SUBMITTED TO BLOG BY IRISH PRIEST:
"MICHAEL DEEGAN was young about 17/18 and good looking - slim, blonde hair and blue eyes. I distinctly remember him because he lived on my corridor which had six bedrooms and nicknamed the 'Six Counties'. I remember someone had been stalking him and putting sexually explicit notes under his door and leaving similar on his bed. They were pictures of naked men and of gay men having sex.
Michael himself was from Birr in County Offaly and was a quiet and devout kind of lad.
One day seminarians in the lecture hall pulled back the stage curtain and found Michael Deegan hanging from the stage.
I remember one evening I arrived back at the college to find Michael on the corridor crying and distressed. He showed me inside his room and on his bed someone had left several pornographic images of gay men.
I remember distinctly taking Michael along our same corridor to the Dean, Fr Tom Fogarty, to complain about someone stalking Michael in a sexual manner. Nothing was done about it in my time there. I don't know what else happened after I left but not long after my departure, poor Michael Deegan took his own life.
All this came flooding back after reading various articles on this blog about the "goings on" at Maynooth. Sadly like many I had forgotten about the suicide of Michael Deegan. All I can say with certainty is that all this happened. Other former seminarians have referred to this suicide and some of them are liars and cheats. A lot of people have clearly jumped on the Gaynooth bandwagon. We all had our balls fondled by the quack in Thurles to make sure we didn't end up as women priests. Lol.
Sorry for the long winded communication Pat but I just wanted to put you in the picture. I can't find any info on young Deegan online but perhaps you can. I am not even sure his family are aware of the stalking that could have contributed to his death. Perhaps Tom Fogarty the Dean can tell us more?
This was a terrible tragedy for the Deegan family. In 2012 another son, Damian, was tragically killed in a private plane accident near Birr".
PAT SAYS:
This is one of the saddest matters that has been drawn to my attention in a very long time.
A young 18 year old man - intelligent, innocent and highly motivated decides to enter the seminary to give his life to God. In the seminary another seminarian begins to stalk him sexually and to leave pornography under his door and on his bed - reducing the young man to tears.
A fellow seminarian takes him along to a member of staff to complain.
Then one day he is found hanging.
If there was ever evil in what is supposed to be a "House of God" this is it.
Someone, somewhere has this young man's death on their conscience.
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MAYNOOTH'S HENRY V111
Butler was the
third son of Edmond Butler, 8th
Baron Dunboyne (died 1732) and widow Anne Nagle, née Grace.
The family was part of a wealthy network of landed Butlers across Leinster and Munster. However, the family was subject to the British government's policy of curtailment of civil rights of Irish Catholics.
Raised a Roman Catholic, John early acknowledged a vocation for the Church. His brothers, Pierce and Edmond chose the army and left the family home to fight in the War of the Austrian Succession. Butler commenced his studies at theIrish College in Rome, managing to lose his left eye in unknown circumstances, and was ordained priest in 1755 in the Basilica of St. John Lateran. He returned to Ireland in 1758, having completed his doctorate, though his Catholic credentials entailed an interview before a Justice of the Peace in Whitehaven. Butler returned to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly, being appointed parish priest of Ardmayle in 1759. While he was establishing his place in the Church hierarchy, becoming an archdeacon and secretary to the bishop, he was also bolstering his secular role in the Butler family network.
Bishop of Cork
The post of Bishop of Cork fell vacant in 1763 and Butler won immediate support as the leading candidate, being appointed by Pope Clement XIII in 1763. The years following his appointment marked a reduction in the civil disabilities of Catholics in Ireland and the relaxation afforded the Church the opportunity finally to implement the decrees of the Council of Trent in respect of the Irish hierarchy. Butler led the changes but was careful to use his secular network and status to maintain relationships with the Protestant establishment. For fear of Protestant sentiment, Butler stalled Nano Nagle's establishment of the Ursulines in Cork until 1771 and published a condemnation of the 1766 Cork coopers' riots.
Baron Dunboyne
Butler inherited the title of Baron Dunboyne in December 1785 on the death of his nephew Pierce Edmond Creagh Butler, 11th Baron Dunboyne. Butler was childless and the Barony threatened with extinction if he had no heir, but as a priest, he was not permitted to marry.
