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THE CLAUDY BOMB. CAN WE HELP THE REMAINING VICTIMS?

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The Claudy bombing occurred on 31 July 1972, when three car bombs exploded mid-morning, two on Main Street and one on Church Street in Claudy in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The attack killed nine civilians, injured thirty and became known as “Bloody Monday”.

Those who planted the bombs had attempted to send a warning before the explosions took place. The warning was delayed, however, because the telephones were out of order due to an earlier bomb attack. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) issued an immediate denial of responsibility, and later stated that “an internal court of inquiry” had found that its local unit did not carry out the attack. On the thirtieth anniversary of the boming, there was a review of the case and in December 2002 it was revealed that the IRA had been responsible for the bomb explosions.

FATHER CHESNEY

A priest suspected of being an IRA leader and masterminding a bombing atrocity was allowed to escape arrest thanks to a secret deal between police, ministers and the Roman Catholic Church, a report revealed yesterday.

Father James Chesney was the ‘prime suspect’ after nine people, including an eight-year-old girl, were killed and 30 injured when three car bombs exploded in the quiet Northern Ireland village of Claudy in July 1972.

Detectives wanted to arrest the Catholic priest, who was believed to be the commander of an active IRA terrorist unit, but the move was blocked by an Assistant Chief Constable concerned about the consequences of such a controversial arrest during one of the most bloody periods of the Troubles.

PAT SAYS:

Many horrible things happened during The Troubles.

Claudy was a very bad one.

And it was made so much worse by the fact that a priest was involved in the bombing.

How any priest or any Christian could plant a bomb and destroy men, women and children is beyond me.

The victims that are still living need help with getting justice.

They particularly need help with finding out Father Chesney’s involvement with Republican paramilitaries was.

They also need to find out if the RCC knew about Father Chesneys.

Can anyone help?

QUOTE FROM SHANE PAUL O DOHERTY

“There are plenty of people in the South Derry Brigade IRA area and elsewhere who have information about the Claudy bombing – they are just not minded to offer it up.

Why should they when church and state, voters and G.A.A. are jointly engaged in normalizing and even glorifying murder and IRA murderers?

They say it’s time to “move on” and to put Human Rights and Human Wrongs away – Truth may also be put away.

This is the foundation on which we are to build our shared future – on an agreed cover up…”

121 replies on “THE CLAUDY BOMB. CAN WE HELP THE REMAINING VICTIMS?”

The evidence is in the first photo. The dogs in the street know Chesney did it, but the NIO, as part of a wider strategy, let the Church deal with Chesney. It would have inflamed Paisley and the loyalists were a priest to be arrested. The NIO chose to avoid that, the price being paid by the Claudy victims’ families.

There were lots of deals, compromises, injustices during the Troubles, including letting Martin McGuiness get off scot free for Bloody Sunday, where he was walking the streets with a Thompson sub-machine gun. Martin was a useful informant so various easements were made in his case and many others.

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10.45
Hi mc!
It’s strange one never hears of a case being decided on the evidence of dogs in the street.

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What court did Jean McConville and the disappeared appear at, or the kneecap victims that happen still? Imagine trying to excuse a bomber!

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12.56
Your logic is failing you. 12.01 is referring to court cases which have and do take place. Your subect is about those which, unfortunately, have not yet occurred. I hope those court cases will happen.

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Chesney never appeared before a court. The NIO ordered the RUC not to arrest him, and that was the end of it.

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I don’t know why the photo says that the soldier was harrassing the terrorist-sheltering monks. He’s just standing there.

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Fr Chesney was a friend of Ireland first and foremost. The partition party was scandalous

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I remember Cahal Daly and his ilk go on in the 80s and 90s about how one sod of Ireland wasn’t worth a human life. This was from an organisation (and liked minded organisations on all sides) that found the taking of human life in the crusades, inquisitions and religious wars of Europe not all that difficult at all. It was more a case at times of kill them all, let God find his own. War has its atrocities. Fr Chesney may have been responsible for the Claudy bomb but the chaplains who bless the troops going off to war, who pray for the safety of airmen as they drop phosphorus and napalm on cities, the men of God who sing gospel songs while praying alongside or over sectarian murderers all play their own part too. Regimental flags in churches, the connection of Church and State in Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox countries. It’s a lot bigger and a lot more complex picture than the simplified message we get from the media, about ‘how the head of the church knew the priest was a very bad man’. I just wonder who told the head of the church that he was a very bad man and how much blood those men had on their own hands already.

