THE CHURCH AND CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
1994 was the year when paedophile priests were finally forced out of the closet. But the Church is still refusing to answer the vital questions. Report: Eamonn McCann.
This article is now part of the hotpress.com archive. To access this article you need to subscribe to hotpress.com for the bargain price of €20 or be a subscriber to Hot Press Magazine. The hotpress.com archive has over 40,000 articles in it, growing at well over 500 a month. Not only that, but you get special 'member's cds' for €10, discounts on all hotpress related products and exclusive promotions. hotpress.com also has thousands of articles and pieces of content that are free to access to anyone, including it's latest music news, photo galleries, web exclusive interviews.
To join click HERE.
To subscribe to Hot Press, hotpress.com & The Hot Press iPad Edition for just €69.95 go
here
To learn more about hotpress.com member benefits, go to
HERE
Latest Articles by Eamonn McCann
We're not kidding. We have scientifically proved beyond doubt that one hurricane is no match for a thousand lesbians. Read on...
27 Feb 2014
A folk-rock band has offered a compelling take on the writings of James Connolly
17 Feb 2014
How long before people get it into their heads that the Poppy has nothing to do with peace?
04 Feb 2014
Forget the hype, listen to the reviews – Fergie’s tell-all tells us very little new indeed
16 Dec 2013
Behind his grumpy exterior, Lou Reed knew a life-time of pain – much of it dating back to his teenage ‘treatment’ for sexual ‘deviancy’
29 Nov 2013 - Hog
The annual riot of craw-thumping jingoism that is British Poppy Season is upon us. Is this really the best way to celebrate the tragedy of World War I?
15 Nov 2013 - McCann
The gulf between Ireland’s Gaelic past and Britain’s Royal present isn’t as yawning as you might imagine
01 Nov 2013 - McCann
Why those who deny the reality of global warming must be exposed at every turn — and why those who say ‘there’s nothing we can do about it’ are completely wrong.
18 Oct 2013 - McCann
America has always been happy to go to war on trumped-up grounds. It is something we should keep in mind as the Syrian crisis lurches ever onwards
03 Oct 2013 - McCann
The State has taken over the production and distribution of the plant, which sounds like a very good idea...
17 Sep 2013 - McCann
It’s wonderful that Derry has been named UK City of Culture. But it’s a shame that the event doesn’t have more of an edge – the better to convey a sense of the ‘real’ city.
05 Sep 2013 - McCann
Joe Brolly’s outburst against Sean Cavanagh has once again thrown a light on Mickey Harte’s use of his exalted status in the GAA...
21 Aug 2013 - McCann
Evil nuns, Rod Stewart, Glasgowbury and phallic entanglement are but a few of the topics on our man’s mind this fortnight....
07 Aug 2013 - McCann
PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott continues to fritter away public money on unnecessary security operations...
24 Jul 2013 - Frontlines
A conservative commentator has tried to tease out what he regards as the absurdity of the government’s proposed, very limited abortion legislation - but only highlighted the contradictions of the anti-choice movement...
10 Jul 2013 - McCann
A Derry woman was brutally raped and dumped in the street. So why did so called ‘pro-lifer’ Mickey Harte speak strongly in favour of the attacker?...
26 Jun 2013 - McCann
Everybody’s favourite trendy US President is slaughtering innocent men, women and children in other people’s countries — and people who jumped up and down raging about Nixon, Reagan and Bush are staying oddly silent about it...
12 Jun 2013 - McCann
We like to believe in destiny and the power of the human spirit. But in the end everything just comes down to pluses and minuses, ones and zeroes – as a fascinating study by an Irish writer demonstrates...
15 May 2013 - McCann
Everything you ever wanted to know about Elvis’ role in the making of modern Ireland but were too shy to ask. Plus stuff you really didn’t know...
01 May 2013 - McCann
The new Pope has not fully answered questions about what he did or didn’t do during the Argentine dictatorship – but that isn’t to say it’s not too late for him to find redemption. For that, actions rather than words are required...
03 Apr 2013 - McCann
One of Britain’s most senior clerics has had to resign after accusations of inappropriate behaviour towards other priests. Given the litany of child abuse in the Church, isn’t that a bit rich?
20 Mar 2013 - McCann
A small developing nation is the latest to point out the futility of trying to ban substances that are readily available to millions...
11 Mar 2013 - Frontlines
An American scandal gives us a chilling insight into the twisted logic of the self-styled ‘pro-life’ lobby.
