Wednesday 25 July 2018

LOOKING BACK ON BRENDAN SMITH


Norbertines’ time in Ireland caused unspeakable damage
Brendan Smyth’s order has ended its ministry, but the scars remain

Brendan Smyth: a review established that four Norbertines had sexually abused so many children that it concluded the figure was simply ‘not known’.

Kilnacrott Abbey in Co Cavan, where the remains of Brendan Smyth are buried. 

Photograph: Lorraine Teevan

The last public Mass by a Norbertine priest in Ireland was celebrated on Sunday September 25th, 2016. As of that date all public ministry by the Norbertines on the island ceased.

This is referred to, almost in passing, in the review of child protection practices at the Norbertines published last Wednesday by the church’s child protection watchdog, the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI).

It marks an innocuous end to the notorious “Ireland chapter” of a religious congregation which brought down a government, severely damaged the reputation of two cardinal primates of All-Ireland, two other Catholic bishops, two Irish abbots, three other religious congregations but, above all, the lives of more children than will ever be known.

It was the conclusion to a shameful history on this island of a respected European congregation founded in France by St Norbert in 1120.

The Norbertines came to Ireland in 1924 at the invitation of the then bishop of Kilmore Patrick Finegan. They founded Holy Trinity Priory at Kilnacrott, Co Cavan and opened a secondary school, St Norbert’s College.

The first abbot at Kilnacrott, Felim Colwell, died in 1968. His successor in 1969 was Abbot Kevin Smith, who resigned in 1994.

A third superior died in 2013 when the current prelate administrator Fr William Fitzgerald took over.

Nine Norbertines are left in Ireland, eight priests and one brother, with an average age of 77. No one has joined the congregation here since 1993.

Church superior

This week’s NBSCCCI review established that four Norbertines had sexually abused so many children that it simply concluded the figure was “not known”.

Overall, it found “there has not been any realisation of the importance of child safeguarding” within the congregation, an understatement, to say the least.

Their most notorious abuser was the now deceased Brendan Smyth. He was so notorious that on his death in August 1997 at the age of 70 in the Curragh prison he had to be buried pre-dawn in the grounds of Kilnacrott Abbey at 4.15am.

Just seven Norbertine priests and a few locals gathered in the gloom, with four gardaí in the background, the lights from a hearse illuminating the grave as his coffin was lowered down.

A victim later successfully had the “Rev” removed from his headstone.

It might be argued that it was not so much Smyth who destroyed so many and so much, as it was his Norbertine and other church superiors.
He was a paedophile, as much a part of the human condition as the psychopath, yet they allowed him to have free rein for more than 40 years and facilitated his nefarious activities in what was the then favoured church way.

They moved him around 
Ireland, ScotlandWalesand the US, trailing human wreckage in his wake.

Attempts from within had been made to have something done about him. For example, the late Fr Bruno Mulvihill tried to have him stopped from 1968 onwards.

He wrote about Smyth to the then bishop of Kilmore Francis McKiernan in 1974.

He copied the letter to then papal nuncio Archbishop Gaetano Alibrandi. He also spoke to Abbot Colwell and later Abbot Smith about Smyth.

“I was told that in his [Abbot Smith’s] opinion Smyth had been penalised too much in his life,” Fr Mulvihill said.

Fr Mulvihill also claimed that in 1986 he told then abbot general of the Norbertines Fr Marcel Van de Ven about Smyth after an ordination service at the congregation’s headquarters in Belgium. Abbot General Van de Ven denied this to The Irish Times.

Church protocol

Abbot General Van de Ven did not have a good record in being truthful with The Irish Times. In October 1994 he and then Catholic primate Cardinal Cahal Daly met in Rome to discuss the implications of Smyth being jailed for child sex abuse in Belfast that year.

Asked by this newspaper about the meeting Fr Van de Ven denied it had taken place. Contacted again later that Sunday, he admitted it had.
When first pressed on the issue, he had been adamant. “I never spoke to him [Cardinal Daly]. Perhaps they know that I have been trying to contact him. I will try again this evening,” he said.

He had tried to contact the cardinal three times in the last few days, but the cardinal was “busy at the synod”, he said.

