NORTHERN IRELAND
The Journal
THE CRIMES OF Fr Brendan Smyth, one of the first Catholic priests to be outed as a paedophile in the early 1990s, are being focused upon this week by Northern Ireland’s Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA).
In a statement read before the inquiry this morning by Junior Counsel Joseph Aiken in Banbridge, Co. Down, Fr William Fitzgerald, of the Norbertine Order to which Smyth belonged, said that the notorious abuser “ought never to have been ordained”.
Fitzgerald confirmed that “warning signs had surfaced” as to Smyth’s nature prior to his ordination.
This pattern of behaviour to maintain his freedom to do as he chose was already apparent while in formation.
Fitzgerald maintained that from his knowledge Smyth was “a very intelligent man”.
On reflection it is clear that he used that intelligence and naked cunning to engineer circumstances in which to abuse children, and also to intimidate and oppose the efforts of those who sought to confront him and restrict his activities
I am of the view that, while he never held any significant position within the church, he had a significant presence and influence with which he silenced and ridiculed those who would oppose him.
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