PATSY MCGARRY AND CAROL COULTER

THE DUBLIN commission came about because of the RTÉ Prime Time programme Cardinal Secrets , broadcast in October 2002. Produced by Mary Raftery, with Mick Peelo reporting, it investigated the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations in Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese.

The then minister for justice, Michael McDowell, said he was “very alarmed” by the programme, which he found “deeply disturbing”. It led to the Commission of Investigation Act 2004, which allowed for the setting up of a type of inquiry which was more cost-effective and efficient than a tribunal.

Under that Act the Commission of Investigation, Dublin Archdiocese was set up in March 2006, with a brief to report within 18 months. Chaired by Ms Justice Yvonne Murphy (left), assisted by barrister Ita Mangan and solicitor Hugh O’Neill, it was to investigate the handling of allegations of clerical child sex abuse in Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese by church and State authorities covering the period January 1st, 1975 to April 30th, 2004 (when Cardinal Connell stepped down as Archbishop of Dublin).

The commission’s work was done in private with confidentiality expected from and assured for participants.

Owing to the volume of material dealt with, concerning allegations against a sample of 46 accused priests, the commission sought time extensions. It presented its report to Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern last July. As some of the priests dealt with are before the courts the Minister sought the Attorney General’s guidance and was advised to seek the advice of the High Court. The edited report was not cleared for publication until November by Mr Justice Paul Gilligan.

Judge Yvonne Murphy is no stranger to the issue of child sex abuse. As a judge of the Circuit Court since April 1998, most of which she served in the Circuit Criminal Court, she presided over dozens, if not hundreds, of cases involving the abuse of children by relatives, teachers, clergy and others.

Among the cases she heard was one where the female victim of alleged incest sought to have her accused brother identified, but Judge Murphy ruled that this was not permitted by law. This ruling was later upheld by the High Court. From 2003 until her appointment to head the commission she also sat on the Special Criminal Court.

Before her appointment as judge she was a junior counsel, married to Adrian Hardiman, who was one of the best-known senior counsel before his appointment direct from the bar to the Supreme Court bench. The couple have three sons, of whom one is a barrister. Although she qualified as a barrister in 1971, she first worked as a civil servant, air hostess and as a journalist between 1971 and 1984. She was an RTÉ presenter and edited Industrial Relations News. She is the author of Journalists and the Law and Insider Dealing in Ireland.

She was special adviser to former tánaiste, Labour leader Michael O’Leary, though she was later considered to be closer to the PDs than the Labour Party. She was called to the bar in both England and Northern Ireland as well as in Ireland. She was born in Co Donegal and worked on the Northern circuit.

Ita Mangan BL was called to the bar in 1987, but never practised, working in welfare rights until her appointment to the commission. Solicitor Hugh O’Neill qualified in 1980 and worked with Marcus Lynch, solicitor, prior to his appointment.

The Irish Times 27th November 2009

 

7 Responses to “Murphy Report: Background And Composition”

  1. barry clifford says:

    Martha, if you did not receive my e mail please contact again or phone

  2. Charles O'Rourke says:

    Anne, speak from the heart, you will be understod. We can,t do money laundring as revealed the other day in the Vatican but we can compensate for it by sincerity.

  3. barry clifford says:

    Anne,
    Do not forget to call and anyone else who wants to get things right and put up a fight.

  4. Crispina says:

    My God there have been some beautiful, talented, intelligent people to come out of them hell holes and thats without an education!…I’m so proud of us all.

    Anna, I couldn’t agree more with you!

  5. Anne says:

    Barry, I’m not too good with words myself but I speak from the heart. I thank god for people like you, and Paddy, because how you put things is a talent.
    My God there have been some beautiful, talented, intelligent people to come out of them hell holes and thats without an education!…I’m so proud of us all.

    Well Barry, did you see Sky news today? The music from the Vatican!??!…what a slap in the face!..maybe the proceeds will go to the victims of child abuse????…..now theres a thought!!

    Anne

  6. Martha says:

    “The Roman Catholic Church’s great achievement in Ireland has been to so disable our capacity to think about right and wrong that parents of abused children apologised for the abusing priest.”

    So says Fintan O’Toole at the beginning of his OPINION article in the Irish Times (Sat, 28th November 2009). And you know what? He’s absolutely right!

    Whatever about the damage 800 years of British Colonialism did to the collective Irish psyche, one thing for sure is, Rome (the Catholic Church) “finished us off”.

    I’m Irish myself, but to be quite honest, I don’t know too many Irish people who can actually think for themselves, as individuals.

    We have the Catholic Church to thank for that nationwide degree of psychological rape which is so indidious that the vast majority of Irish people don’t even know just how psychologically screwed-up they are!