Contacted the second time he agreed that they had indeed met. He explained his volte face.
“According to the protocol of the church, I should not say anything before the cardinal. The cardinal has the first word. It was not a lie from my side, but I wanted to know if the cardinal had spoken to you already,” he said. “I spoke with him on the phone this evening again and I asked him, ‘Is it known that we met?’ and he said, ‘Yes it is known’ . . . I hope you do not consider that as a lie, but I wanted to be sure that the cardinal had spoken to the press .” But it had been a lie.
For most of us at The Irish Times it was our first experience of “mental reservation”, though we did not know it at the time. It would be another five years before the concept was explained so lucidly by the late Cardinal Desmond Connell in the Murphy report.

In a corner of page 8 of that same edition of The Irish Times in which Fr Van de Ven’s contradictory statements were reported (Monday, October 24th, 1994), there was a short piece by then political correspondent Geraldine Kennedy with the headline “Delay about priest’s warrant raised”.

It concerned a delay of seven months at the attorney general’s office the previous year in processing an extradition warrant from Northern Ireland for Smyth on paedophile charges.

Within a month that issue would bring down the Albert Reynolds government.

‘Systemic failing’

Indeed, the “fallen” over the Brendan Smyth affair are legion.

As the Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) report last January makes clear, the Norbertines in Ireland were “guilty of a systemic failing in putting Fr Smyth forward for ordination as a priest despite a clear warning from the Abbot General”.

Smyth was ordained in July 1951 by then archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid.

In the Smyth context, the HIA report also found against Norbertine abbots Colwell and Smith, the diocese of Kilmore and its late bishop Francis McKiernan, the former Catholic primate cardinal Seán Brady (in connection with his handling of a 1975 investigation of Smyth’s abuse of children), the diocese of Down and Connor and its late Bishop William Philbin, his successor and afterwards Catholic primate the late Cardinal Cahal Daly, the Sisters of Nazareth and the De La Salle Brothers (for allowing Smyth repeated access to children in their care).

But above all there is the unknown number of children whose lives were destroyed by Smyth.
To illustrate the effects of his abuse on them, the HIA report quoted Fr William Fitzgerald, current Norbertine prelate administrator at Holy Trinity Abbey in Kilnacrott.

The report expressed gratitude for “ his frank and forthright evidence to the inquiry”.

Fr Fitzgerald told the inquiry: “ . . . the youngest victim of Brendan Smyth that I know of is 28 years of age. She is going to be around for another 60 years maybe or longer, and every day of her life the horrible spectre of that man will be in her mind and what he did.

“How can – how can anyone return anything to – I mean, like give her €100 million. It would do nothing to repair any damage that has been done to her. It’s unspeakable, unspeakable.”

FATHER RAY KELLY:




It was painful listening to Father Ray Kelly, PP of Oldcastle and a singing priest on the Joe Duffy Lifeline programme on RTE radio.

It's quite clear that Ray is very jealous and frustrated that he is not being invited to sing for Francis.

He even thinks that Nathan Carter should allow him to do a duet with him.

It was like a baby, complaining and crying and throwing his rattler out of the pram because he was not getting his way.

Ray Kelly has NO RIGHT to demand that he sings for Frank in Croke Park.

He had had a semi-amature little while as a singing priest.

But he is also a PP and needs to concentrate on that job.

His bit of singing is a part time adventure.

Nathan Carter, Daniel O,'Donnell are professional singers.

Ray is a part timer.

He seems to me to be full of his own importance.

Imagine demanding to sing at a 20 million pound gig,?

Ray, you are not the new Frank Sinatra.

Just go home and try to be a good priest.


63 comments:

  1. Era Ray is disappointed and that's understandable. Human condition.


    As for the main bit. Sean Brady ought to be handcuffed and jailed. Sean Brady is no wounded healer, he is an accessory to child abuse. That is a crime in any language and given the extra territorial jurisdiction afforded in Irish legislation Sean should be extradited, trialled and placed in Wheatfield with the rest of the Paedos.

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  2. How many singing priests do we need in Ireland?

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    1. Anonymous at 00:51

      You are so right, we do not need anymore "singing priests" these attention seekers need to concentrate on their priestly duties and parochial responsibilities. The Hierarchy have to restore discipline for the clergy.

      Delete
  3. Sean Brady was a bloody disgrace to cover Brendan Smyth,s dirty secrets up. No bloody excuse whatsoever. Brady and his predecessor Daly were as much at fault as Smyth. The three sinners.

