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	Murphy Commission Report — Chapter 19 Tony Walsh. Summary Bock the Robber December 19, 2010 http://bocktherobber.com/2010/12/murphy-commission-report-chapter-19-tony-walsh-summary I have tried to summarise chronologically the recently published chapter 19 from the Murphy Report on the serial sex-abuser priest Tony Walsh, so that it can be digested more easily. Sometimes, as I went through the report, I was so horrified or disbelieving that I highlighted something in boldface so that I could come back to it. For example, I was staggered at the evidence of a Garda in 1991 who, even though a priest had told him about a church inquiry into a sex abuser, was able to say that no specific complaint of sex abuse had been made. This garda informed a priest that there was no question of a prosecution and subsequently gave evidence to a diocesan inquiry, but never tried to have the rapist arrested. As you read through this chronology, you might find yourself astounded at the inability of the bishops and priests to recognise that they were dealing with a serious criminal. You might be astounded at the attitude of Gerard Sheehy: to crown my depression, Bishop Walsh made the outrageous suggestion that the Archbishop should inform the civil authorities. Monsignor Sheehy was reacting to the notion that a child-rapist might be reported to the police. Sheehy was both a canon and a civil lawyer, but his contempt for the laws of the State is clear: I think it important that every one of us should at this stage avoid any excessive reaction - no matter what the civil law may say. At this remove, it seems astounding that anyone should think like that. No matter what the civil law might say. Is there any way of interpreting that phrase other than as a rejection of the law of the land? You might be stunned at the fact that, throughout this entire saga, the church authorities were primarily concerned with avoiding trouble for themselves, and at no stage displayed the slightest concern for the children Walsh had raped. As the Commission report puts it: the welfare of children simply did not arise for consideration. I was most surprised by the level of trust that the parents of the priests' victims placed in the Dublin diocese, trust which turned out to be grossly misplaced, since the diocese and its servants had not the slightest interest in protecting these people or their children from the rapists who were a part of the clerical apparatus. It appears that everyone in the Dublin diocese knew for years that Walsh was a rapist. All the Archbishops knew it. All the auxiliary bishops knew it. The diocesan administrator jknew it full well. Many of the priests knew it. And yet, not one of these men who took it upon themselves to tell the general population what was moral, and in particular who claimed to have great authority in matters of a sexual nature, could see any personal obligation to stop the rapist by reporting his crimes to the police. These same men who, day in and day out were lecturing their adult parishioners about trivia such as contraception, were unable to act in the best interest of children who were being abused in a monstrous way by one of their own. Section 1.77 of the report, which was also redacted, clearly shows that Dublin priests were operating a paedophile ring: Fr Carney and Fr McCarthy abused children during their visits to children's homes. They also brought children on holidays and shared accommodation with two separate complainants. A boy who was initially abused by Fr McCarthy was subsequently abused by Fr Carney. Fr Carney abused children at swimming pools and was sometimes accompanied to swimming pools by Fr Maguire. Altar boys trips to Clonliffe College were originally started by Bill Carney and Francis McCarthy and were taken over by Fr Walsh. There were complaints of abuse during those visits. Before he got his own room in the presbytery in Ballyfermot, Fr Walsh used Fr Reynolds's room in Kilmore to abuse victims. Fr Reynolds had given him a key. That's Carney, McCarthy, Reynolds.Maguire and Walsh, all abusing the same boys. A paedophile ring of Dublin priests. I think it's important to point out one salient fact. The Murphy Commission did not carry out a thorough investigation of every abusing priest in the Dublin archdiocese. It took only a representative sample After the events described in the report, Walsh was jailed again on the 6th December last for further crimes.
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