IRELAND
The Irish Times
PATSY McGARRY
IT BEGGARS belief that, following what was discovered about Fr Brendan Smyth’s abuse of children at two 1975 church inquiries, the bishop of Kilmore diocese, Francis McKiernan, would have restored to the priest his right to hear Confession and say Mass publicly there.
Those faculties were removed following the inquiry conducted by then Fr Seán Brady, Fr Francis Donnelly and Fr Oliver McShane with 14-year-old Brendan Boland in Dundalk on March 29th, 1975. He told them of his abuse and that of five other young people by Smyth.
On April 4th, 1975, Fr Brady interviewed a 15-year-old boy at the parochial house in Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, concerning his abuse by Smyth. He was one of five young people whose names and addresses had been given by Brendan Boland at that inquiry in Dundalk. Four of those were never spoken to by any priest, nor were their parents. Nor were the parents of the 15-year-old boy interviewed by Fr Brady in Ballyjamesduff.
We now know, following last Tuesday’s BBC This World documentary, that Smyth continued to abuse another boy, who was on the list supplied by Boland to the priests, until 1976, that boy’s sister until 1982 and four cousins of theirs, members of one family in Belfast, until 1988.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.