December 2nd 2015

After receiving this correspondence from the Bishop in Longford I had to do some reflection. The first item to strike me forcibly was the fact that there was no attempt to suggest that what I had complained of didn’t happen. The good Bishop would hardly have tendered an apology on foot of an allegation. Secondly, the Bishop stated that my complaint was reported to the Gardaí at that time and in accordance with my wishes I was not identified. Rubbish.

I never in my life sought anonymity on any issue and having at a later stage read ‘The File’ I confirmed that in fact my name was submitted. This error was not of the Bishop’s making but was invented by the Diocesan court jester who at the time of the report was the Diocesan Secretary and now a confirmed liar. In addition the Bishop identified and described the activities of Fr. Hynds as criminal and therefore proper to the Civic Authorities and not the Church. Another Pontius Pilate job!

Then there was the referral of my grievances to the ‘Towards Healing’ counselling agency. I took a look at this outfit and discovered that it was run, and funded, under the aegis of ‘The Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference”. A little further research revealed that the head buck cat of the ‘Conference’ was none other than Cardinal Sean Brady. Let me confirm some details about this reverend chappie:

Early life and education:

A native of Laragh, Co Cavan, in the diocese of Kilmore, Cardinal Brady was born in August 1939. He was educated at Caulfield national school, Laragh; St Patrick’s College, Cavan; St Patrick’s College, Maynooth and the Irish College, Rome, where he was ordained in February 1964.

He received a doctorate in canon law at Rome’s Lateran University in 1967.

"A church that is humble is a church on our knees, hopefully in prayer, recognising the terrible things that have happened in the past and the need to ask God's mercy and to ask forgiveness of people,"

is what he said in a reference to the clerical abuse scandals.

Upon his return to Ireland, he served as a teacher at his alma mater of St. Patrick's in Cavan until 1980. At St. Patrick's, he taught a variety of subjects including Latin, Commerce, Religion, and French, as well as training college football teams at all age levels.

While he was teaching at the school, in 1975, he was present when children signed vows of silence over allegations against a paedophile priest. One of the victims gave him a list of other children being abused by Father Brendan Smyth, who was convicted in 1994 of dozens of offences over a 40-year period. In his capacity as a notary, he handed over signed statements from the witnesses to his Bishop. However, he did not notify the civil authorities of the existence of such evidence. In May 2012 the BBC television programme This World found that Sean Brady had the names and addresses of children being abused by the paedophile priest Brendan Smyth, but "did not ensure their safety".

Commenting on this BBC programme on the issue, Cardinal Brady said that the programme makers had overstated the part he played:

In April 2010, Cardinal Brady, was under pressure to resign and had publicly stated he was considering his position over his role in the cover-up of the activities of a paedophile priest.

The Cardinal told RTÉ News in an interview, broadcast in December 2009 after the publication of the Murphy Report, that he was confident Bishop Donal Murray of Limerick will "do the right thing" in terms of considering his position in the wake of criticism in the Dublin diocesan report. He also said in that interview:

“If I found myself in a situation where I was aware that my failure to act had allowed or meant that other children were abused, well then, I think I would resign.”

In March 2010 it became widely known that the then Father Seán Brady had participated in an internal Church legal process into the actions of Father Brendan Smyth in 1975. The process required all participants to maintain the confidentiality of the tribunal. Smyth went on to abuse dozens of children before being brought to justice in 1994.

Taken alongside his statement in December, this led to widespread calls for Cardinal Brady's resignation. The information of this internal process had been publicly available since August 1997.

One of those who was a child interviewed in the internal process is suing Cardinal Brady on the grounds that complaints about Fr. Smyth were not reported to the Garda, that steps were not taken to prevent Fr. Smyth from committing further assaults, that the children were required to sign oaths not to discuss the complaints and that the failure to report the complaints led to the plaintiff and others not receiving appropriate medical treatment.

In his book ‘Sworn to Silence’, Brandon Boland alleged that he was handed a Bible and made to swear and sign an oath of secrecy after he complained of abuse by Brendan Smyth.

The book claims the other signature was that of Fr. John B. Brady. Boland wrote that during his complaint interview, the questions and his answers were taken down in handwritten notes by Brady, who later had them typed up. Facsimiles of both are contained in the book. Brady was the supreme wizard in charge of ‘The Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference at the time of my referral to the ‘Towards Healing’.

He subsequently resigned under serious pressure. It emerged that in March 2010 he had conducted inquiries into allegations of child sex abuse involving Fr Brendan Smyth in 1975 at the conclusion of which he swore to secrecy two boys who he believed were abused by the priest.

Following the then Fr Brady’s investigation, Fr Smyth was prevented from ministering in Cardinal Brady’s native Kilmore diocese until 1984. The civil authorities were not informed of Fr Smyth’s abuse of children and he continued to abuse young people until shortly before his imprisonment by a Belfast court in 1994.

He was replaced by Eamon Martin as the archbishop of Armagh after his ‘encouraged’ resignation on 8 September 2014.

The bottom line was that I was referred for counselling to an organisation which had the most notorious protector of paedophile priests in the history of the state as its ultimate boss. This situation was akin to placing Hermann Goering in charge of adjudicating on complaints from Jews in a concentration camp.

Cardinal Sean Brady; Paedophile Protector.

Talk about the felon investigating the felony! What to do? The suggestion of counselling from any Catholic Church based organisation was risible, at best. I went back to the Bishops letter and wondered what was ‘the file’ and what did it contain and if there was any reference to myself in it. Only one way to find out!

The first task was to find out what my entitlements may be in the way of data protection consideration. This included a trawl through the laborious Data Protection Acts of 1988 and 2003. I had come to the conclusion that this particular Bishop was a very smart man with the 2000 year legacy of ecclesiastical politics and intrigue behind him.

Under no circumstances was this capable man to be trifled with so proper protocols must be observed and there was little room for error or poorly judged manoeuvre.

I forwarded another epistle to the bishop on August 16^th 2014.
More anon.