the early 1960s, Smyth was based at Kilnacrott but abusing the children in a friend’s family in West Belfast. He was transferred to the U.S. in 1965, and worked at Our Lady of Mercy church in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, in the Diocese of Providence. There he abused Helen McGonigle, her sister Kathleen, Jeff Thomas, and five other children.
After an urgent phone call between Bishop McVinney in Providence and Abbot Colwell in Kilnacrott, Smyth was put on a plane home and sent to Purdysburn Hospital in Belfast for treatment.
Norbertine whistleblower Rev. Bruno Mulvilhill stated to journalist Chris Moore that Smyth’s faculties to hear confessions were rescinded after his return to the abbey from Rhode Island. In the early 1970s, based in Kilnacrott, Smyth was abusing children Belfast families and institutions, including Nazareth House.
Smyth went for treatment to St. Patrick’s Psychiatric Hospital in Dublin in 1973 and Our Lady of Victory in Brownshill near Stroud in Gloucestershire in 1974. Apparently at the urging of Mulvihill, Bishop Francis J. McKiernan of Kilmore investigated Smyth. Fr. Sean Brady, the future Cardinal Brady participated in interviews with two Smyth victims. Both were sworn to secrecy and one, Brendan Boland, ultimately wrote Sworn to Silence. In the late 1970s, Smyth continued to abuse children in Belfast, including Sam Adair at Rubane House in the De La Salle Boys home at Kircubbin.
In 1979-1983, Smyth was assigned as pastor and sole priest at St. Alphonsus church in Langdon ND in the Diocese of Fargo; he also ‘attended’ a mission church called St. Edward’s in Nekoma. Smyth sexually abused more than seven children at this assignment: 6 altar boys and ‘one very serious case of sexual assault against a girl’.
When Smyth returned to Kilnacrott in 1983, he again began abusing children in Belfast, including the girl who, on February 23, 1990, would meet with a social worker at the Catholic Family Welfare Society in Belfast and start all the Smyth revelations.
Sentenced to 4 yrs jail in Ireland in 1995 on 17 counts of assaulting 5 girls and 4 boys 1964-88. Sentenced 7/97 to 12 yrs for abusing 20 boys and girls. Died in prison 8/97. Two sued his order 6/10. In 1998-99 3 Dublin relatives abused as children by Smyth received settlements. After discovering the diocese knew Smyth abused children prior to his abusing them, the 3 each sued the Bishop of Kilmore. They were denied by a court of appeals in 11/15; appealed in 2/16. Suit filed 6/08 in Providence RI re 1968 abuse of a boy and girl. RI court denied damages for the 2. In 9/16 one of the 2, a RI lawyer, filed a complaint with the RI State Ethics Commission against Supreme Ct judge Francis X. Flaherty, who oversaw the ruling denying them damages; Flaherty had not disclosed his leadership role with a Catholic nonprofit. The Commission ruled “probable cause” in 4/17.
• Their Best Fan Is Going Home, by Richard A. Beardsley, Providence Bulletin (February 25, 1968)
• Farewell, Father, Pendulum (February 29, 1968)
• Parents asked to check on children’s contacts with sex abuse priest, by Dick Hogan and John Maher, Irish Times (October 13, 1994)
• Abuse victim plans legal action against church, by Alison O’Connor,
Irish Times ( October 19, 1994)
• Priest’s Mayo visits ’caused unease’, by Kathryn Holmquist, Irish Times (October 24, 1994)
• Full text of statement from Cardinal Daly, by Cardinal Cahal B. Daly, Irish Times (December 6, 1994)
• Smyth victim tells of abuse on boat, by Alison O’Connor, Irish Times (December 9, 1994)
• Betrayal of Trust: The Brendan Smyth Affair and the Catholic Church, by Chris Moore (Dublin: Marino Books, 1995)
• Abbot: Priest Molested R.I. Children, by Richard C. Dujardin, Providence Journal-Bulletin (February 6, 1995)
• Archbishop Brady knew about evil Smyth for 22 years, by Declan White, Sunday Mirror (August 10, 1997)
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
• Court Records Revealing Abuses by Ex-OLM Priest, by Abby Fox, East Greenwich Pendulum (October 25, 2007)
• Lawsuit Filed over Abuse Allegations, by Tom Mooney, Providence Journal (June 17, 2008)
• Sworn to Silence, by Brendan Boland (Dublin: O’Brien Press, 2014)
• HIA Report: Chapter 10 on Brendan Smyth (January 20, 2017)
• HIA Report: Document Materials for Footnotes to the Smyth Chapter (January 20, 2017)
Fr. Joseph M. Steele CSSp
• Down and Connor
Holy Ghost Fathers
aka Spiritans
Fr. Joseph Michael Steele died in 2012 at age 71 while awaiting sentencing for sexually abusing a boy and a girl between 1967 and 1983. He admitted to five counts of indecent assault and two of gross indecency against the boy and three counts of indecently assaulting his female victim.