In December 1786, he resigned as bishop and asked the pope for a dispensation from the ban on clerical marriage. No dispensation was given. In spite of the refusal, in 1787 he married Maria (1764/5-1860), daughter of Theobald Butler, and took the oath of allegiance, abjuration, and supremacy.
He moved to his ancestral home at Dunboyne, County Meath, where the couple had a daughter who died young, and then to Dublin. Dunboyne, and the Catholic chapel, were burned in the 1798 rising.
In 1800, an aged and infirm Butler wrote a letter of repetenance to the pope, executed a will, and made his confession to Catholic priest Fr. William Gahan. He died in Dublin and was buried in the Augustinian friary at Fethard, County Tipperary.
Testamentary litigation
Butler left his property to St Patrick's College, Maynooth and litigation from his family, notably by his sister, Mrs. Catherine O'Brien-Butler of Bansha Castle, County Tipperary, was swift. The legality of the will was challenged as the Penal Laws deprived Catholics of the right to make a will and a sequence of legal actions, such as Butler v. Moore (1802),[3] ensued before a compromise between the college and the family in 1808. The compromise led to the Dunboyne establishment at the college to endow scholarships.
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"Ah, bless you, Sister, may all your sons be bishops".
(Brendan Behan)
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TODAY'S VERSE:
THE DISCIPLE
When Narcissus died the pool of his pleasure changed from a cup of
sweet waters into a cup of salt tears, and the Oreads came weeping
through the woodland that they might sing to the pool and give it
comfort.
And when they saw that the pool had changed from a cup of sweet
waters into a cup of salt tears, they loosened the green tresses of
their hair and cried to the pool and said, 'We do not wonder that
you should mourn in this manner for Narcissus, so beautiful was
he.'
'But was Narcissus beautiful?' said the pool.
'Who should know that better than you?' answered the Oreads. 'Us
did he ever pass by, but you he sought for, and would lie on your
banks and look down at you, and in the mirror of your waters he
would mirror his own beauty.'
And the pool answered, 'But I loved Narcissus because, as he lay on
my banks and looked down at me, in the mirror of his eyes I saw
ever my own beauty mirrored.'
sweet waters into a cup of salt tears, and the Oreads came weeping
through the woodland that they might sing to the pool and give it
comfort.
And when they saw that the pool had changed from a cup of sweet
waters into a cup of salt tears, they loosened the green tresses of
their hair and cried to the pool and said, 'We do not wonder that
you should mourn in this manner for Narcissus, so beautiful was
he.'
'But was Narcissus beautiful?' said the pool.
'Who should know that better than you?' answered the Oreads. 'Us
did he ever pass by, but you he sought for, and would lie on your
banks and look down at you, and in the mirror of your waters he
would mirror his own beauty.'
And the pool answered, 'But I loved Narcissus because, as he lay on
my banks and looked down at me, in the mirror of his eyes I saw
ever my own beauty mirrored.'
TODAY'S PIC:
Another sad story. O dears gets one nowhere. Questions need answering. We live in a world of investigations. One more can't hurt
ReplyDeleteI do think that there should be an investigation into this young man's death. He was harassed to death.
DeleteSomeone out there - possibly a cleric - may have committed manslaughter!
Looks like Fr Brian Darcy could be in for the chop now too, pat
ReplyDeleteDon't mind if you want to keep this gossip until later
Btw ..he is a fav with me...no I wasn't his stalker
It's just that I don't trust many priests anymore
You are very wise.
DeleteBrian Darcy was very supportive of me when I left Sligo. I never met him but we did communicate by letter. My experience was a positive one
DeletePersonally I have no time for him. He runs with the hares and hunts with the hounds. A real slimey character.
DeleteYou are so wrong Pat, and a little bitchy here.
DeleteA good counsellor can listen to all sides and appreciate diversity.hopefully you will come to change your mindset regarding BD
Tbh I thought you two had similar thinking.
