IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY MARK O’REGAN – 15 SEPTEMBER 2014

Former Irish president Mary McAleese should name and shame a senior Catholic cleric who “laughed” when she told him to “tell the people of God” details of sexual abuse within the Church.

A leading children’s rights campaigner in the Republic said Mrs McAleese now has a “duty” to disclose the identity of the person.

The former president had said the cleric, who she would not name, had come “looking for advice” at Aras an Uachtarain.

The incident occurred at a time when Church authorities were under increasing pressure to investigate a variety of abuse allegations.

She suggested to him that the Church should “open up the diocesan archives” and having carried out a relevant audit relating to the allegations “tell the people of God what’s going on”.

But the cleric only “laughed” at her, she recalled. “I said if…