Fr. Steele had previously spent two and a half years in jail after pleading guilty in 1996 to multiple charges involving the indecent assaults of three girls and two boys between 1969 and 1983. In those years, Fr. Steele was curate in St. Teresa’s parish on Glen Road, west Belfast, and chaplain at the nearby Cross and Passion School. In 1975, he was moved to St. Colmcille’s in Ballyhackamore, east Belfast.
• Belfast priest apologises for hurt caused as he faces child abuse charges, Irish Times (February 16, 1996)
• Court sentences priest to 2 1/2 years for sex abuse, Irish Times (December 14, 1996)
• Sentencing of Former Priest on Child Abuse Charges Adjourned, RTE News (May 25, 2012)
• Case Closed As Paedophile Priest Dies, Belfast Telegraph (November 21, 2012)
• Abuse Case Closed after Priest’s Death, UTV (January 18, 2013)
Fr. Joseph Summerville
• TUAM
Diocesan
Fr. Joseph Summerville pleaded guilty in 1996 to four of the 15 charges against him. He admitted indecently assaulting an adolescent boy 1988-1989, while he was a boarding school chaplain at St. Jarlath’s College, Tuam. Summerville was jailed for four years by Dublin Criminal Court.
A judge later imposed an additional one-year sentence after learning the details of his grooming another victim, a 15-year-old boy, in a parochial house.
Although the media was initially barred from identifying Summerville or the school, a judge allowed it after a petition on behalf of the victim’s family.
• Galway priest given four year sentence for sexually abusing boy in school, Irish Times (May 21, 1996)
• Statement by Archbishop after sentencing of priest, by Dr Michael Neay, Irish Times (May 21, 1996)
• Church concern at priest’s assault, Irish Times (October 7, 1998)
• Court heard horrific detail of offending over three decades, by Brian McDonald, Irish Independent (October 31, 2005)
Br. Maurice Tobin CFC
“Br. Dax”
• Galway, Kilmacduagh & Kilfenora
Irish Christian Brothers
Tobin worked for more than five years in his mid- to late 20s at St. Joseph’s School for Deaf Boys in Cabra, Dublin, and then 1959-1974 at Letterfrack, with one year away. As a result of the Letterfrack investigation, with its 4-year garda inquiry, Tobin was brought up on 136 sample charges of buggery, attempted buggery, and indecent assault against 25 boys. The officers took complaints of sexual abuse by Tobin from at least 100 former residents. In 2005, Tobin was sentenced to 12 years in prison, with the last 4 years suspended. Former Christian Brother John McKenna was also charged and convicted of abusing boys 1968-1970, as a result of the Letterfrack investigation.
