IN MARCH 1985 Bishop Eamonn Walsh was appointed junior secretary to then archbishop of Dublin Kevin McNamara.
In 1987 he became secretary to the late auxiliary bishop of Dublin Joseph Carroll, then archdiocesan administrator. A year later, in March 1988, Bishop Walsh became senior secretary to then archbishop of Dublin Desmond Connell (now a cardinal).
In April 1990 he was ordained Titular Bishop of Elmham and Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin with responsibility for the deaneries of Tallaght, South Dublin and Blessington.
In May 1999 he was appointed chairman of the newly-established Irish Bishops’ Liaison Committee on Child Abuse. Its initial purpose was to assist co-operation with the Laffoy Commission, later known as the Ryan Commission when Mr Justice Seán Ryan succeeded Ms Justice Mary Laffoy as chairman following her resignation in 2003.
In 2001 the Bishops Liaison Committee on Child Abuse became the Bishops Committee on Child Protection, following the merging of the Bishops Liaison Committee on Child Abuse with the National Resource Group.
The latter was established following publication in 1996 of the Green Book/Framework Document guidelines on dealing with clerical child sex abuse allegations.
In July 2001 this committee set up the National Child Protection office at Maynooth.
It also commissioned the Royal College of Surgeons to do the research project Time to Listen, published in December 2003.
Between April 2002 and April 2006, Bishop Walsh was apostolic administrator of Ferns diocese, as well as being an Auxiliary Bishop in Dublin, in which (former) role he co-operated with the Ferns inquiry. It published its report in October 2005.
On November 26th last the Murphy report, on how clerical child sex abuse allegations were addressed in Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese, was published.
It found that allegations about “Fr Dante” (a pseudonym) in 1997, which were also addressed by Bishop Walsh, had been dealt with appropriately by the archdiocese.
Concerning Fr Noel Reynolds, the commission report records that Bishop Walsh had been informed by a social worker that a client of hers had alleged she had been abused by Fr Reynolds.
Bishop Walsh “advised her to write to the chancellor”.
The Ryan report, which felt the archdiocese dealt “extremely badly” with allegations against Fr Reynolds, makes no specific observation on Bishop Walshs involvement.
On Christmas Eve Bishop Walsh offered his resignation as Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin.
