IRELAND
Irish Independent
NIALL O’CONNOR – PUBLISHED 22 MARCH 2014
DENIS Nolan, like so many other priests, presented himself as the pillar of the community. He cared for the sick and elderly; he was a regular visitor to the local primary school; he gave baptisms and confessions at short notice. So when this journalist reported that the parish priest of Rathnew, Co Wicklow, was being investigated “in accordance with the safeguarding of children”, there was understandable shock.
But as a garda investigation was launched into allegations of sexual abuse against Nolan, the victim’s family could not have anticipated the challenges they were about to face.
The ‘pillar of the community’ had been taken away from its people, and some found that extremely difficult to accept.
The family displayed an extraordinary level of steel as mother, sons and daughters came to terms with truth – their loved one John Paul had been abused by the parish priest since an early age. Their lives were shattered, but not irreparably. Night after night, tears fell – and as mum Theresa admits, lives were almost lost.
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