PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent
ARCHBISHOP of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has spoken of his personal torment on reading files in the diocese’s archives detailing clerical child sex abuse. In one instance he said it prompted him to throw documents to the ground.
It has also emerged that publication of the Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation report may be delayed, in whole or in part, due to ongoing court proceedings involving allegations of child sex abuse against men also investigated by the commission.
One such case has been adjourned until November.
Speaking in an interview, to be broadcast at 9pm tonight on TV3 in Abuse of Trust: Sins of the Fathers , Archbishop Martin recalls how “one weekend I decided to try and get through these documents. I came to the stage when I simply threw them on to the ground.
“I couldn’t keep reading. This is reality. It can’t be hidden and it shouldn’t be hidden.”
He also says that co-operating with the Dublin commission often caused him sleepless nights.
He would “turn over at night and wonder whether I have done the right thing or made a mistake”, he says.
Archbishop Martin handed over 66,583 documents to the commission, which is headed by Justice Yvonne Murphy.
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