The Ryan report, which calls Tobin ‘Br. Dax’, discusses the testimony of 7 Tobin victims, including 4 of the 25 whom Tobin pleaded guilty of abusing. One of the boys who was anally raped, called ‘Robert’ in the report, described ‘sobbing my heart out’ from the ‘unmerciful pain’ (355) at age 15. ‘My introduction to sex … getting raped by Br. Tobin.’ He found it ‘impossible to believe’, in a place as small as Letterfrack (120 boys) that ‘Br. Guillaume’ didn’t know. ‘There is no way, what happened to me over that period of time, that they didn’t know. All of them. Every single one of them, and I hope they all rot in hell.’ Once when ‘Robert’ tried to stop the abuse, Tobin threatened ‘I would be paying a visit to the courthouse’ for transfer from Letterfrack to Daingean.
Another victim of buggery or attempted buggery testified that a brother saw Tobin embracing him and merely ‘knocks at the window’. Tobin testified that for two years he stopped abusing boys because of his Confessor, who made it clear to him that the abuse was sinful. But ‘he relapsed as soon as the priest was transferred’.
Tobin’s stated practice was to abuse the same children regularly and to be abusing a number of children in any given period. He raped some of the boys once or maybe twice a week for a prolonged period of time. The victims allege anal rape, attempted anal rape, oral rape, and forcing the boys to give him oral sex. Some boys would ask him to stop, but generally he stopped with a boy when the boy was moved. He tried to continue abusing one boy after the boy left Letterfrack (361).
Pleaded guilty in November 2003 to the abuse of 25 boys at Letterfrack 1959-1974 and received a 12-year prison sentence in 2005, with the last four years suspended. Systematically molested, beat, and anally raped boys aged 11 to 14 who were sent to work in his kitchen. During the garda investigation, investigating officers took complaints from at least 100 former residents who said they were sexually abused by Tobin.
• Letterfrack cleric charged with sex abuse of 25 boys, by Brian McDonald, Irish Independent (April 26, 2002)
• Who knew about Brother Tobin? by Mary Raftery, Irish Times (November 29, 2003)
• CICA 1.8.132-134, 1.8.266, 1.8.335-390 (called “Br. Dax”)
• Criminals in All but Name, Sunday Tribune (May 31, 2009)
• Many Concealed by Pseudonyms Were Known Paedophiles, Sunday Business Post (May 31, 2009)
• Some of Those Convicted in Abuse Cases, Irish Independent (November 25, 2009)
Br. James (Seamus) Treacy CFC
(Brother Bender)
• DUBLIN
• Waterford & Lismore
• Limerick
Irish Christian Brothers
Br. James Treacy reportedly worked as a teacher in four primary schools: Armagh Road CBS, Crumlin, Dublin; Waterpark, Waterford; Sexton Street in Limerick; and Drimnagh Castle in Dublin. Treacy reportedly was also known as Brother Bender.
In late June 2012, Treacy was accused of 138 charges of indecent assault on 13 young boys 1978-1981 at CBS primary school in Sexton Street in Limerick city, as well as St Enda’s swimming pool at Roxboro in Limerick. An application to impose restrictions on the reporting of the accused man’s name was refused by Judge Eugene O’Kelly because of the antiquity of the charges and the fact that the alleged injured parties were no longer minors. Adjournments to complete the evidence book followed.
On November 25, 2015, Treacy was convicted by a Limerick jury on 30 charges of indecent assault in 1978-1981 relating to six boys, out of a total of 78 charges, reduced to 72. Treacy pleaded not guilty to all 78. Judge John Hannan ordered that reporting restrictions should remain in place pending the conclusion of the sentencing process.
Treacy was convicted at Limerick Circuit Court on May 4-5, 2017 on two counts of indecent assault on a boy in the late 1970s. The boy was age 10 and in fifth class. ‘I was scared to death and frightened out of my wits,’ the victim testified. ‘He told me it was my fault; that I was sinning.’ In one attack, after catching the boy smoking in the school toilet, Treacy gagged him with a bar of soap, anally raped him over a urinal, and burnt his testicles with a cigarette. Treacy denied both charges.
