A DUBLIN man has claimed that a missionary congregation did not co-operate with the civil authorities as fully as claimed during an investigation of his alleged abuse by one of its priests in the city. The congregation, however, says it did so.
In 2007 Mark Vincent Healy said he had been abused in Ireland by two Holy Ghost (now known as Spiritans) missionary priests when they were teaching at St Mary’s College, Rathmines, in Dublin.
Aged between nine and 12 at the time, he said the abuse took place between 1969 and 1973 when he was a pupil at the junior and senior schools there.
In March 2009, one of the priests, Fr Henry Maloney, was found guilty in court of abusing Mr Healy and another man when both were pupils at St Mary’s.
The priest was given a suspended sentence due to ill-health as he was already under strict supervision at Kimmage Manor in Dublin.
Fr Maloney, who had been out of ministry and under strict supervision since 1996, had previously been convicted of child abuse in 2000, when he received and served a prison sentence of 18 months.
Ordained in 1967, he taught at St Mary’s between 1968 and 1973, following which he was transferred to Sierra Leone.
The second priest accused by Mr Healy was Fr Arthur Carragher, who died in Canada on January 10th this year. Ordained in 1952, he served in Sierra Leone before joining the teaching staff at St Mary’s in 1969. In June 1971, he went to Canada where he transferred to the congregation’s Trans Canada province.
That move was described this week by Holy Ghost Irish provincial Fr Brian Starken to
The Irish Times
as “a little bit strange”. He also confirmed the details above about Fr Maloney.
He said that in 2001, two Dublin brothers made allegations about abuse by Fr Carragher and attempts were made to have the priest extradited to Ireland to face charges.
These were frustrated as there is no extradition treaty between Ireland and Canada and a medical report stated that Fr Carragher was too ill to travel.
Fr Carragher subsequently admitted the abuse of the brothers when they initiated a civil action against him in Canada. It is understood that they also received compensation.
Altogether Fr Carragher was accused by four men, including Mr Healy, of abusing them when he was in Dublin.
Mr Healy said he was “nine and 10 at the time and in the junior school. Fr Maloney abused me when I was 11 and in the first year at senior school.”
He said he asked Fr Starken for information on the two priests against whom he had made allegations.
“Information was provided about Fr Henry Maloney, but no information was forthcoming on Fr Carragher . . . No files on Fr Arthur Carragher were forthcoming until I provided information to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.” The archbishop had been helpful to him, he said.
Fr Starken told The Irish Times that their “first inkling in relation to another case [Mr Healy’s] was early in 2007” when relevant information was “all forwarded to gardaí in accordance with normal procedure”.
Asked if Fr Carragher had any criminal convictions for child abuse, he said “no” and that “there were no allegations against him in Canada” arising from his years there.
According to a local Spiritans magazine, Fr Carragher, despite his earlier admissions of his abuse of two Dublin brothers beforehand,continued in ministry at Hamilton, Ontario, in 2004. In August 2005 he was congratulated on serving 55 years in ministry.
There have been no allegations brought against Fr Maloney or Fr Carragher arising from their years of ministry in Sierra Leone.
