Pressure mounts for Dublin child-abuse probe
Pressure is mounting today for a Ferns-style investigation into allegations of child sex abuse in the sprawling Dublin archdiocese.
A major state inquiry into the Ferns diocese yesterday revealed that 21 Catholic priests savagely sexually assaulted young boys and girls in parishes across Co Wexford over the past 40 years.
The Government vowed immediately to implement the recommendations of the scathing 300-page report, which was hailed by abuse victims.
But the most outspoken Ferns victim, Colm O’Gorman, has called for a similar sweeping investigation into abuse allegations in the Dublin archdiocese where, he claimed, priests use clerical teaching schools to access children.
A number of abuse scandals involving clerics in the capital in the 1990s led to Cardinal Desmond Connell being criticised for not acting against the problem.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell promised in the Dáil in 2003 that an inquiry into the capital’s priests would be carried out.
Mr O’Gorman, the director of the One In Four survivors' group, said: “In relation to the Dublin archdiocese we would be aware of concerns about cases that differ significantly from Ferns.
“We are aware of the role of education in Dublin, the way in which many priests use schools to access children, very directly and in a very dogged and blatant way at times.
“We would be appalled if that investigation, which has been promised for three years, is not delivered.
“There is an absolute need for that investigation and it would be extraordinary if Mr McDowell backtracks on that promise.”
The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, said last night that priests had traditionally enjoyed very privileged levels of trust in their communities.
But he added: “It is clear that in many cases that trust has been betrayed by those priests who abused and by the failure of church authorities to act when they should have.”
Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney dubbed the Ferns Report a major watershed, which would spark reforms “aimed at ending the scourge of child abuse in our society”.
She added: “We must all work together to put in place the kind of reforms which will quickly expose abuse where it happens, and engender a culture where it is much less likely to happen in the first place.”
