NEWRY (UNITED KINGDOM)
The Irish News [Belfast, Northern Ireland]
February 9, 2026
By John Breslin
Details can be revealed as one diocese argues it has no immediately available funds to pay abuse victims
Catholic dioceses with parishes in Northern Ireland are sitting on cash and assets totalling more than £400m.
Trusts overseeing the finances of Down and Connor, Derry, Clogher, Dromore and the Archdiocese of Armagh had close to £200m in the bank or investments, with income in 2024 reaching approximately £70m.
Details of the total funds held by the dioceses can be revealed as Dromore, administered by Archbishop Eamon Martin, asks a court to decide what cash and assets it can use to pay those abused by Malachy Finegan, the deceased former principal of St Colman’s College in Newry.
In total, across all four dioceses and the archdiocese, funds held amounted to £438m. This includes more than £180m in cash and investments.
Only Down and Connor, and Dromore are entirely within Northern Ireland.
Dromore diocese failed to pay five victims a total of just over £1m by the agreed deadline following settlement of the actions in September and October last year.
One of the victims has filed a statutory demand under insolvency legislation. A creditor can apply for a bankruptcy or winding up order if no reply is made within 21 days.
Claire McKeegan, legal representative for the five victims, said the diocesewas continuing to refuse to honour “legally binding settlements”.
The demand places further pressure on the diocese as it attempts to deal with the financial fallout from the actions of Finegan, principal of St Colman’s from 1976 until 1987, and who was later placed in parishes where he continued abusing young boys.
In total, at the end of 2024 the Dromore Diocesan Trust had total assets,cash and investments of approximately £37.5m.
According to the diocese’s accounts, £2.4m was paid out in compensation and legal fees in 2024 and the ‘unrestricted’ central office, or curia, funds ended the year £4.9m in the red.
This and other debts led the diocese to report total funds, including assets, of just over £26m.
The diocese has managed to sell the Bishop’s House on the Armagh Road in Newry and is understood to be in discussions over 27 acres of adjoining land.
They also sold the contents of the house at auction, which reportedly raised hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The diocese has argued most of its assets – including church buildings and contents with an estimated value of close to £22m and land worth £1.5m – is under the control of the parishes and cannot be sold off to pay abuse victims.
The diocese is now asking the Chancery Court to decide what other assets and land can be used, an “unprecedented” situation in Ireland or Britain, its legal representatives wrote in a letter to solicitors for the victims.
It was further argued the trust has “taken numerous measures to liquidate or otherwise realise all assets available…for the purpose of providing fair compensation”.
While Dromore points to the costs associated with abuse compensation for its precarious financial position, a study of its accounts and those of the other dioceses reveals marked differences in the finances going back several years, particularly around the management of investments.
Down and Connor, with 86 parishes and almost four times the size of Dromore, reported total assets, cash and investments of £176m in its 2024 accounts.
But its investments alone totalled £80m in 2024, compared to less than £1m reported by Dromore, which also had much higher debts owed that are unrelated to any compensation payments. All the other dioceses and the archdiocese also reported much healthier positions.
St Patrick’s Archdiocesan Trust, which oversees Armagh, reported total funds of £112m, including £38m in cash and investments, while Derry had £82m.
All the dioceses and the archdiocese were contacted for comment.
