Brady at Secret Meetings on Smyth Abuse Allegations, Irish Times, March 14, 2010

Brady at Secret Meetings on Smyth Abuse Allegations

Irish Times
March 14, 2010

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0314/breaking13.html

IRELAND -- Catholic primate Cardinal Seán Brady has confirmed he attended meetings where two alleged victims of the notorious paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth signed an oath of silence.

In a statement, a spokesman for the cardinal said Dr Brady had been investigating complaints of abuse against Fr Smyth by the two teenagers in his capacity as secretary to the Bishop of Kilmore in 1975.

Cardinal Sean Brady with, from left, Bishop Michael Smith, Bishop Joseph Duffy, Bishop Denis Brennan and Bishop Brendan Kelly during the press conference at the Vatican last month
Photo by Cyril Byrne

The statement said the cardinal had believed the complaints he received and had provided the information he received to his then bishop, Dr Francis McKiernan.

"In 1975, Fr Sean Brady, as he then was, was the part-time secretary to the then Bishop of Kilmore, the late Bishop Francis McKiernan," the statement said.

"At the direction of Bishop McKiernan, Fr Brady attended two meetings: in the Dundalk meeting Fr Brady acted as recording secretary for the process involved and in the Ballyjamesduff meeting he asked the questions and recorded the answers given.

"At those meetings the complainants signed undertakings, on oath, to respect the confidentiality of the information gathering process. As instructed, and as a matter of urgency, Fr Brady passed both reports to Bishop McKiernan for his immediate action."

The Fianna Fáil/Labour administration collapsed in late 1994 after a political crisis arising from the State's delay in extraditing Smyth to the North to face charges of child abuse.

A member of the Norbertine Catholic religious order, Smyth died in prison of a heart attack in 1997 at the age of 70, four years and one month into a seven year prison sentence for child abuse.