Spent the day in Sligo yest, Sean...lovely area
+Pat,
DeleteI have been reading this blog for sometime and am impressed by your pursuit of factual truth, no matter how uncomfortable that truth is - we certainly need all the truth we can get. Your comment regarding Fr Brian D'Arcy however seems caustic, unfair and certainly lacking in any fact - he is dismissed as a 'slimey character' in just a few words. Come on +Pat, I think that's not fair. It would be wrong if it were done to you [and I know that on many occasions it has been]. As well we know, what seems to be on the surface, slimy or otherwise, can very often be the opposite of what actually exists in reality.
I do take your point and even reprimand if it is called for.
DeleteMy view is that any and every TRUE REVOLUTIONARY always suffers for what he does.
But look at Darcy today - "in good standing", rector of a monastery, etc.
I know that early in the morning after he challenged Cahal Daly on the Late Late Show he was at the palace in Armagh to beg "the wee nun's" forgiveness.
Whenever he and I have been in the same place he avoids me like the plague.
I have so many stories.
I do have an antenna for picking up the energies of true and false prophets.
But of course I am not infallible.
I made my first negative comment on you today Pat.
DeletePlease let it be the last.
I would travel over 20 mile to hear BD inspirational mass talks any Sunday.
Somebody was pulling your strings to think he would be over apologetic for any of his statements
I did meet C D, sure he was a wee old man even then, not many heeding much of his rants.
Keep up your good work Pat..just like B D does
He is being replaced in 11 months time as superior in the grann
Thing is Pat, you can't really trust that palace gossip
DeleteSo someone there was listening into their conversation
Oh forget it...they great story tellers there...I do know
This particular LOUD discussion was overheard by someone very close to CBD.
Delete14.20 Glad you liked Sligo. Lovely area as you say and many good people. I have happy memories despite the shit.
DeleteAnd why did this priest keep this information until now.absolutely awful goings on
ReplyDeleteWhat year was this .
The priest in question left Thurles soon after bringing the young man to the Dean and went to study in an English seminary and to work in an English diocese.
DeleteHe did not know about the suicide until he went in search of information about Thurles on the internet after an article in the Irish Independent a few weeks ago.
I have the priest's name and contact details and I know he will co-operate with any investigation.
This happened in the early 1990's.
This story reminds me of another tragedy in the early 90's - a Cashel and Emly seminarian in Maynooth. I recall him as a happy and pleasant young lad. I won't name him out of respect for his family but, no doubt, many remember him.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, the young lad decided to leave Maynooth seminary. There was no suggestion of anything, as far as I know, like in the case of that poor wee chap, Michael Deegan.
The young Maynooth lad's big "crime" was not telling "His Grace" Dermot Clifford, Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, about his intentions and, when "His Grace" met the young fellow in Thurles town, shortly after he left, the chap tried to explain that he had been meaning to get in touch.
Clifford, fine Christian man and devoted pastor that he is, cut the lad off and said - "Mr Xxxxx, get yourself out of my sight before I kick your arse from this side of Thurles to the other".
Shortly after this encounter, the young man went to the barn with a shotgun. The family forbade "His Grace" from coming to the wake or funeral.
Clifford was/is a bully
DeleteWhat's up with Brian D'arcy?
ReplyDeleteWell we must not let this drop
ReplyDeleteWe need the full information now from gaynooth now
Today not next week
The suicide happened in Thurles.
DeleteBishop Pat, the person who posted to you the above information on that seminarian's suicide does not say whether he reported to Garda, after the young man's death, the sexual harassment he suffered. Did he report it? Do you know? Because it would have been pertinent to a Garda investigation.
ReplyDeleteThe priest only recently recalled the whole incident.
DeleteI believe the death of Michael Deegan should now be investigated as a possible crime.
Secrecy was the order of the day then
DeleteOnly for Pat B probably there be no change.
I will pray that the now English priest reveles all
12 24 BD just giving his honest opinions to the Hot press mag.
ReplyDeleteAnd who was the quack who was touching the students
ReplyDeleteWhat was that all about...was he a medical doctor?
