SEMINARIAN HOMOSEXUALLY BULLIED IN THURLES COMMITTED SUICIDE.
MICHAEL DEEGAN is the name of the seminarian who committed suicide in the 1994 in St Patrick’s Seminary, Thurles.
He would have only been 20 / 21 years old and he was found hanging behind a curtain in one of the seminaries lecture halls by a visitor to the seminary.
During his time in the seminary he was the victim of extreme homosexual stalking and harassment. People were putting sexually explicit notes under his room door and were leaving homosexual pornography on his bed.
One night he was found in a very bad emotional state on the corridor by a fellow seminarian who is now a priest of an English diocese. For now he wants to keep his identity hidden so we will call him FATHER A.
Father A brought Michael and the pornographic material to a member of staff whom we will call FATHER B. Father B sympathised with Michael, agreed that the material and bullying was awful and held on to the material.
WILIE LEE – THURLES PRESIDENT
We do not know if Father B reported the matter to the seminary president reported the matter to the archbishop of Cashel or indeed to anyone else.
I supplied the IRISH INDEPENDENT newspaper with the story and supporting evidence. The journalist involved even interviewed Father A.
The journalist then, in fairness, asked the president and Father B for a comment. The presidentq said nothing and lawyers for Father B denied that he had not been approached by Michael and Father A – and basically threatened the IRISH INDEPENDENT with a law suit.
However I was well aware from the time I heard this story that there may very well be a criminal aspect to the story. I contacted the Garda and started that ball rolling.
Father A is 100% sure about his version of events and has made a full statement to the Garda.
I have also tried to contact, in as sensitive a way as I can, members of the Deegan family who live in Birr, Co. Offaly. To date I have not heard back from them.
They may not want such a painful wound reopened?
But I have been haunted by the thoughts of the plight of Michael since I heard the story. It is a question of JUSTICE as well as a human question.
Surely poor Michael cries out for justice from beyond the grave.
We can also not allow his death to be another horrific secret that the Irish Catholic Church wants to keep buried – just like the bodies of the 700 babies the nuns buried and hid in a sewerage tank in Tuam.
Jesus told us that a good tree CANNOT bear bad fruit.
I would like Michael Deegan’s death and suffering to be the subject of a thorough Garda inquiry.
And if there are guilty parties they need to be made feel the weight of the criminal law.
I’m told that at least one of Michael’s torturers was ordained a priest and still works in an Irish Catholic Diocese!
How does this man live with himself?
What kind of harm is he still doing?
I have given his name, Father B’s name and several other names to the Garda.
Let us hope that Michael’s tragic death and suffering will not go unpunished for too much longer.
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BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 