Disturbing connections between abusing priests prompts Archbishop’s request to gardai for further investigation
By MAEVE SHEEHAN
Sunday Independent November 29 2009
THE ARCHBISHOP of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, asked the gardai (Irish Police) to investigate whether a clerical paedophile ring was operating in the archdiocese.
Dr Diarmuid Martin made the request to the National Bureau of Criminal Investigations after he examined files on paedophile priests in recent years. He was disturbed by close connections between a number of clerics who were later convicted of child abuse, according to sources, and asked gardai to investigate.
The priests included Fr Bill Carney and Fr Francis McCarthy, neither of whom are any longer in the priesthood, and Fr Patrick Maguire, a Columban priest, who is living under the strict supervision of his order. The three are among 46 priests named in the damning report by Judge Yvonne Murphy which found “no direct evidence” of a paedophile ring but found “worrying connections” between a number of priests.
Fr Carney and Fr McCarthy worked together to prey on vulnerable children, visiting them in children’s homes and, in at least one instance, abused the same child. Fr Carney and Fr Maguire brought children on swimming excursions together. Fr Carney also claimed that Fr Maguire could vouch for him when he was under investigation for abusing some of those children.
Fr Dominic Savio Boland, whose real name is John Boland, called to the home of a child who had been abused by another priest, Fr Ioannes, and proceeded to abuse the child himself.
“There is nothing in the evidence available to the commission to show how Fr Boland became aware of this young boy,” the report said.
Another priest, Fr Horatio, was given the use of a holiday home by Fr Sean Fortune, a notorious child abuser in the Wexford diocese.
The report says that “Archbishop Martin has referred some of these matters to the gardai in recent times”. Sources close to the archbishop said he was concerned at the connections between the priests and asked the gardai to investigate whether a paedophile ring was operating in the clergy. A Garda spokesman declined to comment on a paedophile ring, but sources said all links between these priests and others in the archdiocese would be investigated.
The findings of the commission on child sex abuse in the archdiocese have had profound ramifications with mounting calls for the immediate resignations of serving bishops who are criticised in the report and a high-level Garda review of the report’s findings on collusion and cover-up.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen yesterday stopped short of repeating Fine Gael calls for the resignations of serving members of the hierarchy. In a statement yesterday, he said it was up to religious organisations to determine the “appropriateness” of individuals to hold ecclesiastical office. Catholic bishops are expected to issue a statement on the report today.
In another development Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheal Martin is considering calling the Papal Nuncio to account for ignoring requests for information from Judge Yvonne Murphy.
A source close to the minister said that he is considering the unprecedented diplomatic move on foot of the Murphy report’s revelation that the Nuncio, the Pope’s ambassador in Ireland, ignored a request to disclose files to the Commission. A second request to the Vatican for files passed to it by the Dublin office was also ignored. A Vatican spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi, was quoted as saying that the commission did not go through the proper diplomatic channels.
Colm O’Gorman, the veteran campaigner against clerical sex abuse and director of Amnesty said: “I would expect the Minister for Foreign Affairs to summon the Papal Nuncio to Iveagh House to explain why his State failed to comply with the statutory inquiry and on what basis they felt it was appropriate to ignore the request. He is a diplomat; the minister should have him explain himself.”
John O’Mahony, an assistant Garda commissioner appointed to review the Murphy report on Friday, is to meet officers from the Garda sexual assault unit this week. The failings of some gardai were amongst the most surprising findings of the Murphy report, with former Garda commissioner Daniel Costigan among those criticised for passing a complaint about a priest to Archbishop John Charles McQuaid.
The relationship between several senior gardai and priests and bishops was inappropriate. However, several gardai were praised, one of them Finbar Garland, now a sergeant, who successfully prosecuted Fr Bill Carney for indecent assault. The report found that Bishop James Kavanagh attempted to influence the investigation through his contact with a chief superintendent.
Sgt Garland, who now heads the stolen car unit, told the Sunday Independent that there was never a suggestion to him at the time that the investigation should be blocked. “I was less than a year in the job. When you see two young boys of eight or nine years of age, holding their dads’ hands, and they are looking up at you and they are actually frightened and in fear, because they think they had done something wrong, that annoyed me more than anything else,” he said. “I was disgusted that anyone could do that to a child.”
Of the 46 priests in the report, 14 are dead and a number are believed to be unsupervised and living freely in the community either in Ireland or abroad. The Murphy report listed the whereabouts of three convicted paedophiles — Fr John Kinsella, Fr Ivan Payne and Fr Bill Carney — as being unknown. Nine of the 46 are laicised. They include Fr Francis McCarthy, who abused children in collusion with Fr Carney. Another priest, known as Fr Donato, is now married and has a child.
Another 126 priests suspected of child abuse were not investigated by the commission.
– MAEVE SHEEHAN
The relationship with the Church and State in Ireland though damaged is still very much alive and well. It remains this way not because the State wants to stay in bed with its formal spouse but because of spousal agreements written in happier times with regards to property rights, leases and criminal accountability. Ireland has become an oddity on the fringes of Western Europe shown in its deference still to this ancient model that has corrupted civil rights, law, education and health, and put justice on permanent hold. The only way forward out of this legal and moral wasteland is to start at ground zero by dismantling what now amounts to two blackmailers that are firmly in each other’s pockets. It will not be an easy task set against great opposition underlined by sickening deference, and pots of gold. Each side carries formidable blackmailer credentials. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE
The church owns or runs most of the schools, colleges, and hospitals, and can pull the plug on this entire system in a heartbeat. This is their ace card. The state in many respects is the weaker of the two but could enact sweeping legislation in removing church power and assets due to past and ongoing crimes by the clergy. Because of the lack of political will and maligned by religious beliefs this will never happen. This has led to the absence of justice has that has long been corrupted over and over again. The vexing question left is where do we go from here.
The answer can come from the cultural psychology and history of Ireland. Being unable to rule because of having been ruled so long. Much like a deer caught in the headlights it must come out of its shock or face certain death. Why do people return to a church or re-elect a politician they know to be corrupt? Because most have not ventured beyond the crossroads of where and how they live. I suspect all politics, religion, and life are local and therefore inter woven, leading to the greater danger based on the ‘need to know basis’. This is how all corruption is seeded and why I believe justice and democracy in Ireland can only come from the wider platform of Europe. This is where victims of clerical and institutional abuse in Ireland most take to the battlefield and unite as one greater force for justice.
It is not to be got at your local police station, or with friendly priest and politician.
It will not be got at your local survivor group meeting where transparency is lacking of late.
It can only be got from you to do for yourself, and with the help of others that you must assume to be weak until they prove to be strong. Anger is scream of the helpless until they know how to help themselves and to do nothing is the worst thing to do. If we do that it will be all over except for the crying.
Please unite and support Paddy Doyle for this only makes it harder for those brave enough to try for change, or you can give me a call.
Yours sincerely,
Barry Clifford.
Mob: 0877511113
Email: bgclifford@iol.ie
Such a mealy mouthed response from our politicians: Kenny calls for some bishop to resign which no doubt will involve living in the lap of luxury. Mr. Martin is “considering” having the Papal Nuncio “explain” himself.
If any other foreign State had spend so many years operating a child rape ring, profiting from child slave labour and corrupting government for it’s own ends we’d be declaring war now.