1990s is just yesterday really for us long term Catholics
I do hope that now English priest will expose all that he saw and had done to him
It was not normal goingson then either
Pointy hats will be stupid to target Fr BD. He is so high profile it will attract much media attention to all the sordid goings on. On the other hand the pointy hats are not remouned for goog judgement.
ReplyDeleteCan't find anything on the net regarding this Michael Deegan R I P
ReplyDeleteThe story has been kept very, very, very quiet !
DeleteMaybe that was the family's wish.
DeleteI may be wrong. I have a feeling the family were not told the whope truth?
DeleteIt's sad if family have to discover info like this from a blog
DeleteThere is no question about the fact that what Michael Deegan was subjected to was SEXUAL ABUSE and it led to a very tragic outcome for a young lad who was, clearly from the priest's account of the situation, extremely vulnerable.
ReplyDeleteAmong the definitions of what constitutes sexual abuse of children (and this chap was barely out of childhood and was undoubtedly far from adulthood emotionally and psychologically) is the showing of explicit sexual images and using explicit sexual language. This boy suffered both and he was also the target of bullying and harassment. We all know also the impact of anonymous, menacing hate-mail and other types of threatening communications.
Michael Deegan was being hounded by a sick pervert who, for all we know, is an ordained priest today.
The "authorities" in Thurles should have been protecting this kid. Instead they ignored his plight and the outcome was his ending his life. What a sad, sad story. What a damning indictment of a hideously deformed system, into which a Christian institution had degenerated.
This story reminds me of the young army cadets subjected to sexual bullying by "superiors" and "comrades". Many of these also ended their lives because they couldn't cope.
At least Micheal Deegan is not being forgotten and, maybe someone who remembers him will honour his memory, by seeking justice for him, even at this stage.
When I saw the headline of today's blog, I immediately thought of the other seminarian from Cashel and Emly diocese, the Maynooth lad, who also took his own life in the early 90's. Someone else has written about him here today.
I often think of that chap who was a few years behind me in Maynooth. He was, on the surface, a happy-go-lucky, even-tempered, pleasant lad. I have never forgotten him. May he and Michael rest in peace with the Good Lord.
I am looking into the story of Michael Deegan RIP in some depth.
DeleteI have other information today which I will publish on the Blog soon.
I have a journalist very interested.
It may eventually become a Garda investigation.
Pat, you do a great service to us all
ReplyDeleteGlad he wasn't my son
The soul of Michael Deegan cries out from beyond the grave for justice !!!
DeleteI also think it's great what you are doing Pat. As the bishops won't keep vile scumbags in the Irish Church in check, your blog is stepping into the breach to act as a "hound of heaven" in snapping at their sordid heels.
ReplyDeleteMay God bless and strengthen you Pat.
The above story on your blog is beyond sad Pat.
ReplyDeleteI feel sick in the pit of my stomach at the thoughts of the poor young chap driven to suicide in a place where he should have experienced the Love of God.
Pat. Maybe investigate Wm Lee whp was in.Thurles too who then became Bishop of Waterford and Lismore about going ons in Thurles. He was President at one time before he became Bishop.
ReplyDeleteHis name was placed in the pot TODAY!
DeleteMichael Deegan RIP was a few weeks shy of his 21st birthday - he was not 17 or 18! Willie Lee left Thurles in July 1993 - Michael Deegan died on 13th March 1994 - Mother's Day that year. He was a great guy but somewhat removed in many ways from mainstream seminary life. I did not know about the sexual advances which are horrific but Pat, before you go shouting your mouth off, please check all the facts. It's so easy for anyone to start accusing everyone in Thurles of a cover up but you nor I know the whole story.
ReplyDeleteAs for +Dermot Clifford - a complete asshole!
I promise you - I only want the truth.
DeleteI promise you - I only want the truth.
DeleteWhich means that the president at the time was Christy O'Dwyer
DeleteSome 21 year olds still look like teenagers and this kid was obviously very vulnerable. He was thrown to the wolves. No one cared about him in that hell hole. Maybe now, in the 21st century, the truth about his short and tragic life will be told and honoured.
DeleteSo 21 is very mature then ??? Really
ReplyDeleteDon't think my son wd have wanted advances at that age.