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Fr Chesney was never commited of a crime unlike some. He is therefore innocent in law. He was castigated by British Intelligene and those who continue this story only help the British Intelligence and not the victims.

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It is appalling to think a priest could be involved in such a heinous crime, if it’s true he may have escaped justice here. He will not have escaped Divine Justice ‘Vengeance is Mine saith The Lord. I will repay.’

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Yes it’s appalling but not surprising, now that the propensity of RC ministers and their superiors to crime and cover up is well documented.

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I note that currently in Germany people in their upper 90s and even 100 years of age who had connections during the war with concentration camps and extermination camps are being prosecuted. The argument is that these crimes were so terrible that it is important for justice to be seen to be done, in order to remind those who might be tempted to do likewise in the future that eventually they will be brought to account. That seems right to me. Justice is paramount, and nobody is above the law. So, in difficult historical scases in places like NI, the same principle should apply, for all side. The soldier who died during his recent trial for a killing in the 70s rightly should have been prosecuted if the evidence were there. It was a pity for him, but frankly justice is more important than the comfort or happiness of an individual. The same should be true of all outstanding cases, they should be reviewed and where possible brought to justice. Just covering up, ignoring, putting away in the ‘too difficult’ box is no solution. The argument that it is better to let sleeping dogs lie simply does not stack up. It does not deal with the paramount need for justice, and for truth, which are the prerequisites for reconciliation and peace. It does not support justice, which is paramount. So, in the case of Claudy, if there are still people alive who were involved in this and it is possible to do so then they should brought to justice. The priest, Chesney, is probably dead by now, but it would still be a fair attempt at justice and truth for those who do know about his involvement, if any, to come out and say so. There will be people who know. If there was a coverup to protect him at the time, then that should be uncovered. We do that for child abuse. and nowadays accept no excuses for historical or continuing coverup Why not for child murder – remember, children were killed in this outrage, as well as many others, not to mention those injured and scared for life ? Justice trumps everything. Otherwise, where will be end up ?

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8.23 and 10.28
And yet this morning’s invitatory antiphon is “Confitemini Domino quia in aeternum misericordia eius.”

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11:56

The only Latin you are acquainted with is

Cur non basio te, Philaeni? calua es.
Cur non basio te, Philaeni? rufa es.
Cur non basio te, Philaeni? lusca es.
Haec qui basiat, o Philaeni, fellat.

Translation (NSFW) at

Martial, 2.33 (NSFW)

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2.50 pm anon

God will serve His Justice at Judgement Day whether you like it or not. Simple as!

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re Justice trumps etc at 8.23
The German concept of Justice is not something to be admired. Von braun, Krupps Boss etc suffered nothing for their actiions and retained their personal wealth and prestige.
The nonagerians being prosecuted at the moment are the smallest of the small fry..
It was reprted llast week that the 96 year old lady who had escaped before her trail in Hamburg had been recaptured and was to be brought befoere a court; a Juvenile Court because that was her legal status at the time of her offence.

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12.50
Yes. Much of the German policy is geared towards exorcising their collective demons and intended to assuage their national sense of guilt.
The Germans exercised inexorable efficiency against the groups they singled out for persecution before and during WW2. Their cousins the British carried out the plantation of Ulster in the first third of the seventeenth century systematically and with clinical ruthlessness.

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Oul Gossip Alert @ 3:21pm
Sadly you are as biblically illiterate as you are with everything else. Mat 25:41 is not a parable or an allegory, it is the word of God and a warning to such as yourself as to what will happen at The Judgement Seat, so take note.

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4;02
Bela Lugosi (brilliantly named Deacula character) is not literate in English but worse is a hypocrite. Yesterday he wrote to someone here,
“Piss off you gobshite.”
Called the Pope “bollox”
So no one will be persuaded of his mental or spiritual health when today he speaks of “the Word of God.”
Charlatan and ignoramus.

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There was that other idiot priest in Coventry who was hiding ammunition / explosives in his attic for the IRA. How many lives has he on his conscience. Probably long since dead, but if there is a Purgatory I hope that he is doing a very long time there, and it is not comfortable ! Trouble is with these type of clergy, they were trained to think that they knew it all, and anything they did was right and that they could and should not be held accountable. Similar pattern to what so many seminarians are being fed in their formation these days. That’s why we have the arrogant, self-obssessed, unaccountable clergy we have these days, intent on making the priesthood a vehicle for their own comfort and ambitions. Do tell me if I’m wrong !!

