The late Dr Noel Browne had never intended that his papers, which contained allegations that Archbishop John Charles McQuaid was a paedophile, would be made public, his widow said yesterday.
Mrs Phyllis Browne did not think it would have struck her late husband that his essay featuring the allegations would have entered the public domain. "He never kept his papers and he never filed anything, and it never entered his head that anyone would ask for them or want them," she told RTE's Liveline programme.
The allegations were made to Dr Browne by a retired schools inspector in 1988. The former Minister and critic of the archbishop used the claims to write an essay in the days after he met the school inspector.
That essay is one of a large number of papers which have been lodged with Trinity College Dublin, which is cataloguing the collection. TCD had approached Mrs Browne for her husband's political and medical papers.
She had already given the essay to a journalist, Mr John Cooney, who had approached her and told her he was writing a book about the archbishop.
She said her husband had not publicised the allegations because he saw no point in doing so and he was conscious that people might question his motivation. "He saw no point in it; what could be achieved by it, the man was dead," she told The Irish Times last night.
She had typed the essay manuscript at the time and admitted to being shocked by the allegations. Her husband pitied the archbishop, she said. But she said the late Dr Browne would believe that making the allegations public was not the right thing to do.
Mr Cooney felt Dr Browne never intended that the essay would be published. The former minister believed he would have been viewed as being vindictive and he did not think the allegations would be believed.
Historian, broadcaster and producer of the award-winning television documentary John Charles McQuaid - What it Says in the Papers, Mr John Bowman said it would be important to wait until Mr Cooney's book was published in order to evaluate the evidence on which the allegations were based.
"This is especially the case where the accusations are so grave and controversial," Mr Bowman said.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin continued to defend Dr McQuaid yesterday. There was nothing in the extensive McQuaid archive which suggested that he knew about sexual abuse in the archdiocese's orphanages, that he permitted such abuse to continue or that he engaged in such sexual abuse, an archdiocese spokesman said.
Mr Cooney has called on the Government-appointed Child Abuse Commission to investigate the allegations about Dr McQuaid. The commission's secretary, Mr Paul Doyle, said it would be inappropriate for the commission to comment on any specific case or broad or general issue.