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    1. Sean Brady is still around, he was in Lourdes recently with people from Armagh and other parts of Ireland giving him attention because he flashed a bit of Red at them. They were squeezing euros into his palm. He has also been busy on the retreat circuit up in Rossnowlagh and Dromintine. Will Francis allow him to run around falling over him whilst in Dublin - we shall see if damage limitation kicks in. Eamon won’t be amused that his thunder has been stolen yet again. His little tight mouth will remain shut as always. All priests/Bishops heading to Knock to see Francis have received their Garda vetting forms by email today from Tuam.

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    2. 10:57

      Parasites will always be parasites.

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    3. Sean Brady was wrongly accused, he had no part to play in the Brendan Smith scandal. He said if he was responsible then he would resign and he didn't resign because there was no case to answer. He is being continually victimised. The abuse enquiry didn’t find him responsible

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    4. Sean Brady met two boys that had been abused by Smith and did not report it to the Gardai.

      That is enough to convict him.

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  4. Here's a link to that "National Board for Safeguarding Children" Report -
    https://www.safeguarding.ie/images/Pdfs/Congregations/Norbertines.pdf

    Incidentally the arrogantly misnamed, "National Board for Safeguarding Children", is NOT as its name seems to imply a 'National' body answerable to the Oireachtas.

    It's an entirely RCC organisation.

    As it says on one of its webpages, it's a limited company and, " ... Its founding members (the Members) comprise of the Archbishops and the Episcopal Secretary of the Irish Catholics Bishops’ Conference, together with the Director General of the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI), a nominee of the executive of CORI , the Executive Secretary of the Irish Missionary Union (IMU) a nominee of the Executive Board of the IMU". https://www.safeguarding.ie/index.php/about

    I'm not being pedantic.

    It was this idea of the Catholic Church being a independent Branch of Ireland's Government that permitted the criminality in the Industrial Schools and the the Laundries, along with secret church courts - in place of the usual State courts, to hear criminal cases against priests such as Smyth here.

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    1. MourneManMichael25 July 2018 at 11:59

      Good points Joe, well showing up the self serving duplicity. MMM

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  5. I didn't hear Ray Kelly on the radio but, his attitude to the choice of Nathan Carter singing in Crowe Park beggars belief. What an immature response from a nobody who wants to be a somebody! On BGT he introduced himself as "Fr" Ray Kelly, and he wore his clerical collar. Immediately, he stood out from others and used his profession to further his career. His name is Ray Kelly.......nowhere in baptism is anyone given the name "Father". It's another example of some clergy thinking they're better than everyone else......they are not.
    However, I laugh when I hear that it was Fr. Michael Cusack CSsR that challenged him on RTÉ yesterday. This is th Michael Cusack that constantly seeks publicity, the one who muscled in on the funeral of Garda Adrian Donohoe in Co. Louth in 2013 and who was annoyed when he didn't get doing the funeral of the other Garda, Tony Golden in Co. Louth in 2015. Poor Michael Cusack is another Brian D'arcy or Gary Donegan........attention seekers. There are hundreds of ordinary priests doing their work quietly every day.....why can't these others just get on with it too? Ray Kelly has joined an embarrassing bunch of attention seekers.

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    1. Indeed 06:10 - you are dead right about Michael Cusack - another arrogant glory hunter completely consumed with himself.

      He and Ray Kelly are two of a kind - pot, kettle, black arse.

      Have they not more constructive and edifying things to be doing than a cat fight on Joe Duffy mid-afternoon?

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  6. Nathan Carter or Ray Kelly? No contest! Nathan is gorgeous. What an arse!

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    1. It shits and farts like everyone else's.😥

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    2. Magna Carta's Mum25 July 2018 at 12:11

      Don't be vulgar, Magna darling.

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    3. Magna, you and your Mummy are just sooooo sooooo funny! Your house must be an absolute 24/7 pantomime. I would just looooove to live there! Honestly, Comedy Central should commission a series! ROFL PMSL LOL LMFAO LMFBO

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    4. Dearest, one of the greatest lessons ever taught me by you was uncircumspect honesty.

      I always call a spade a shovel.😆

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    5. Magna Carta's Mum25 July 2018 at 20:05

      Don't be silly, Magna darling, you know full well you've never done a day's work in your life and wouldn't recognise a spade if one hit you in the face.

      Delete
  7. I don’t know ray Kelly or how good a singer he is or is not. However he highlights a good point in his outburst. It doesn’t matter if you are divorced and remarry, if you’re a Kennedy in the US and shag all round you- and worse. If you vote yes in the pro obortion lobby or if you’re the biggest mother fu###r in creation. If the political arm of Holy Mother Church can use you for its own ends it will!