I hope that you too can help Pat unravel this.
Did you know this priest who went to England, please give any information
You have
No Pat, I never said that 21 is a very mature age! I'm simply correcting the inaccurate age that was given by the other comment.......Michael was only a young guy in his third year in seminary. He dd not live in the 'six counties' at the time of his death - he was in Room 103. His body was discovered by a brother of a first year seminarian - not by seminarians themselves. But this is all possibly trivial information.......the sad truth is that poor Michael made a decision to end his life for whatever reason & we were all (but mostly his family) affected by what happened.
ReplyDeleteWhat yuu say is true. Trivia do not matter.
DeleteThe priest who wrote yesterday had left Thurles by the time Michael died.
But when that priest was still there the bullying / stalking was happening.
We do not really know what happened later.
Did the bullying stop, continue, intensify?
There are many unanswered questions.
No doubt his family have never gotten over Michael's tragic and untimely death.
DeleteBut what about the students and staff of SPC Thurles?
Obviously they were not "affected" enough, by his suicide, to conduct a thorough and forensic investigation into the circumstances of his death; and to discover the identity of the sicko(s) sexually harassing and abusing Michael?
Perhaps the perpetrator(s) and College authorities hoped - that with the death of the victim by suicide - they were home and dry?
They have, indeed, escaped scrutiny and accountability for years. Typically, the case of Michael Deegan was buried, deep in the deathly silence, that shrouds much of the Irish Catholic Church's attitude to physical, sexual and emotional abuse of those in its care.
But perhaps, from the other world, the soul of Michael Deegan is now demanding justice from his tormentors and from those who turned a blind eye to his plight and a deaf ear to his pleas for help?
A really big question is: Did Michael's abuser(s) go on to be ordained priests? There certainly are grounds for criminal investigation and possible proceedings.
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/crisis-in-maynooth-former-thurles-seminarian-describes-serious-bullying-34946592.html
Obviously Michael Deegan wasn't the only victim of the culture of bullying in SPCT. It was ingrained apparently; although, in Michael's case, it had an overtly sexual motivation.
IT report on funeral of Michael Deegan's brother - Damien - who also died tragically in a plane crash
Deletehttp://www.irishtimes.com/news/hundreds-of-mourners-gather-to-pay-tribute-to-trainee-pilot-killed-in-crash-1.552391
Left or still there
ReplyDeleteWe need to know what Lee covered up whilst there
One of the facts that needs establishing.t
DeletePat, A possible line of enquiry if you haven't come across it already, see link below:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/tackling-the-culture-of-abuse-1.1239637
Wil D West.
That link is showing as an error. Do you have a transcript?
DeleteJust google "Tackling the culture of abuse" The first letter is very interesting
DeleteThanks. Got it. Very interesting indeed. See this also:
Deletehttp://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/crisis-in-maynooth-former-thurles-seminarian-describes-serious-bullying-34946592.html
WW, Thatn you. I had not known of it.
ReplyDeleteGiven my own personal experience of psychological and emotional abuse as a clerical student from September 1985 to June 1992, at St Patrick’s College, Thurles, when Fr William Lee (now Bishop of Waterford Lismore) was seminary president, I would now ask Archbishop Dermot Clifford, Cashel Emly, and Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, Apostolic Nuncio, to facilitate an independent public sworn inquiry into this matter. – Yours, etc,
ReplyDeleteMATTHEW RING,
Ex-priest of the Diocese of Cloyne,U
When was the above letter written to the Irish times?
Does anyone know?
January 2010
DeleteWhat is you email address Pat?
ReplyDeletebishoppatbuckley@hotmail.com
Deletepublished on 08/08/2016
ReplyDeleteSo it was written in 2010, but the public didn't get to see it until last month
ReplyDeleteWhy are these bishops still in power
The publication date on the Irish Times letter is 8/1/2010
DeleteWhy are college presidents made bishops
ReplyDeleteSome need jailed for neglect of duty
And what was that I read about a doctor examining a clerical's penis
Did this happen to you Pat?
Pats email is on his profile
ReplyDeleteHave you seen what has been happening in carryduff this weekend pat?
ReplyDelete