IRELAND
Irish Independent
Colum Kenny: ‘You never got to like it?’ The answer to that sinister, suspicious, insinuating, abusive question remains ‘No’
By Colum Kenny
Sunday May 06 2012
‘You never got to like it?” That was one of the remarkable questions put to Brendan Boland when he was interrogated by priests in 1975 after reporting to the Catholic Church his sexual abuse at the hands of Fr Brendan Smyth.
“You never got to like it?” The question itself is abusive. It serves no obvious good purpose. I sought an explanation for it last week, but was told only that the entire exercise was intended “to gather evidence against the criminal priest”.
A spokesperson for Cardinal Sean Brady, who was present as a priest at that investigation in 1975, told me that Brady “did not construct those questions or ask those questions”. But he was there and he signed off on them (as plain “John” and not “Sean” Brady).
“You never got to like it?” Being abused, that is. The answer that Boland gave to the three priests was an absolute “No”.
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