    Martha

  7. barry clifford says:

    A PERSONAL ANATOMY OF CLERICAL ABUSE AND ITS POSTSCRIPT

    Though its postscript has yet to be documented clerical abuse has always been with us and much longer than it ever needed to here in Ireland. I cannot claim to be an expert on what drives abusers to do what they do and at best any professional in this field can only give an abstract view of it. I am only concerned with their victims. A doctor can only ask about their pain but cannot feel it as only that victim can. This is where my shared experience of abuse with them can offer perhaps a very narrow but personal view of that pain and its symptoms.
    Abuse itself has three main strands: Physical, sexual, and emotional and not in any particular order and cannot be disconnected from each other. Its symptoms though are all emotional, more often permanent and seen in their low self-esteem, social exclusion, anger, being overly defensive, and highly strung. Left untreated it leaves most victims fighting shadows in empty rooms, having drugs for bed- mates, and finding peace only in cemeteries often helped by the rope that got them there. Not ever being heard or believed would be their epitaph that is yet to be written.
    That epitaph has and is being fought on every front by the church, for only months after the Ryan report findings and just days before the Dublin Diocese report they were already showing their hand. One day after it, it had already become a tale of two bishops that signaled nothing had changed or ever would.
    Bishop of Killaloe, Willie Walsh, is quoted in the Irish Catholic warning against calls to prosecute perpetrators of abuse and states, “If we put people on trial for severe physical punishment administered 40 or 50 years ago where do we draw the line?” He then widens this question to include parents, teachers or others while admitting a desire not to be called to account him self even though corporal punishment had already been outlawed in this country for most of his teaching life. His safety in numbers defense along with him seeing it as more of an historical abuse is of course only part of the ‘learning curve’ that Willie is still on. This is not withstanding the Church cover up itself leading to justice being delayed. Then there is the other half of this tale, Bishop Eamonn Walsh, Auxiliary Bishop Of Dublin.
    Though both bishops carry the same title and name except DNA, the similarities do not stop there. I feel he is not as simple as Willie and is probably the most dangerous of them both and sadly too is still on that ‘learning curve’. Criticized in the Dublin Diocese report he clearly shows why.
    He does not want any further enquiries into child abuse to be extended to the rest of the State and the noble reasons given of course is to ‘protect children’. This individual sense of justice for victims was lost somewhere between his preference instead for saving time, energy and money in consolidating church and school protection services for children, forgetting easily such legislation has been there for some time now. Then Eamonn gets into his long and well rehearsed role where the actor has long since blurred the lines between truth and fiction. Maybe only at night does he wrestle with his demons for what he knew all along but I expect sleep still comes easily enough for now. He states that the “don’t ask don’t tell” and fear of scandal having primacy over the rights of children within the Catholic Church was dead and gone and if it is not, that person should be”. He could easily start with himself by resigning.
    He then blames everything on improper communication, isolated cocoons, little coordination, and with his lowly position as a messenger rendered him powerless anyway. Just in case the point was missing he copper fastens all this by stating that he was not at the decision making table or was privy to what was going on. There was a ray of hope for Willie when he said it was “most regrettable” that the Vatican did not respond to requests from the Murphy inquiry but then claimed “it was from another era, the diplomatic corps era”. When reminded that it was as late as 2007 when these requests were made, he fell on his own sword yet again by claiming that Vatican Mentality has changed. He should get out more often as that cocoon he is still in is clouding his judgment. There are lay scribes out there too who have been busy on abuse victims epitaphs and desperately trying to mute the voices of those of us whose hearts still beats loudly. They are driven by their own desire to be exalted among a society who may yet turn on them for Jesus had left the building a long time ago. One in particular comes to mind in his contributions to Catholic magazines and mainstream newspapers, David Quinn.
    Mr. Quinn latest comment gives praise to the Christian Brothers for their additional pay-out. The reality is that most of it is built back into clever trusts designed for themselves and no victim has yet seen a penny. It is also worth noting this non-offer came on the eve of the Dublin Diocese report and is little more than a public relations exercise. Anybody or organization who has been brought screaming and kicking in the first place before a tribunal and lied every step of the way does not offer compensation willingly. David then waxes lyrical that the best we or really he in this case can say is that with this report the church may at last have hit rock bottom. Yet he easily forgets that this is only about one diocese in Ireland. Other pieces he has written in the most recent past suggested that victims have axes to grind and much worse, and that was as good as it got in his defense of them. In the wake of this report he has to tow the morally critical line for now for the sheer horror of it all demands it, but this will change as time itself will give him many chances to work on damage control and look for ever new ways to undermine truth by his narrow definition of it.
    All of what I write here is no more than a cautionary tale of what the postscript of this story may yet be. It has the making of history in its hands and is been fought by the forces of good and evil. With purple robes, funny hats, and a silly book called canon law on the wrong side of this battlefield, it now faces a more formidable foe. They are the victims of clerical abuse recently vindicated walking with the courage and spirit of Jesus and have something in their arsenal that the opposition never knew. Jesus was with them all along.

    Yours Sincerely,
    Barry Clifford [former industrial institution victim]
    Email:bgclifford@iol.ie
    Phone:0877511113
    18 Carrowmannagh Pk
    Oughterard, Galway, Ireland.