IRELAND
Irish Examiner
By Jimmy Gahan and Catherine Shanahan
A PARISH priest was placed under garda protection following verbal assaults on him during Mass in a Co Wexford village.
Members of the congregation were angry over revelations about the priest’s predecessor in the Ferns Report into clerical child sex abuse in the diocese.
Fr John Sinnott, who took over the parish of Ballindaggin from deceased paedophile Canon Martin Clancy in 1992, took the brunt of the outbursts despite his innocence.
“I knew there would be some hassle. I know people are very hurt,” he said.
Trouble first flared for the 68-year-old priest during Saturday night’s vigil Mass in St Colman’s Church after he read a pastoral letter from Bishop Eamonn Walsh.
A small number of parishioners interrupted Fr Sinnott and demanded he tell all he knew about the activities of his predecessor.