The Archdiocese of Dublin is currently facing 450 legal actions as a result of clerical child sex abuse allegations, the RTÉ programme Prime Time reported last night.
A leading canon lawyer, Father Tom Doyle, has expressed disquiet with the way cases have been handled within the archdiocese.
He told the programme that from what knowledge he has gathered about the handling of clerical child sex abuse in Dublin he believed there was "something radically, radically wrong". Father Doyle has investigated many cases in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
He made his comments on the Dublin cases at the beginning of a Prime Time special programme last night which reviewed how the cases had been dealt with. It detailed accounts of cases of abuse by eight priests, of which at least six bishops became aware.
The first case the programme examined was that of Father Tony Walsh who had been a priest in Coolock and Ballyfermot in the 1980 period while also being a member of the All Priests Show. Mr Ken Reilly, who had been an altar boy in Ballyfermot, gave an account of how he had been abused by the priest and efforts by his family to have something done about it.
Another victim, "David", gave a graphic account of a particularly vicious assault by the priest on him in the Phoenix Park on his ninth birthday. Mr Reilly's mother spoke of her efforts to have something done about the priest and told the programme she had informed five priests as well as Msgr Alex Stenson, a bishop (Bishop James Kavanagh) and an archbishop (Dr Dermot Ryan) about the case without success.
In 1992, Cardinal Connell set up a three-man tribunal to investigate allegations against Father Walsh. It found him guilty and recommended that he be defrocked but told nobody about its findings. Among the members of that tribunal were the current bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh and the current bishop of Kilmore, Dr John McAreavey.
Father Walsh decided to appeal the decision and meanwhile continued to act as a priest. In 1995, following a funeral in Palmerstown, Co Dublin, he attacked the 11-year-old grandson of the deceased and was subsequently charged with indecent assault. Two years later he faced further charges and was sentenced to six years.
The programme then looked at the cases of two priests, Father Bill Carney and Father Frank McCarthy and interviewed "Paul" from Dunlavin, Co Wicklow, who had been abused by Father McCarthy for three years. He was also abused by Father Carney who was a friend of Father McCarthy's. Father Carney was later defrocked after be was convicted of abusing two boys at Airfield in 1983, for which he received the Probation Act.
In 1995, "Paul" went to the gardaí about Father McCarthy, then a curate in Howth. Father McCarthy was convicted of indecent assault against "Paul" and another boy and is currently working at the Diocesan Communications Office in Drumcondra.
The programme also revealed that a priest who died earlier this year, Father Noel Reynolds, had admitted abusing 100 children.
The canon lawyer, Father Doyle, commented on Cardinal Connell's recent letter read at all masses in Dublin and remarked that church authorities did know about paedophilia, they did know about sex abuse. "What they didn't know was that they would be caught, and they didn't know the victims would reach such a critical mass and would say they would not put up with this any longer," he said.