On June 21, 2017, a jury at Limerick Circuit Court found Treacy guilty on 15 counts of indecent assault on three boys, all age 10 and in the fifth class, in the late 1970s. The court heard that Treacy put his hands down the front of the boys’ trousers and fondled their genitals in front of their schoolfellows, while whispering ‘twisted’ things to them. Treacy denied the charges.
On June 30, 2017, victim impact statements by the victim in the May 2017 verdict and the three victims in the June 2017 verdict were read. Judge Tom O’Donnell said he was ‘particularly struck’ by a victim’s statement that he was treated like a ‘piece of meat’ in Treacy’s ‘sick fantasies’. The judge delayed final judgment for a month, calling the assaults ‘nuclear fallout’ for the victims and their families.
On July 28, 2017, Judge O’Donnell imposed the maximum sentence of two years’ imprisonment for the incident in the toilet; concurrent sentences of 18 months were imposed for the other offences, for a total of 3 1/2 years imprisonment. O’Donnell noted that Treacy had not shown remorse or empathy and that he disputed the verdicts of the two juries. The judge cited as aggravating factors the frequency and pre-meditated character of the abuse, and Treacy’s position of trust. Treacy’s name was placed on the register of sexual offenders.
One alleged victim of Treacy reportedly first contacted Msgr. Alex Stenson of the Dublin archdiocese in 1993. Reports of allegations appeared in the press beginning in 2002. Treacy reportedly left the Christian Brothers in 1990 and the order stated it had no record of complaint before May 2001.
• I suffered years of sexual abuse at the hands of Christian Brother, by Stephen Maguire, The People (April 28, 2002)
• Order has ‘no record’ of sex abuse by Treacy, The People (April 28, 2002)
• ‘Brother Bender’ May Face Charges: 300-page file sent to DPP, by Stephen Maguire, The People (May 16, 2004)
• Former Christian Brother Seamus Tracey faces 138 charges of indecently assaulting three boys, RTÉ (June 22, 2012)
• Former Christian Brother faces 138 assault charges, Irish Times (October 11, 2012)
• Ex-Brother to face trial over sex assaults, by Kathryn Hayes, Irish Times (November 29, 2012)
• Retired teacher guilty of abusing Limerick schoolboys, by David Hurley, Limerick Leader (November 25, 2015)
• Ex-cleric found guilty of abusing young boy at Limerick school in 1970s, Limerick Leader (May 8, 2017)
• Former Christian Brother guilty of indecent assault of school boys, by David Raleigh, Irish Times (June 21, 2017)
• Pensioner, 75, guilty of abusing schoolboys in Limerick, by David Hurley, Limerick Post (June 27, 2017)
• Former Christian brother jailed for abusing young boys at Limerick school, by David Hurley, Limerick Leader (July 28, 2017)
• Limerick court hears abuse victim ‘limped home bleeding, battered and broken’, by Fintan Walsh, Limerick Leader (June 30, 2018)
• Court hears of horrific sexual abuse by former Christian Brother on fifth class boys, by David Raleigh, The Journal (June 30, 2017)
• ‘You don’t own me anymore’ – Former Christian Brother shows no emotion as rape victim faces him in court, Irish Examiner (June 30, 2017)
• Victims tell of lives destroyed by a Christian Brother, by Jimmy Woulfe, Irish Examiner (July 1, 2017)
• Paedophile on remand as victims share harrowing effects of abuse, by Andrew Carey, Limerick Post (July 6, 2017)
• Former Christian brother jailed for abusing young boys at Limerick school, by David Hurley, Limerick Leader (July 28, 2017)
• Christian Brother jailed for ‘barbaric’ sex assaults on boys, by David Raleigh, Irish Independent (July 29, 2017)
Fr. Tony Walsh
• DUBLIN
1978
ordination
Diocesan
Described in Chapter 19 of the Murphy Report as ‘probably the most notorious child sexual abuser to have come to the attention of the Commission’ (19.2). The Commission wrote that it knew of 40 named victims but that Walsh had admitted to abusing many others. ‘His pattern of behaviour is such that it is likely that he has abused hundreds of children.’
