NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
By Donna Deeney
July 24 2017
One of the victims of paedophile priest Brendan Smyth has said the Catholic Church has learned nothing in the two decades since the notorious child abuser died.
Smyth was jailed for more than 140 offences in 1994, dying of a heart attack behind bars on August 22, 1997.
Brendan Boland was abused by the twisted cleric for two years, starting from when he was an 11-year-old altar boy serving in his home parish in Dundalk, Co Louth.
In 1975, when Mr Boland was 14, he reported Smyth’s abuse of him and other children but was forced to sign a confidentiality agreement that prevented him from speaking about it to anyone.
Mr Boland told the Belfast Telegraph that the Catholic Church still had work to do to tackle clerical abuse.
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.