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12.34 pm anon
Judgement Day. At the end of this life, the punishment will fit the crime. No one escapes Judgement Day.

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Bella
You thrive in GOSSIP prove a male or female I have slept with and YOU will be a LIAR.
As for this blog I have left it for weeks as I am a Christian and do not like the hatred some people post.
However some of you see it as camp comedy I see it as insulting and very unchristian.
As Father Prior says pray for you as you maybe lonely with your outbursts on here and certainly does not represent the SSPX

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8.38 pm anon

May I ask who Bella is as no one has posted with that name?

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The Coventry priest was Fr Patrick Fell. He got in trouble with the ‘Ra leadership for having a gay relationship with another prisoner. Sinn Fein wasn’t draped in the rainbow flag in those days.

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Liz you should be called lie. I was a confidant of Paddy and never did he have any sexual contact with another man. You are a gossip

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Fr Fell was also an alcoholic and he had many a relationship with other prisoners.
Prison wardens caught him in compromising positions regularly and it was all brushed under the carpet.

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Fr Fell ended up in Raphoe diocese and he and Fr Chesney doubtless swapped old warrior’s tales with one another. There were Raphoe students in Maynooth in my time who were overtly and unambiguously pro-IRA.

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12 34: What a twisted interpretation of events. The conclusions you arrive at about clergy today is nonsense. The only thing you’re being “fed” and “feeding” is LIES. LIES.

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Fr Hysterical ranting at 2:45 again. 12:34’s comment is a balanced account of fact and the contributory factors to the ongoing criminality and moral dissolution we keep seeing here. An excellent comment, 12:34.

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12.34 ref last sentence, in England that is especially the archbishops and the quango, movement, religious order and seminary operatives, thus for priesthood read archbishopship / quangoship / movementship / ordership / seminaryship.

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2.45
Ironic thibg about opinions and views is when people are crazy, they don’t know, they crazy…
You can’t fix stupid!
Or your energy is responses… You give more away by your response than their stupidity thay yoyr rolling your eyes for… Lol
Its funny…. Just saying…

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Why do commentators on every blog end up speculating about the sex lives of priests. Remember Fr CD was caught hunched over the altar with that twink?

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Sinn Fein IRA have no morals. One leader is now locked up with a married man in west Belfast, while the poor wife was turfed In the street. Women united

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Yes but he should never have been having sex with young men in the church at all! He was happy for all the wrong reasons!!

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Yes I meant that as tongue and cheek Maureen, I agree with you whole heartedly that his actions were vulgar.

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Pat I hope I don’t offend you with this question. But did you ever have fun in a church? Would this be wide spread amongst clergy or is this all gossip?

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Of course it is wide spread. However the clergy of daisy chain NI came to an arrangement that they would only have sex with each other as to minimise risk.

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3.32: Loose legs Ryan comes into this blog chasing Willie the Pink and dreaming for a hook up. Ryan, go out to the fields and the sheep will oblige your caca fantasies. Maybe a rough farmer might come upon you…!! Get my drift, you weirdo.

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He did, outside of office hours, cost him he’s life, morals and principles, thought hes morals and princiokss were stronger than the church rules era…. Life lesson, eh pat?

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Or is corruption a myth…and witches..

(I announced myself, don’t art yourself lads)

Those who know,…. Know!

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Fr Patrick Fell was a curate at All Souls Earlsden, Coventry and an IRA quartermaster – he was jailed for 12 years and served it in Parkhurst HMP.
He is one among many of the Archdiocese of Birmingham’s little dark secrets – he was active during and around the Birmingham Pub Bombings.
Imagine saying Mass on Sunday and planning a bombing campaign on Monday – to maim and kill his parishioners.
This much I know:
Dwyer knew all about it and so did his fellow clergy – Coventry is a bit of an ‘armoured cars and tanks and guns came to take away our sons’ kind of Irish Catholic (Irish Club) enclave.
Like Chesney Fell lived out his days in Raphoe diocese.
He was an active homosexual and was frequently beat up in prison.
He is dead and I can assure you no clergyman in Birmingham will ever speak of him – one of their own a potential mass murderer and terrorist.

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3.23 does your description of Coventry (a town I know little of) explain the attitude that Father Emeritus Cieran Conry inflicted on the unwary denizens of Arundel? Or his swagger as so called media priest (a thing McLuhan told them not to do)? Awfully strange media priest doesn’t make you bishop these days isn’t it. Awfully strange isn’t it.

