IRELAND
Irish Times
Three former seminarians share their experiences at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth over the past decade. They describe an atmosphere of ‘psychological abuse’, a flawed complaints process, and ‘a lot’ of sexual activity
Patsy McGarry
A pattern of seemingly ongoing shambolic investigation into complaints by seminarians at St Patrick’s College Maynooth is a disquieting feature of recent revelations from Ireland’s national seminary.
It echoes an observation from the 2005 Ferns report which found, concerning another inquiry into complaints at the college by senior seminarians in the 1980s, that “by any standard the concerns as communicated by the seminarians and expressed by Fr McGinnity were inadequately investigated”.
This was a reference to the 1984 bishops’ investigation which followed expressions of concern presented to the bishops by then senior dean Fr Gerard McGinnity, acting on behalf of senior seminarians, about conduct of then Maynooth vice president Msgr Michael Ledwith.
Subsequently Fr McGinnity was removed from Maynooth and Msgr Ledwith became president. He stood down in 1994 after making a confidential settlement with a minor who had claimed being sexually abused by him.
On the treatment of Fr McGinnity the Ferns report observed “punitive actions of that nature could only deter bone fide complaints to church authorities which should be valued as providing information for the control of those having access to young people.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.