01 Mar 2013 - McCann
Time to pick apart the absurdities and contradictions of the ‘pro-life’ debate
06 Feb 2013 - McCann
Spare a thought for all those downtrodden true believers, whose medieval view of the universe is, so we are told, under attack from all corners in modern Ireland.
23 Jan 2013 - McCann
The truth about Jesus and abortion: why the savior was pro choice
18 Dec 2012 - McCann
Four years into Barack Obama’s presidency, the USA remains remarkably similar to the way it was pre-2008. Remember where you read it first?
07 Nov 2012 - McCann
When the Bishop of Clonfert John Kirby failed to tell the truth about sex abuse cover-ups, he did so with the benediction of Pope Benedict...
24 Oct 2012 - McCann
Anti-Western violence in the Middle East is, at its heart, a backlash against decades of neo-Imperalism.
05 Oct 2012 - McCann
DUP gay-phobia is reaching out into Europe through the aegis of the self-styled Caleban.
02 Oct 2012 - McCann
Triple All-Ireland winning hurler, the openly gay Donal Og Cusack, gave a mighty address at the recent Derry Pride, drawing parallels between the gay-rights struggle and the fight against institutionalised sectarian discrimination in Norn Iron..
10 Sep 2012 - McCann
In relation to covering up child sex abuse, other religions are just as culpable as the Roman Catholic Church.
31 Aug 2012 - McCann
Gay Pride is a celebration of sexual diversity – but it is important not to forget the need for a clenched fist
27 Aug 2012 - Frontlines
It’s not enough that they believe in an imaginary deity. They want the rest of us to as well...
03 Jul 2012 - McCann
The PSNI have begun to compete with Republican Action Against Drugs in the stupidity and ignorance of their ani-drugs raids. Plus: simpering about the Queen...
20 Jun 2012 - McCann
She’s a busy actor with a Hollywood career of long-standing. So how did Bronagh Gallagher find the time to record a cracking new solo record?
13 Jun 2012 - Interview
In September 1988, John Gallagher drove to Lifford, collected a rifle from behind the wardrobe in his father’s bedroom and headed for Sligo, where he murdered his ex-girlfriend Anne Gillespie, and her mother Annie. When the case came to court John Gallagher pleaded – and was found – guilty but insane and he was remanded to the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum. In July 2000, Gallagher successfully escaped from Dundrum and absconded to England, before returning to Northern Ireland, where he was able to live freely, because of the unique absence of an extradition treaty for people in his position. Earlier this month, in a bizarre twist, apparently in the hope of taking advantage of a bequest from his father, Gallagher turned up at the Central Mental Hospital and handed himself in. It’s open to him to apply to the Health Review Board for release on the grounds that he does not now suffer from a mental illness. The Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, has already acknowledged the possibility that he might be released within a matter of weeks. But as far back as 1991, in a special investigation carried out for Hot Press, Eamonn McCann questioned the original verdict of the court – and whether Gallagher was ever ‘insane’ within the meaning intended by the act. In the light of the growing controversy about the case, we reprint here in full the extraordinary story as it was originally published in Hot Press.
12 Jun 2012 - Frontlines
The hate directed at the QPR player tells us all we need to know about the hypocrisy of the media in Britain and Ireland.
06 Jun 2012 - McCann
In 1982, she was sacked from the school in County Wexford where she taught. Irish politicians have colluded since then in protecting religious-based discrimination on the statute books.
29 May 2012 - McCann
Some people may tell you that the violence in the North is over. But Republican Action Against Drugs are continuing their vicious campaign...
24 May 2012 - McCann
The venal, rotten truth about Irish politics has been exposed for the world to see – but what about the far more serious crimes perpetuated against children by the Catholic church? How can those who were party to such outrages continue to go unpunished?
11 Apr 2012 - McCann
Plus: the Champions League is decadent and depraved...
28 Mar 2012 - Frontlines
The demonisation of drug-taking gives self-appointed vigilante groups impunity to execute those they accuse of dabbling in the trade.
29 Feb 2012 - McCann
She was a chav icon and slapper pin-up, but, oh, how we will miss Corrie’s Becky McDonald.
15 Feb 2012 - Frontlines
We all know that marijuana is less harmful than booze or cigarettes. In the face of incontrovertible evidence, why do Irish politicians continue to insist otherwise?
01 Feb 2012 - McCann
A newspaper editorial about the Armenian genocide – perhaps holocaust is a better word – shows just how contradictory a place Israel can be.
18 Jan 2012 - McCann
What the London riot really tell us about the modern UK – and why the issue isn’t as black and white as we are led believe.
