IRELAND
Irish Independent
[The Ferns Report via BishopAccountability.org]
DAVID QUINN – 01 FEBRUARY 2014
BRENDAN Comiskey was once one of Ireland’s best-known bishops. Indeed, with his outgoing personality, his media savvy and his mildly liberal theological views, he was seen by many as exactly the sort of bishop the Catholic Church in Ireland needed.
He became Bishop of Ferns in 1984, aged just 49, and this was another indication of a generational change in the air.
When I became editor of ‘The Irish Catholic’ in January 1996, Bishop Comiskey was still a columnist with the paper and I had some few dealings with him at that time.
But his personal and professional troubles were already mounting. The previous year, his press officer, Fr Walter Forde, confirmed to the media that Bishop Comiskey had taken a three-month sabbatical due to drink problems. He soon stopped writing his column at ‘The Irish Catholic’.
His drink problem probably contributed to his appalling handling of clerical sex abuse in his diocese. One of his priests was one of the worst offenders of all – Fr Sean Fortune, now deceased.
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