The Archdiocese of Dublin has rejected as conjecture and rumours allegations in a forthcoming book that the former Archbishop of Dublin, Dr John Charles McQuaid, was a paedophile.
But the book's author, journalist John Cooney, has insisted that its "scholarly and truthful content" was based on six years of detailed research, and he invited readers to make up their own minds on the accuracy of the claims.
The book, John Charles McQuaid - Ruler of Catholic Ire- land, contains allegations that the late Dr McQuaid, archbishop of Dublin between 1940 and 1972, made sexual advances to a schoolboy and behaved inappropriately towards other boys. The book will be published by O'Brien Press in two weeks.
The main allegation is made in a manuscript by the late Dr Noel Browne which Mr Cooney received from Mr Browne's widow, Phyllis. The former health minister and Dr McQuaid clashed in 1951 after Dr Browne's scheme for a free medical plan for mothers and children was strongly condemned by the archbishop on social and moral grounds.
The document by Dr Browne is an essay called A Virgin Island, in which a character called John the Bishop makes sexual advances to the son of a Dublin publican on a settee in a private upstairs room of an unspecified bar.
According to the book, Dr Browne's essay states that the boy fled from John the Bishop after it became clear to him that the cleric's "roving hands and long fingers had intentions other than getting information about school".
Mr Cooney states Dr Browne was given information which formed the basis of the essay by a retired school inspector who had approached him at a funeral in 1988. The two subsequently met in the Great Southern Hotel in Galway, where the man recounted the pub episode, the book says.
Dr Browne's wife, Phyllis, authenticated to Mr Cooney that the John the Bishop tale was based on the alleged incident involving Dr John McQuaid, according to sources close to the author. The essay was recently lodged among Dr Browne's other papers in Trinity College Dublin, where it is currently being catalogued.
Other claims in the book include two incidents when Dr McQuaid allegedly had inappropriate contact with boys whom Mr Cooney interviewed. Also, the late Mrs Mercy Simms, the wife of the former Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, told Mr Cooney she felt Dr McQuaid had an unhealthy attraction towards boys.
The allegations were published yesterday in the Sunday Times.
The Archdiocese of Dublin's communications office said yesterday the allegations had "as their foundation rumour, hearsay and conjecture".
"No newspaper would dare to publish such material if it concerned a living person," said a statement from the office. "Publication of the claims shows scant regard for professional journalistic practice which would search for the truth by checking all relevant sources. We deplore the fact that the standards of the Sunday Times should have declined so far as to publish such material."
Mr Cooney said he was astonished that the communications office should rush to condemn his book without having read its "scholarly contents based on detailed research over six years".
He invited readers to make up their own minds on the accuracy of the claims by the late Dr Browne and others that Dr McQuaid was a paedophile.
Mr Cooney also called on the church to allow the Government's commission of inquiry on childhood abuse to investigate Dr Browne's claim.