Gerard Murray (52) can still remember how Michael Shine’s breath “smelt” as he leant over him when he was aged four, and whispered, “This won’t take long”, and allegedly began sexually assaulting him.
The Drogheda man had been brought by his mother with a “hernia issue” to the then surgeon. “I can’t remember if my mother was in the room. I remember he had me stripped naked and on the table... and he started stretching my penis. Whilst he was doing that he had his finger up my anus. He was behind me and he whispered. ‘This won’t take long’.
“I remember the pain of him stretching my penis and the fear I felt. One part of me thought it was a medical procedure and another part felt it was something wrong. Even though I was only four I knew there was something not right. And I was really scared.
“At that time – the doctor, the guard, the priest – they were king. You didn’t question them. I didn’t cry. Trapped would be a word to describe how I felt. When I think about it now I get this ball in my stomach and my throat.”
Shine (93), is alleged to have sexually abused hundreds of boys and young men to whom he had access as a surgeon at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda. He was convicted in 2017 and 2019 of sexual offences. In 2020 he was convicted of assaulting seven boys between 1971 and 1992. He served three years in prison and now lives in Dublin.
Murray is one of more than 350 survivors supported by Dignity4Patients – the Co Louth-based charity reiterating its call for a commission of investigation into all aspects of how Shine was able to continue abusing for more than three-decades. Murray and several others are going public for the first time in a bid to increase pressure on the Government to establish an investigation.
Murray did not tell his parents, or anyone at the time, what had happened to him as a small boy. “I felt very shameful, guilty ... Even aged four I knew you don’t question the authorities.
“I was also abused by a Christian Brother when I was 14. I couldn’t concentrate in school. I got into drinking, taking drugs. I eventually ended up homeless. I felt useless and I despised myself. I tried to kill myself when I was 18 and ended up in a psychiatric ward. I tried to destroy every photo of myself.
“Eventually, the kindness of one man, who gave me a bed for the night, changed my life. I stopped drinking and taking drugs. I haven’t taken drugs or drink in 28 years.”
Murray reported Shine’s alleged abuse to gardaí in 2021 but the DPP decided not to prosecute. “I felt really devastated.”
A commission of investigation would bring him answers, and healing, he says. “I remember playing football and there was a running joke – ‘Don’t hurt your leg or you’ll end up above in the hospital with Dr Shine feeling your testicles’ ... It was an open secret.
“I need to know, why was Michael Shine allowed abuse me even though other people knew? He is Ireland’s Jimmy Savile.
“It would 100 per cent be healing, to try to get some peace. I don’t have that. The abuse by Michael Shine is with me every day.”
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