Sexual abuse allegations made against late Archbishop John Charles McQuaid

Murphy Commission investigated leader who ruled Church with iron fist

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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.

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He was once the man who dominated the Catholic Church in Dublin – now two sex abuse complaints against former Archbishop John Charles McQuaid have come to light.

The Irish Times reports that the recent Murphy Commission into clerical sex abuse in the diocese received two complaints against McQuaid.

The complaints included an allegation of abuse of a 12-year-old boy by Archbishop McQuaid in 1961. A separate concern to the two abuse allegations was also brought to the Commission’s attention.

The paper reports that complaints and concern were addressed in a ‘Supplementary Report to the Dublin Archdiocese Investigation’, published on the commission’s website on July 13th, the day it published the Cloyne report.

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The Irish Times also reports that Archbishop McQuaid is not identified by name in the supplementary report but is described as a cleric who ‘has been dead for many years’. He retired in 1972 and died in 1973.

The Murphy commission’s findings into the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations in the Dublin archdiocese were published in November 2009.

The supplementary report states that as the commission was completing its main report in the summer of 2009, it received information which would have ‘brought another cleric’ within its remit.

The report states that the commission was concerned that ‘this may have been withheld deliberately and felt this required investigation’.

An adult alleged in 2003 that he had been abused by Archbishop McQuaid but the complaint was ‘not made known to the commission when the Health Service Executive discovered documents relating to it’.

The paper adds that, “In May 2009 this complaint was made known to Phil Garland, then director of child protection in Dublin’s archdiocese. He informed Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and the commission was “immediately informed”, the report says. The HSE subsequently supplied relevant documentation to the commission.

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More news on the Irish Catholic Church from IrishCentral

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