Sunday 27 September 2015

BISHOP WALSH AND THE FATHER DONAGHY AFFAIR

BISHOP WALSH AND THE FATHER DONAGHY AFFAIR

Paddy Walsh
A contributor to this Blog in the last few days suggested that Bishop E-Merry-Tus Paddy Walsh might have been in agony about the Father James Donaghy affair. Donaghy was the PP of Bangor who went to prison for sexually abusing and assaulting various young men in the diocese during Walsh's tenure.  
I do not believe that Paddy Walsh lost one minute's sleep over that scandal - or any other scandal during his stewardship - as long as he himself and his cronies were not affected. James Donaghy was a Walsh croney.

James Donaghy
Donaghy did not go to prison until 2012. Walsh was aware of problems about him for at least a decade before.

How do I know? Because I told Walsh about Donaghy as early as 2001. 


After receiving this letter Paddy Walsh sent for a number of priests and told them that he had reports about them but no proof and advised them to be careful.

PAGE 2


After this second letter and much other correspondence, I attended a meeting at Lisbreen with Paddy Walsh. "Victim A"'s father and "Victim A"'s uncle.

We had prepared a list of questions for Paddy Walsh:





The whole Donaghy affair and Paddy Walsh's role in it is a very sad saga and leaves many questions unanswered.

NB: The fingerprints of a certain Father John McManus are all over this affair too.

John McManus

13 comments:

  1. It turns out that Fr McCafferty, another of Donaghy's past victims, was also trying desperately to alert Walsh about Donaghy and that youngster and he too was ignored.

    A sordid affair. I heard, on more than one occasion, Donaghy jokingly boast to priests of his 'tete a tete' relationship with Paddy Walsh and the private lunches/dinners they had together in Lisbreen.

    And not a few priests were aware of Donaghy's fixation with that young seminarian. Shame on the lot of us!

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    Replies
    1. Why were Walsh and Donaghy so friendly?

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    2. Indeed. Paddy Walsh was hardly a gourmet - fiddling with cheese and grapes on a plate.

      Did Donaghy ever say what he had on Walsh?

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    3. He never said and when we put it to Walsh in Lisbreen he looked at his shoes and denied it.

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  2. P walsh had/has very poor taste in men. Another guy he was enthralled by was Joe McGuigan!

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    Replies
    1. It seems that his two "favourites" let him down. But has compensations - free pizzas and fast processing at airports.

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  3. A cabal of dysfunctional, closeted (barely), vicious, devious, predatory, gay men, seems to have been at the core of the Walsh regime. I remember the word going round that men had been called in who were acting out in a homosexual way and it being reported that Walsh told them basically to be "discreet". I thought it was hearsay but, from your correspondence, Pat, clearly it was true.

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    Replies
    1. Discreet? Not chaste ? Not celibate ?

      Is that a new Commandment: "Thou shalt be discreet".

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  4. A family friend,a D&C priest, told my sister last year that there are many good decent priests in the diocese. The rest he said are a mixture of rampant gaylords and bitches in soutanes. As for Paddy Walsh .. A wholy inadequate man in most respects !

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    Replies
    1. One of Paddy's many nicknames - among the more printable - was the Ice Queen. Says it all.

      And, yes, he had a penchant for rampant gaylords because, maybe?, they were more daring than he would ever have dared to be?

      For that, at least, we can be thankful - that Paddy held some aspects of his screwed up personality in check.

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  5. It is very good indeed Pat that you decided to start publishing your correspondence with "the powers that be". At last they can be exposed for the awful idiots they are. Truly these little emperors (Bl John Henry Newman called them 'provincial satraps" have no clothes. I commend you for your courage and encourage you to publish more. This could be the Irish Church's wikileaks. Well done.

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  6. That was my thoughts as well. Just hope the press picks up on these revelations and plays fair.
    Yes, scandalous, but as an earlier comment said, perhaps the RC edifice needs to come crashing down.
    MMM

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  7. The presses attention span is short and flavour of the day. The church has been shown up every which way it can. i believe press and people have become anaesthetised to all things clerical.

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