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I hope the remains of Captain Nairac are found one day.
He is among a few of the disappeared who has never been found.
He was Catholic and British Army officer.
May he one day rest in peace.

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Bishop Pat, what did you call that priest in the early noughties from west belfast who was exposed by the Sunday world attending gay orgies and sniffing coke? He eventually came out as gay but has kept a low profile ever since.

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5.12 pm anon
Oh do stop calling people a bitch all the time. You did it yesterday too.

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A close friend of mine caught her husband in bed with the local priest and both the husband and the priest twisted it round so much that my friend committed suicide.

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Suicidal thoughts after being with a priest, ruining one’s life, married or not, is not a laughing matter magna….

Sounds makey uppey, you haven’t a clue!

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Pat, may you help me please. I was at confession last weekend and I offered up my wrong doings for forgiveness, but the priest last week, asked me questions about my confession and it made me very uncomfortable. Is this normal practice and I have just not experienced it before? Or is this not standard behaviour?

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4.10: A priest will often give a word of enciuragement by way of support and understanding. Also, we may sometimes ask the penitent if there was anything they wished to talk about out of their “sins”…that may lead to conversations which should not ever transgress boundaries. Otherwise you pray the prayer of absolution.

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I told him that I had masterbated since my last confession and he asked me how often I did it, where I did it, where I ejaculated, and what or who I masterbated over. I thought that was too personal.

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Paul do you think God seriously cares whether you masturbate? And if he does do you really think he wants you to tell a priest in a cupboard?

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4.10 and 6.28 as a sample question for public information (the core purpose of blogs), your confession was too detailed. “Impurity” is a quality (and you don’t even have to mention that much) and no sound priest will ask for details. God wants to help us stop what isn’t right for us to be doing. Your primer should tell you under “examination of conscience” when you should consider planning to make restitution with anyone. A priest ought solely to be on the lookout for cases when he should explicitly stress that the penitent has got to plan making restitution with anyone.
Another important thing confession goers are too seldom reminded to consider is that if the sole rationale of the priest is to readmit you to the smarties queue, the enterprise has gone too far off the rails as pastoring was always meant to be essentially non-sacramental per se. Priests don’t take away guilt, real and imaginary, they should simply help us get ourselves, God and the world around us in proportion. As long as sacraments didn’t get in the way of that well and good.

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i ) Next time answer “in the library, with a poker”! Laughter before absolution!

ii ) The time after, say “you’ve got nineteen questions left”!

iii ) I and my peers heard “under seal of confession” for which we were not trained in – shall we say – the better regulation fashion, details of this nature from a preacher. I’ve forgotten what it was all in aid of, some kind of garden path maybe. A single old lady orphaned since infancy copied him, and a young married man copied her.

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4.10

Yes Paul,

They suck you in build your trust then shit all over it, the ones that aren’t running to confession… They keep secrets for a living, discreetly judge you while maintaining a non judgemental composure while pretending to be everyone’s friend …. 😂

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Canon 979 of the current code of canon law says that the confessor is to proceed with discretion and to be mindful of the age and condition of the penitent, never seeking to identify the accomplice. I think questions in confession should be kept to a minimum. An invitation like @5.17 suggests to allow someone to talk or to repeat a word or phrase from what they’ve said as question might be helpful. It’s not an opportunity to grill someone tho. An earlier canon in the same section of the code warns the priest to be mindful that he’s not just a “judge” but a “physician”. I remember getting the third degree once, it wasn’t unpleasant and the priest was young enough, obviously well meaning. I remember praying for him after, that he might settle into the role a little more calmly. A Francisan priest I confessed to over the past summer said at the end of his gentle counsel that I should go and light the world up with my smile. Beautiful way to send someone out helped, healed and whole.

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‘An earlier canon in the same section of the code warns the priest to be mindful that he’s not just a “judge” but a “physician”. ‘
The Canon omits ‘dirty old man’.

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7.23: De Integro: I too had a similar experience at Knock recently. A lovely, kind, empathetic missionary priest exemplified God’s kindness of mercy and forgiveness. What a pity that the fool, Paul/Paula/Puke had his/her comment printed! What ugliness in the heart of this sick person. He/she is morally repulsive. This comment belongs to the loo bowl.

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Reading this you wonder what that diocese would consider inappropriate. It’s got all the usual lack of boundaries and lack of morals that we are accustomed to.

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Isn’t Gary Donegan CP the unofficial chaplain to Sinn Fein? He did Storey’s Requiem Mass even though the church wasn’t a Passionist church, Gary wasn’t a priest of the parish and Storey was publicly an athiest.