The archdiocese received its first complaint about Walsh in July 1978, two days after his first appointment, which was to the Church of the Assumption in Ballyfermot. The incident had occurred a month earlier and involved the sexual abuse of an eight-year-old boy.
By 1985, according to Chapter 19 of the Murphy Report, ‘the Archdiocese knew that he was a serial abuser’ (19.123).
In 1988, the archdiocesan chancellor Msgr. Alex Stenson recorded that Walsh ‘admitted that over the eight years in Ballyfermot he was involved with boys about once a fortnight’ (19.31).
In April 1990, Stenson and Archbishop Desmond Connell removed Walsh from public ministry and decided he must be laicized (19.51). It took three years for an archdiocesan tribunal to formally ratify this. Walsh immediately appealed his sentence to the Vatican, which ruled in his favor in June 1994, decreeing that he ought to remain a priest but enter a monastery for ten years.
In November 1995, following Walsh’s first criminal conviction and a spate of media coverage, Archbishop Connell took the unusual step of directly petitioning Pope John Paul II, requesting he remove Walsh ex officio from the clerical state (19.102). Cardinal Ratzinger issued the laicization decree in January 1996.
As of August 2018, Walsh had been convicted six times of sexual offenses against children:
February 1995 – Sentenced to 12 months in prison for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy in May 1994, just a month before the Vatican appeal tribunal approved his appeal to remain a priest. The abuse occurred in a toilet at a pub following the funeral of the boy’s grandfather in Palmerstown. Gardaí were alerted by the boy’s mother.
December 1997 – Sentenced to 10 years in prison on 12 charges of indecent assault and gross indecency involving six boys aged eight to 14. The assaults occurred between 1980 and 1986, while Walsh was a popular curate and in charge of 60 altar boys at the Church of the Assumption in Ballyfermot. The ten-year sentence was eventually reduced to six by the Court of Criminal Appeal.
December 2010 – After a jury found him guilty of 13 counts of buggery and indecent assault of a boy, Walsh was given multiple sentences totaling 123 years to be served concurrently, translating to a maximum jail-time of 16 years. It was the harshest sentence ever imposed on an abusive priest. The crimes occurred from 1978 to 1983, when the child was aged seven to 12. In one incident, Walsh tied the boy’s wrists to his ankles and laid him over a coffee table to rape him, playing loud music to drown out his cries.
The sentencing of Walsh cleared the way for the publication one week later of the Murphy Report’s chapter 19, which was entirely devoted to Walsh under the pseudonym ‘Fr Jovito’. The chapter had been withheld until the criminal proceedings against Walsh were concluded.
June 2013 – Walsh pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault in 1979 of two boys, aged ten and 11. The judge added 15 months to the 16-year sentence Walsh already was serving.
January 2016 – Given additional jail time for the sexual assault of a girl aged between seven and ten. The assault occurred sometime between 1973 and 1976, when Walsh was still a seminarian. The judge imposed the maximum two-year sentence but suspended the second year, assuming good behavior. She ordered the remaining year to run consecutive to the termination of his current sentence.
July 2016 – Sentenced to seven and a half years after a jury found him guilty of five counts of indecently assaulting a boy, aged 10 to 13, between January 1980 and December 1982. Walsh raped the child three times, once with a crucifix.
Walsh is due to be released in June 2023.