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  8. Pat, Cardinal's, Cahal Daly was no Saint! the same goes with Cardinal Brady. Forty years ago Brendan Smyth could have been stopped. Cardinal Brady carried on as Priest,Bishop, Cardinal as he should have stepped aside. But no.no.no. He kept Quiet. Is it any wonder there are less Ordinations today. What makes me sick is when there are innocent Priests who speak out in public about the abuse and covering up which is still on going what happens to them they are Sanctioned. It's keep your mouth shut or you are kicked out from the Diocese. This is why the Cardinals don't want to hear the truth. Where as Brendan Smyth was not kicked out of his Holy Order. He was allowed to continue to destroy innocent people's lives. So there goes Pat now it makes me wonder what you had to endure! with those pair of useless Cardinals god give us. Now we have another young role model of a bishop Eamon Martin inexperienced,far too youngest. Clueless. Pat you would have made a good Cardinal yourself.

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  9. Eamon Martin does not tolerate priests who speak out against his precious Armagh. There is currently a witch hunt going on in Armagh to find the mole or moles providing this blog with information ie the recent Armagh clergy moves. But our Eamon will not lift a finger to some of his own clergy destroying parishes and getting up to all sorts of things with married women, married men, gay men and teenage lads. He can’t even lift a finger to reply to the constant flow of letters of complaint and emails.

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    1. You are so right.

      I and others have written to Eamon about various priests and seminarians who are causing great scandal.

      He has acknowledged my letters.

      But so far I see no action.

      Lack of action will render Armagh into a diocese of scandal.

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    2. The inertia and stupefaction in dealing with these scandal-giving seminarians and priests simply beggars belief! They need rooted out. It all points to big wigs being compromised and our own homegrown McCarricks, O’Briens and Pinedas!

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    3. Who is the Armagh PP who is currently showing a chosen few round his newly refurbished state of the art Parochial house that has cost thousands. He is clearly confident his name won’t appear on any new clergy appointments.

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    4. If I’m not wrong that sounds like the ex CC of Magherafelt who has developed expensive tastes and high living since his days spent there. Does he still drive expensive Audi’s that he changes regularly? He wouldn’t have the smell of sheep about him.

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  10. Its all tyrone productions fault.

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  11. Fr Brendan Smith was a holy priest. A holy priest!

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    1. He was a holy priest indeed.

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  12. 12.53 And you are a shit stirrer only wanting to provoke people into reacting. Waste of space go away.

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  13. Pat @10.28 His Grace the Archbishop is neither answerable to you or this blog. He is running his diocese diligently and it’s his decision alone when clergy appointments are made. Ok.

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    1. As he thinks he can do what he wants this blog and it's readers will continue to watch, observe and comment.

      It is a free country and they can't put us in church dungeons anymore.

      Delete
  14. Had Ray Kelly won BGT you could understand his indignation at being overlooked for the Pope Francis visit. He would have also featured on the Royal Variety Performance which is part of the prize.

    Mind you, Susan Boyle didn’t win either, but she went on to sing during Benedict’s visit to the UK.

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    1. Fr ever so humble Kelly had the temerity to suggest that a caller who criticised him on the Joe Duffy Show "to get a life"
      Has the Bishop of Meath absolutely no control over this self centered priest?

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    2. Is Kelly not a Kiltegan Father,why is he in Meath?

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    3. Ray Kelly is indeed a Kiltegan Father, but following his ordination in 1989 he did a total of two years on the missions, in South Africa. Following a spell in Aughnacloy in Armagh diocese he wormed his way into Meath. The big problem is that neither the Kiltegans nor Meath want him.

      The eejit has "artist" as his profile on Facebook.

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  15. The problem is pushing oneself forward and taking a huff cause you were not invited.

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    1. Interesting the only person Ray Kelly wanted to sing with was Nathan Carter. The singing Priests - No. Daniel O'Donnell - No! Tells us more about Ray Kelly. His record label said they would drop him if he went on BGT and they fulfilled their promise. What a pathetic attention grabber. Deserves all he gets.

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    2. You are jealous Pat of Ray Kelly's success! You could never achieve his likeability or decency.

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  16. Is stephen singing the psalm for the pope?

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  17. That picture of Smyth reminds me of your spy in Middletown James mmm McConnell.
    Scary!

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  18. That self-promoting priest-parasite, Ray Kelly, looks like Ronnie Corbett.

