Previous reports
MURPHY REPORT
Full title: Report of the Commission of Investigation, Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin
Published: November 2009
COMPOSITION
The investigation was chaired by Ms Justice Yvonne Murphy, assisted by barrister Ita Mangan and solicitor Hugh O’Neill.
BACKGROUND
In 2002 RTÉ broadcast a series produced by Mary Raftery titled Cardinal Secrets, which investigated the handling of child sex abuse allegations in the Dublin Catholic archdiocese.
Following the broadcast, the Government pledged in November that year to establish a full independent judicial inquiry into the archdiocese’s handling of abuse allegations. This set in motion the establishment of the Commission of Investigation Act, 2004, which in turn led to the setting up in 2006 of an investigation into the handling of allegations of clerical sex abuse in the Dublin archdiocese by church and State authorities from January 1st, 1975, until April 30th, 2004, when Cardinal Desmond Connell (below) stepped down as archbishop.
FINDINGS
Four successive archbishops of the Dublin Catholic archdiocese handled allegations of child sexual abuse badly – and with “denial, arrogance and cover-up” – and did not report their knowledge of abuse to gardaí over a period of three decades.
The structures and rules of the Catholic Church facilitated the cover-up of abuse.
Many auxiliary bishops of Dublin were also aware of complaints of child sex abuse, yet assignments of priests to parishes were often made without any reference to child sex abuse issues.
The report detailed cases involving 46 priests, involving more than 320 children, most of them boys.
Senior members of An Garda Síochána regarded the actions of priests as being outside their remit, and some gardaí reported complaints to the archdiocese instead of investigating them.
While some priests did bring allegations of abuse to their superiors, there was a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
RYAN REPORT
Full title: Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse
Published: May 2009
Composition: Originally chaired by Ms Justice Mary Laffoy, who resigned this position in 2003 due to lack of co-operation with the investigation by the Department of Education and church agencies.
She was succeeded by Mr Justice Seán Ryan.
BACKGROUND
The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse was set up in 2000 to investigate abuse at industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages, institutions for children with disabilities and ordinary day schools, dating back to 1914, although the bulk of its work concerned the period from the 1930s to the 1970s.
In May 1999 the then taoiseach Bertie Ahern apologised on behalf of the State to people who had been abused as children in these residential institutions. The apology followed the broadcast of the RTÉ series States of Fear, produced by journalist Mary Raftery. It exposed sexual, physical and emotional abuse, as well as neglect of children who had been in institutions run by religious orders on behalf of the State.
FINDINGS
Thousands of children suffered physical and sexual abuse over several decades in 216 residential institutions run by religious orders implicating more than 800 priests, brothers, nuns and lay people.
The commission heard from more than 500 witnesses who said they had been sexually abused. More than 90 per cent of witnesses reported physical abuse.
The report criticised the Department of Education for failing to carry out its “statutory duty of inspection” out of deference towards the reigious congregations.
More allegations were made against the Christian Brothers than all other male orders combined.
Religious congregations were not prepared to accept responsibility for the sexual abuse carried out by their members and did not listen to or believe people who complained of sexual abuse, the report said.
FERNS REPORT
Published: October 2005
Full title: Report of the Ferns Inquiry
Composition: Chaired by Frank Murphy, a retired Supreme Court judge, assisted by Dr Helen Buckley, a senior Trinity lecturer, and Dr Laraine Joyce of the Office for Health Management.
BACKGROUND
In March 2002 the BBC broadcast Suing the Pope, a documentary featuring testimony of abuse victim Colm O'Gorman and three other men. In April the then minister for health, Micheál Martin, set up an inquiry to investigate how allegations of clerical child sex abuse were handled by both church and State authorities in the Ferns diocese between 1962 and 2002.
FINDINGS
The report strongly criticised the handling by the Catholic Church of cases of child sexual abuse over four decades, having heard allegations by more than 100 people against 21 priests, among them Seán Fortune, who was involved in a number of rapes and sexual assaults around the country over a period of two decades.
From the 1960s until 1980, Bishop Donal Herlihy regarded priests who sexually abused children “as guilty of moral misconduct” but did not appear to recognise that “the wrongdoing was a serious criminal offence”.
His successor, Dr Brendan Comiskey (below), “failed to recognise the paramount need to protect children, as a matter of urgency, from potential abusers”. He was accused of providing erroneous information to one Garda inquiry and failing to co-operate fully with another.
Although the Garda properly investigated most cases of abuse, prior to 1990 there appeared to be “reluctance on the part of individual gardaí” to properly investigate allegations of abuse involving priests.
The South Eastern Health Board was criticised for failing to provide follow- up counselling to 10 girls who in 1988 reported allegations of abuse against the then parish priest of Monageer, Fr Jim Grennan.