06 Jan 2012 - Frontlines
Could Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith sink his chances of running for US President on the Republican Party ticket?
07 Dec 2011 - McCann
A Christmas parable. By the Rev. Eamonn McCann
02 Dec 2011 - Frontlines
Reflections on the MTV Awards, the Greedy Bag – plus Tiger Woods and racism in the club.
23 Nov 2011 - McCann
An area of outstanding natural beauty is under grave threat, having been earmarked by rapacious planners as ripe for ‘development’. Who will shout stop?
09 Nov 2011 - McCann
An area of outstanding natural beauty is under grave threat, having been earmarked by rapacious planners as ripe for ‘development’. Who will shout stop?
28 Oct 2011 - McCann
A silly drinks promotion and two men to be reckoned with. It's all in a fortnight's reflections...
12 Oct 2011 - Frontlines
According to constitutional experts, if Bertie makes the Aras he can’t be sent to jail. Unfortunately for him, his dreams of winning the Presidency appear to be mostly a fantasy on his part.
03 Oct 2011 - McCann
Martin Luther King was a ferocious opponent of US war-mongering and imperialism, a fact conveniently overlooked by those who pose today as his spiritual heirs..
14 Sep 2011 - McCann
It’s time the London police answered hard questions over the death of UK reggae and rap figure Smiley Culture.
30 Aug 2011 - Frontlines
A good kid is behind bars while cops roam free. Plus: why the Church won’t ever change; and religious discrimination in Israeli sport.
25 Aug 2011 - McCann
The death of Northern Ireland blues singer Ottilie Patterson has gone largely unnoticed. But she was a genuinely revolutionary force in the staid sixties.
22 Aug 2011 - McCann
Feminist campaigner and literary critic Germaine Greer is still taking stick for suggesting that British soldiers involved in war might be capable of rape.
13 Jul 2011 - McCann
Kofi Annan is just one of many global dignitaries urging cannabis and ecstasy be legalised. Plus, why rumours of Iran’s nuclear programme amount to so many lies
22 Jun 2011 - McCann
As good as Madonna? Or Beyoncé? All this – and how the USA makes a mockery of the International Criminal Court.
08 Jun 2011 - McCann
Military Intelligence analyst Bradley Manning has been shackled, drugged and kept in solitary confinement at Quantico for the last year for supplying damning video footage of US war crimes to Wikileaks.
01 Jun 2011 - McCann
Unspeak labels it collateral damage, but murder is murder. Remote operated drone missiles shot from Nevada have killed an estimated 2000-plus Pakistani civilians in the last five years.
10 May 2011 - McCann
Why our columnist is part of The Clash of local politics. And more on wrecking the Royal Wedding!
27 Apr 2011 - McCann
An encounter with the Reverend Jesse Jackson provokes a spot of musing on matters spiritual...
13 Apr 2011 - McCann
The parentage of Great Britain’s sovereign monarch is a matter of some speculation...
30 Mar 2011 - McCann
The Libyan leader may have seriously lost his way, but he’s not the one-dimensional, mad despot he’s been made out to be by the Western media.
16 Mar 2011 - McCann
Criss-crossing the North with unnecessary roads was always a waste of money. With the economy cratering both sides of the border, perhaps the folly will finally be abandoned.
02 Mar 2011 - McCann
The King’s Speech might work well as feel-good fodder, but its portrait of George VI is fraudulent. On the other hand, Pat Robertson’s gone pro-pot...
16 Feb 2011 - McCann
Now that the arse has fallen out of his property empire, whither Sean Dunne’s well-connected chums?
02 Feb 2011 - McCann
When it comes to premature death in Northern Ireland, heroin and cocaine area in the halfpenny place beside tranquilisers and anti-depressants
19 Jan 2011 - McCann
It’s now widely accepted in scholarly circles that a sizable proportion of other gods born to virgins around December 25 used dope. But was the man from Bethlehem of the same dreamy mind?
08 Dec 2010 - McCann
Lily Savage has been urging revolution in the UK, and she may well have a point
25 Nov 2010 - McCann
The true and amazing story of the little Wimbledon club that could. Plus, Paula Meehan’s requiem for Jean McConville.
10 Nov 2010 - McCann
Six hand shandies a week heads off cancer at the pass.. And what precisely are we to make of Peter Sutherland?
03 Nov 2010 - McCann
Palestine and Bono, a salute to Betty Doherty and an elegy for Solomon Burke...