    (Sorry, Ronny.😆)

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    1. I was thinking more Frank Carson. It's the glasses.

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    2. Sarcastic Sandra25 July 2018 at 22:07

      Ray is a very good looking handsome man. he's any woman's pin-up.

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    3. Sarcastic Sandra..havnt u heard of Specsavers ??

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    4. Sarcastic Sandra25 July 2018 at 23:23

      no. but would you like to take me to bed?

      Delete
  19. Ray Kelly derserves a boot up the jacksy and someone to tell him to go and cop himself on.

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  20. 15.39 Surely Ray Kelly wouldn’t have some sort of crush on young Nathan? Lol. Is Nathan the current pin up for priests here.

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  21. The post cotains the telling phrase: pedophilia is as much a part of the human condition as psychopathology.

    That is sadly and unfortunately the case.

    The question is: How to deal with it in a rational manner?

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    1. That phrase is misleading; it's like saying 'psychpathy is as much a part...'.

      Both conditions (or propensities) are part of SOME human psyches...but not all.

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  22. they didn't ask me to sing either

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    1. I'm shocked at this! Canon have you considered ringing Joe Duffy? Perhaps you could do a duet with Daniel O'Donnell?

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    2. Why not go to Oldcastle and sing for the parishioners there. God knows they could do with a break from FR Humble.

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    3. Perhaps Ray and Nathan could duet on the following?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCyYuLQ7_Ws

      Delete
  23. Fr. Ray Kelly told a man on the radio to go and 'get a life' after the man respectfully challenged him. Some priest he is!

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    1. Some host Joe Duffy is for allowing such insults.

      Duffy once allowed his broadcasting colleague Ronan Collins to come onto Liveline to voice an honest opinion on Louis Walsh and the inferior platform he was launching vulnerable and impressionable people on.

      Duffy then allowed his production team to bring Walsh onto the show and when he did - Walsh totally lambasted Ronan Collins with insults about been bitter and a supposedly failed musician himself (Which incidentally he's not) and how the showband era of which he was part of wasn't recognised (Which it was and still is fondly)

      Duffy sat back and allowed his RTE daily colleague to be insulted like so but in fairness Ronan let Walsh rant, rave and insult.

      As he did the hole only got bigger for Louis and Ronan never rose to any of it.

      Who was the better man? Walsh made an eejit of himself.

      If a fellow colleague of countless years would allow you to sit through that and be expected to take it without intervention and moderation - then Duffy I am sure is no 'friend' of Ronan's outside of Montrose.

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  24. Ray Kelly is carrying on like the dancing priest on Fr Ted.

    I live in the parish of singing priest Fr Martin O'Hagan. He's often away performing and relies on Michael Spence from the seminary and even Paddy Walsh for supply. These singing priests need to get a grip. Performing and record deals are lay vocations.

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    1. Those two O'Hagan brothers I just cannot have to be honest.

      'Away Performing' I bet they are - performing some extra curricular activities perhaps?

      David Delargy I think comes across as genuine, straight (Been the operative word)

      However I agree I think it's time they had a reality check as apposed to counting their own cheques!

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  25. And then Joe Duffy is sitting ahhhh ahhhh sigh sigh at the slightest issue and the man couldn't care less much akin to his RTE colleagues on massive annual salaries maxed out minus minimal tax deductions via their own independent companies set up that in reality don't exist.

    These are the people sympathetic to the genuinely needy people and families of modern day Ireland? Be serious they couldn't care less.

    Ray Kelly, Brian D'Arcy, Gary Donegan, and clerical co with their inflated egos, secret bank accounts, paid for - sorry sponsored cars aren't Priests.

    They're bluffer's, the people in the pews have been reeled in - them men couldn't care less either about 'Joe Public'

    They dare not leave the securities of the Priesthood - because minus their collars wouldn't be therefore called upon by media outlets by PR firms for comments usually on scandal and all men are readily available to provide it.

    Minus their collars of office they then revert to just good old normal 'Joe Publics' with no clout nor weighted opinions and bang goes their egotistical tendancies and self important arrogance.

    Not to mention handsome donations and cars.

    Do what you were ordained to do and serve - not be served.

    Ohhhhhh lads in clerical garb and collars.....stay off national broadcasters because those are millionaire unconcerned arses on seats mouthing in talking shops.



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  26. The Norbertine canons were re-established In 1924, they did exist in Ireland before the protestant reformation.

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