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Slavery and the Christian Response | Privilege & Power : and Flippant Abuse | "Bishops [of the institutional church] do not have access to all the levers : but I do have a platform..." Retirement: "Stillness, reflection and quietness."says:

~ Slavery and the Christian Response | The Anglican Diocese of Liverpool ~
• Part of the Liverpool Cathedral Lent Lectures 2021 series: Liberty to the Captives…
• Speaker: Rt. Revd Dr Alastair Redfern, Founder and Chair of the Clewer Initiative –
Bishop Alastair will offer an overview of the Church of England’s relationship to slavery in history and the present challenges of Modern Slavery. What difference can the gospel make?
.https://youtu.be/opiaZKbWLME

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https://www.complicitclergy.com/news/
Disgraced NAC Rector Stepping-Down
October 22, 2021 by Peter
“A statement by the Pontifical North American College (NAC) confirmed that the Rector, Father Peter Harman, will be stepping down after facing bombshell allegations in a major lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court.
The lawsuit alleges that Harman used his position as NAC rector to retaliate against seminarians and to cover up reports of sexual misconduct on the part of the former NAC vice-rector, Father Adam Park. The announcement of Harman’s departure also follows the filing of an affidavit by a highly-credentialed former Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) stating that he found allegations that Harman engaged in sexual acts at an orgy in the presence of seminarians to be “entirely credible.”

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The NAC says that the rector has completed his agreed term and in fact had worked a year beyond his previously agreed departure date.

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I am a former housekeeper in a parochial house and the things I have found over the years have been scandalous. Used condoms, gay magazines, sex toys, lubricant, handcuffs and even a wig to mention a few. But I have never judged the priest, it’s not my place to do so. He was a good man at heart and deserves a personal life.

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Bet the priest who took that confession was getting off on that confession. That’s why he wanted so much information.

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He might have been a double agent. In fact, he probably was.
An Irishman feeding names into the British empire for bags of silver. I wonder who that would remind you of.

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I remind the canon in school asking us boys about masterbation while doing confession, hindsight he was prob a dirty nonce

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Iv found this blog by chance today n I’m tellin ye It’s been wild craic like I’ll defo be bk for more laughs Cus you priests R totally bonkers lol

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I know of a good priest who was much loved by his congregation despite having his own flaws. He was a chain smoking alcoholic that would often have to be put in a taxi home after too much whisky but he still managed to serve the parish all year long despite being hungover or tired. Was always present in the community and always knew his parishioners. He attended a wedding I was invited to once and got so drunk he passed out and wet himself, but nobody ever beat him with a stick as he was a great peoples man with unfortunate issues.

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An active priest in Co.Antrim got me pregnant when I was 15 and he was 13. I had an abortion. How is he allowed to be a priest when he has had sex with me?

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We rightly pay reverence to many, many saints who took up arms in support of their people and in the name of God. Popes – Saints, at that – throughout history waged wars in defence of the Papal States. Saint Ignatius served in the Spanish military, Joan of Arc, Andrew the Tribune – all served their people and God through wars.
I’m not best versed on the alleged actions of Chesney, but you’d do well to remember, Pat, the cause and effect of the wars in Ireland. Appreciating you reside in Larne, do not become mastered by the British. Instead, as your saintly name invokes, drive the snakes from this land.
Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.

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It is Catholic. That’s the point. Anything less is your modernist problem. You don’t get to choose which parts of Holy Mother Church you agree with. Henry VIII tried that and his Holiness Paul III rightly told him to fuck himself.
Thanks to your lot, at this rate the “Catholic” church and Episcopalian / Protestant churches will be indistinguishable.
I pray you change your tune.

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Well another comment that went over your heads. May I suggest you read the comment I’m replying to and make an effort to understand.
PS I’m not Magna lol

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12. 36
I don’t think any comment goes over anyone’s head, particularly on this blog… if your not getting a response then maybe you need to rethink the fact your opinion is basic and boring and not worth a response!
Use your brain….

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1. Are Sinn Fein still “provisionals”?
2. Did the “un-provisional” IRA have a cause at the time and do they still exist?
3. Ara Coeli is a better holiday destination than wherever it was earlier in the week but the unreliably named prominent politician should certainly not have butted into whoever’s cathedral when I think everyone is feeling genuinely sad.

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How do you deal with a narcassist pat?
A) by playing their game
B) by not engaging
C) rules haven’t Been written yet, by yours truley!

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