Brendan Boland, who was abused by Fr Brendan Smyth and who was made sign an oath of secrecy in the company of Cardinal Seán Brady in 1975 following a canonical inquiry into the allegations of abuse
“[Gardaí] are equally as responsible as the Catholic church because they chose not to prosecute him,” [Mr Boland] told BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programme.
“And if they had prosecuted him back then I would never have met him, so I’d never have been abused in the first place. I can’t imagine what my life would’ve been like now. I don’t think it’ll ever leave me.”Cardinal Brady’s apology to Smyth’s victims was “a last-ditch attempt to save his face and the face of the Catholic church”, Mr Boland said. He added that the senior cleric had made an attempt to contact him previously to apologise, but that it was to be “under his conditions”. “If I had have went I would’ve felt like a little boy again being scrutinised in his environment,” he said. “I refused to go.”
Fr Brendan Smyth victim: Police must be held responsible for abuse (BBC)
Previously: ‘I Hope This Arrangement Will Be Satisfactory’
Cardinal Brady: More Than Just A Notetaker
….and the police in the UK are guilty of this type of ‘look the other way’ too approach, with their lax approach to over two decades of grooming young girls, and boys on a colossal scale…. in Rotherham…
It still goes on…..
Fair play to this for speaking up.
^man
I hope Sean Brady spends every remaining day of his miserable life terrified of eternal damnation to Hell. And that goes for every garda, priest , bishop, cardinal and pope who gave Smyth free reign to rape and destroy the lives of so many innocents.
I doubt he gives much of a damn about anything except covering his own ar-se. If he had any conscience at all he would have at least resigned in shame years ago
Is there an official record of why the gards didn’t investigate or prosecute him and other priests?
And this is the corporation that we allow to run our schools.
Brendan, thanks for sharing your story. Lawmakers need to continue to hear about the damage the Church has done to so many people by allowing pedophile priests to have access to innocent children. Bishops must be held accountable!
Didn’t Sean Brady no more than Paisley make geat use of the Bible
the former used it procure silence and the latter to unleash sectarianism
Yes “Hand me down my Bible”.