• Former priest sentenced to 10 years for indecent assault of boys, Irish Times (December 3, 1997)
• The Priestly Predators, by Rachel Andrews, Catherine Cleary, and Liam Reid, Sunday Tribune (April 7, 2002)
• Cardinal Secrets, by Mike Peelo, RTE (October 17, 2002) [first segment; no longer online]
– Mother tells how priest abused her son, by Patsy McGarry, Irish Times, October 22, 2002
• Clerical Child Abuse in Ballyfermot, by Shauneen Armstrong, The Echo (November 24, 2002)
• New allegations of sex abuse made against former priest, by Liam Reid, Irish Times (August 12, 2003)
• Paedo Priest Kicked Out of Swim Centre, by Jimmy Cunningham, Daily Mirror (September 15, 2007)
• Fr Cleary’s silence in face of evil, by Mary Raftery, Irish Times (September 6, 2007)
• Cruel crimes of the singing priest, by Patsy McGarry, Irish Times (December 11, 2010)
• Murphy report, ch. 19
• Murphy Report Chapter 19: Main Points & Timeline, RTE News, December 17, 2010
• Quotes from Chapter 19, by Aoife Carr, Irish Times, December 17, 2010
• Paedophile Priest Sang As He Abused Me, Says Victim, by John Cooney, Irish Independent, December 23, 2010
• ‘Singing Priest’ Gets Extra 15 Months’ Jail for Abuse of Boys, by Declan Brennan, Irish Independent, June 8, 2013
• Former Priest and Serial Child Abuser Tony Walsh to Serve Maximum of Two Years for Sexual Assault of Child, by Declan Brennan, Irish Independent (December 17, 2015)
• Tony Walsh jailed for earliest case of sexual abuse, by Declan Brennan, Irish Examiner, January 13, 2016
• Tony Walsh: More jail time for a ‘most notorious’ child abuser, by Patsy McGarry, Irish Times, July 19, 2016
• Former ‘singing’ priest who raped boy with crucifix jailed for over seven years, by Sonya Mclean, Irish Independent (July 19, 2016)
• Notorious former ‘singing priest’ faces further imprisonment, by Susan Gately, Catholic Ireland (July 21, 2016)
• The story of Dublin’s ‘most notorious child sexual abuser’, by Patsy McGarry, Irish Times (February 20, 2019)
Fr. Brendan Wrixon
“Fr. Caden”
• Cloyne
Diocesan
In 2010, Fr. Brendan Wrixon was charged with three counts of gross indecency on a 16-year old male at the Convent of Mercy, Bathview, Mallow, between October 16, 1982, and February 15, 1983. He pleaded guilty to one count and on November 12, 2010, received an 18-month suspended sentence. He was 74 at the time. The victim said there were 20 incidents of a sexual nature involving Wrixon, including fondling, penetration, and oral sex. Wrixon’s case was singled out in the Cloyne report as an example of how Bishop John Magee and Monsignor Denis O’Callaghan dealt insufficiently with allegations of sexual abuse. The Cloyne report called Wrixon “Fr Caden.”
• Cork Priest Admits Gross Indecency, RTE News (November 12, 2010)
• Priest Given 18-month Suspended Sentence, by Barry Roche, Irish Times (November 13, 2010)
• Suspended term for priest who abused teen, by Liam Heylin, Irish Examiner (November 13, 2010)
• Archbishop apologises for sex abuse priest: Judge tells Wrixon: ‘You are no longer a priest and rightly so’, Irish Independent (November 18, 2010)
• Only one priest in report has been convicted in court, by Barry Roche, Irish Times (July 15, 2011)
• Named and Shamed Priest Still Won’t Apologise for Raping Teenage Victim, by Luke Byrne, Irish Independent (July 16, 2011)
Note: Priests and Brothers Convicted of Sexually Abusing Minors in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland is based generally on reports published by reputable news sources in the media, as well as the reports of government inquiries commonly known as the Ferns report, the Ryan report, the Murphy report, the Cloyne report, and the HIA Inquiry report. Unless a source expressly reports that an individual has been convicted of a criminal offense, the reports contained in the database are mere allegations and this database does not state or imply that individuals facing allegations are guilty of a crime. BishopAccountability.org is committed to truth, accuracy, and fairness. Corrections and comments on information appearing in the database are encouraged and can be sent to staff@bishop-accountability.org. If BishopAccountability.org discovers facts establishing that any information appearing in the database is inaccurate, we will promptly take appropriate action, including but not limited to revising, correcting, or withdrawing the information.
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BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 