Archbishop Martin refuses to demand Cardinal Brady's resignation
Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin tonight refused to demand his superior's resignation over revelations he failed to alert police about one of Ireland's most notorious paedophile priests.
However, he insisted somebody should have stopped serial sex offender Fr Brendan Smyth after it emerged Cardinal Sean Brady - the head of the Catholic church in Ireland - took evidence of his crimes in an internal church probe.
"Somebody should have stopped him," he said.
"Brendan Smyth should have been stopped from the very first time it was known that he was abusing."
Despite unprecedented pressure for Cardinal Brady to stand down, Archbishop Martin - the second most senior Catholic in Ireland - said resigning is a personal decision but the most important issue was that the entire truth comes out.
The archbishop suggested while an inquiry into every diocese in the country - modelled on the shocking State investigation of his own diocese under his predecessors - would be costly, it may be the only way forward.
"Something like this may be necessary if we cannot get a way of ensuring that the truth is out and that people know the truth is out," he said.
The North's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness tonight joined growing calls for Cardinal Brady to step down over the scandal.
"I think Cardinal Brady should be considering this position and I would be very surprised if he wasn't doing so at this time," he said in Washington, where he is attending St Patrick's Day celebrations.
Earlier, Environment Minister John Gormley said he would "have no difficulty" with a police investigation into revelations that two child victims were sworn to secrecy by the clergy in a 1975 probe.
"I suppose in many ways it is a case of evil triumphing while a good man stood back from the situation and I suppose it is a matter for the church authorities themselves and Cardinal Brady and his own conscience and he will have to deal with that," he said.
Campaigners have claimed the failure to notify police at the time allowed Smyth to carry on with an 18-year reign of terror against children before he was finally arrested.
Cardinal Brady has defended his role in the 1975 meeting where two children abused by Smyth were asked to take a vow of silence as part of the internal church investigation.
A statement issued by the church today repeated claims the current cardinal was a junior figure at the time, but it also revealed that clergy aware of Smyth's crimes advised psychiatric treatment.
The One In Four victims' group executive director Maeve Lewis said: "No-one is disputing that Cardinal Brady was not the most senior person in the investigation into Brendan Smyth.
"But on the other hand, he was a man in his 30s, he must have known what happened was wrong and was a crime.
"In the years after that, he must have known that Brendan Smyth was at large."
Dr Brady has dismissed calls for his resignation since his role in the 1975 probe emerged at the weekend and has said he will only step down if told to by the Pope.
The Cardinal - then a part-time secretary to the then Bishop of Kilmore, the late Bishop Francis McKiernan - took notes during two meetings with children aged 14 and 15 who he believed had been abused by Smyth.
In a statement issued today, the church said it wished to clarify events.
The Catholic Communications Office said: "In late March 1975, Father Sean Brady was asked by his bishop, Bishop Francis McKiernan, to conduct a canonical inquiry into an allegation of child sexual abuse which was made by a boy in Dundalk, concerning a Norbertine priest, Father Brendan Smyth.
"Father Brady was then a full-time teacher at St Patrick's College, Cavan. Because he held a doctorate in Canon Law, Father Brady was asked to conduct this canonical inquiry; however he had no decision-making powers regarding the outcome of the inquiry. Bishop McKiernan held this responsibility.
"On March 29, 1975, Father Brady and two other priests interviewed a boy (14) in Dundalk. Father Brady's role was to take notes. On April 4, 1975, Father Brady interviewed a second boy (15) in the parochial house in Ballyjamesduff. On this occasion Father Brady conducted the inquiry by himself and took notes.
"At the end of both interviews, the boys were asked to confirm by oath the truthfulness of their statements and that they would preserve the confidentiality of the interview process.
"The intention of this oath was to avoid potential collusion in the gathering of the inquiry's evidence and to ensure that the process was robust enough to withstand challenge by the perpetrator, Father Brendan Smyth.
"A week later Father Brady passed his findings to Bishop McKiernan for his immediate action."
The statement added: "Eight days later, on April 12, 1975, Bishop McKiernan reported the findings to Father Smyth's religious superior, the Abbot of Kilnacrott. The specific responsibility for the supervision of Father Smyth's activities was, at all times, with his religious superiors. Bishop McKiernan withdrew Brendan Smyth's priestly faculties and advised psychiatric intervention."
The Labour Party has also called for gardaí to investigate Cardinal Brady's secret talks with the child victims to determine if failure to notify authorities constituted a crime.
Smyth was at the centre of one of the first paedophile priest scandals to rock the Catholic Church in Ireland.
A seven-month delay in extraditing him to the North also collapsed the Irish Government in November 1994 when the Labour Party withdrew from its coalition with Fianna Fáil over claims that a warrant was withheld.
The repeat offender later admitted a litany of sex attacks on about 90 children in the North and South of Ireland over a 40-year period and was jailed.
He died in prison in 1997.
