On his resignation as Catholic Bishop of Ferns in 2002, Brendan Comiskey insisted he had “done his best” to deal with child sex abuse allegations against the notorious Fr Seán Fortune, but “clearly that was not good enough”.
For the previous fortnight, Bishop Comiskey, who died on Monday aged 89, had refused to comment on a BBC documentary entitled Suing the Pope. It examined his handling of Fr Fortune and raised further questions about child abuse in the diocese in the 1980s and 1990s.
The programme followed Colm O’Gorman – who went on to found the One in Four charity – around the diocese, largely comprising Co Wexford, as he identified locations where he said he was abused by Fortune.
Bishop Comiskey began his resignation press conference by apologising to the four men whose cases the documentary explored.
Electricity grids designed so generators switch off when system loses synchronisation, expert explains
Magic movies: The 25 best comedies of the past 25 years – in reverse order
What will €260,000 buy in Limerick city and west Cork?
The Eircom shares debacle: ‘I spent €5,000. They are now worth less than €500′
“I apologise also to the families of victims and to all others who have been offended or hurt in different ways by Fr Seán Fortune,” he said, adding that “the sexual abuse of children is deeply abhorrent to me”.
He went on to say he had found Fortune “almost impossible to deal with”. Fortune had in 1999 died by suicide shortly before he was to face child sex abuse charges in the courts. He was accused of the rape and molestation of 29 boys.
Bishop Comiskey’s resignation came a decade on from another major blow for the church’s authority in Ireland, the resignation of Bishop of Galway Eamonn Casey after The Irish Times disclosed that he had a 17-year-old son.
His departure was followed by the first of what became a series of statutory inquiries into child sexual abuse.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who at that time was minister for education, set up the Ferns inquiry, which reported in October 2005 and exposed a devastating pattern of cover-up of priest abusers in the diocese.
It found this was particularly the case under the previous bishop, Donal Herlihy, but had continued in Bishop Comiskey’s time.
The annexed report set out the difficulties experienced by Bishop Comiskey in securing the removal of diocesan clergy under his aegis from particular posts held by them.
However, it found his handling of allegations and complaints had been “inappropriate and inadequate” and he had “failed to recognise the paramount need to protect children, as a matter of urgency, from potential abusers”.
The Ferns Report established a template for what would later be exposed by the Murphy commission in Dublin (2009) and Cloyne dioceses (2011) and the Ryan commission (2009).
After his resignation, Bishop Comiskey lived quietly for more than two decades at a house belonging to his congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Dublin. He was from Clontibret, Co Monaghan.
He had been receiving treatment for cancer before his death. His illness was said to have been exacerbated by overseeing the removal of the remains of five members of his family in Co Monaghan last November.
This was done in the belief that one of `the disappeared’, Joseph Lynskey, had been buried there by an IRA squad. However, the remains discovered were not those of Mr Lynskey and have yet to be identified.
As a younger priest, Bishop Comiskey spent some time ministering in the United States before he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Dublin in 1979. He was appointed bishop of Ferns in 1984.
He was regarded as an excellent communicator and, as a result, was a frequent and high-profile contributor to radio and television programmes.
One of his last public appearances was at the funeral of Peter Kavanagh, a brother of poet Patrick Kavanagh, at which he presided in 2006.
Speaking to South East Radio on Monday, Mr O’Gorman said his first thought on hearing of Bishop Comiskey’s death was that it was “sad”. He offered his “genuine and heartfelt condolences to his family, his friends and those who loved him”.
He said he was concerned that Bishop Comiskey might be “uniquely scapegoated” for what happened not just in Ferns but beyond.
“Ferns wasn’t unique, and his management of clerical child sex abuse and Ferns was not unique,” he said.
“He managed it in the way that he was directed to manage it by canon law and by the Vatican.”
