Dr Desmond Connell (in wheelchair)l, former Archbishop of Dublin, arriving at the Eucharistic Congress opening ceremony at the RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin, yesterday.

Meanwhile, in The Sunday World (story not available online)…

“The Church advised the family not to go to the gardai and Cooke was left free for two more decades.”

Twenty years later, in 1997, Siobhan {Kennedy McGuinness] went to former Bishop of Dublin Desmond Connell to say she was afraid Cooke was still abusing children.

Siobhan told the Sunday World: “I had managed to get on with my life for years and had tried to forget what had happened to me as a child but then I saw him and I just flipped. I was really worried that he was still abusing children. I didn’t really know where to turn but in the end I turned the only way I knew – to the Church.

“I was living in Tallaght and I went to the local priest who I knew and I told him I wanted to tell him about what had happened to me as a child…

“After months, I met up with the priest and I asked him about it. He told me he had spoken to the Bishop and that he had said to tell me that Cooke was a very dangerous man and to leave well enough alone and mind my own family. I was horrified. I knew that Cooke hadn’t changed and was still abusing children.”