03 Nov 2010 - McCann
What ensues when a posse of serious men and women of letters pay a visit to a rock festival?
01 Nov 2010 - McCann
Usually when you see a bunch of brightly dressed men in funny hats poncing around Derry, the Orange Order is involved. This year, however, the local Gay Pride Community was getting in on the act for the first time. And no one discriminated against women!
27 Sep 2010 - McCann
In the same year that the findings of the Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday were finally published, how ironic that the powers-that-be in the North should try to clamp down on the public’s right to protest.
29 Jul 2010 - McCann
It took the British government 38 years to apologise for the massacre in Derry. Meanwhile, they're going all-out to obscure the truth about a far more recent massacre in Basra...
14 Jul 2010 - McCann
Why are so many nations so reluctant to challenge Israel? Plus, the Catholic church gets its gaydar working. Pity it won’t work on paedophiles.
28 Jun 2010 - McCann
Diarmuid Martin was wrong when he said 'forces' within the Church are covering up sex abuse cases. When it comes to clerical scandals, the entire edifice of Catholicism is corrupt
14 Jun 2010 - McCann
Our correspondent takes a few minutes off from weightier issues in order to savour the delights of Derry’s finest record store, Cool Discs.
12 May 2010 - McCann
Once he fronted The Screaming Bin Lids and The Whole Tribe Sings. Now ace songwriter Paddy Nash is back with the Happy Enchiladas.
28 Apr 2010 - McCann
It’s official. The Brits are as bad as the Irish when it comes to sleaze. Plus, the delirious genius of And So I Watch You From Afar
14 Apr 2010 - McCann
Why the wound left by Bloody Sunday will ache for as long as the State refuses to acknowledge the truth of what happened that fateful day.
13 Apr 2010 - Frontlines
The Hurt Locker is the toast of Hollywood, with a slew of Academy Awards under its belt. But why are we rushing to cheer a film which so fundamentally distorts the truth about the Iraq war?
31 Mar 2010 - McCann
As if we were in any doubt whose side Jesus is on, the bearded bringer of fishes and loaves has apparently given his blessing to one of the companies who furnish the US military with bullets. Go get ‘em tough guy.
19 Mar 2010 - McCann
Why the Catholic Church went out of its way to protect, rather then punish, the countless clerics who were raping and abusing innocent children.
05 Mar 2010 - McCann
There appears to be a double-standard at work in the press coverage of the Bishop Martin Drennan and Gerry Adams stories.
04 Mar 2010 - McCann
Why the wrong-headed hysteria being drummed up against legal highs is putting lives at risk. Also, fresh revelations about Brendan Smyth’s trail of abuse shows just how deeply corrupt the Catholic Church really is...
18 Feb 2010 - McCann
Plus: Raytheon pull out of Derry. And Cardinal Cahal Daly – what he really knew...
11 Feb 2010 - McCann
Not to mention self-pleasuring. Plus: a very good joke that you can tell at the Christmas parties and pretend it’s your own...
11 Dec 2009 - McCann
It’s widely believed that the Irish State no longer fears the Catholic Church. But it still fears facing up to State collusion with Church criminality.
26 Nov 2009 - McCann
An American newspaper has started reviewing locally available varieties of cannabis – what chances publications here might follow suit?
12 Nov 2009 - McCann
Did you know it was illegal to sell mass cards not authorised by the Catholic Church? Only in a banana republic.
29 Oct 2009 - McCann
hotpress.com
Blogs on hotpress.com
Additional Sites on hotpress.com
- The Music Show
- The Jagermeister Freezer Sessions
- Hot Press Rock Photo
- The Philip Lynott Exhibition
- The INEC Homegrown Sessions
- HTC TakeOne!
- Genre Free Compilation
- MIX 13: Music Industry Xplained
- Shoot To Thrill: Make a Hot Press Cinema Ad
- Other Voices
- Best of Ireland
- The Big Break
- Hot for 2013
- Josh Ritter
- Eoin Glackin
- Bitter Rocc
- Hot Press Video Archive
- The Write Touch
Contact Us
Hot Press,
13 Trinity Street,
Dublin 2.
Rep. Of Ireland
Tel: +353 (1) 241 1500
Email:info@hotpress.ie
Click here for more contact information.
Click here to find out more about Hot Press
Hot Press always welcomes feed back so if you've got something to tell us click here.
Advertise With Us
For more detail on how to advertise with Hot Press click here or call us on +353 (1) 241 1540
©Hot Press 2012. Why be a member? | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | About Us Jobs @ Hot Press