Child abuse group calls on government to investigate Archbishop McQuaid claims

The One in Four group calls for enquiry

Larger Text

Print

E-mail

11 Comments

Archbishop John McQuaid (left) was more than an archbishop, He essentially served as Eamon De Valera's right hand man and had total control over all church and state matters during his reign.

Photo by Google images

Tweet

Collins added: “It always seemed strange to me that he (Archbishop McQuaid) could dismiss so easily the physical proof of McGennis’s abuse and his weak excuse for that abuse.

“If the archbishop had taken the proper action Fr Paul McGennis might have been removed from the priesthood and lost his privileged position of trust with children.

“This would not have saved me as I had already been abused by Fr McGennis before the photos of those two young children were passed to the archbishop but it might have saved the other young girls he assaulted in later years.”

The paper reports that film McGennis sent to England for processing was reported to police there, who contacted colleagues in Dublin.

Then Garda (police) commissioner Daniel Costigan referred the claims to Archbishop McQuaid.

“The commissioner has a lot to answer for as well,” said Collins. “Through his deference to the church and the power of the archbishop he let those two young victims down and let a dangerous man go free.”

McGennis pleaded guilty to his abuse of Ms Collins in 1997 and was sentenced to 18 months. He then received a nine-month concurrent sentence for his 1976 abuse of a girl aged nine in Wicklow.

Last July, aged 81, he was given a six-year sentence, with the final four suspended, at the Circuit Criminal Court for the abuse of a young girl in Dublin between 1980 and 1984, beginning when she was 11.

---------------

Read more:

More news on the Irish Catholic Church from IrishCentral

Violent winds to lash Ireland as hurricane conditions approach

Top ten Christmas jokes guaranteed to make the cat laugh

---------------

Print

E-mail

Tweet