O’Gorman blasted by radio show callers

December 2002

Colm O’Gorman, the Fr. Seán Fortune victim whose televised revelations about the church’s failure to deal with clerical sex abuse played a key role in the downfall of Bishop Brendan Comiskey, was subjected to a tirade of venom during a radio chat show last Friday.

Segments of the South East Radio interview, broadcast during its Regional Express programme, were filmed by the BBC and are likely to be included in a follow-up documentary to ‘Suing the Pope’, which is due to be broadcast early next year.

Mr O’Gorman said he was accused by one caller of not being fit to wipe the shoes of good priests.

One person said he was trying to bring down the church, while another asked him how dare he show his face in Wexford.

‘That caller said I should go back to pagan England,’ said Mr O’Gorman, in Wexford with BBC television producer Sarah McDonald to film the follow-up to ‘Suing the Pope’, which examined the activities of paedophile priest Fr Sean Fortune and the church’s handling of complaints against him.

‘It’s easy to portray the reaction as a huge attack, and as a backlash. I don’t know if it was, to be honest,’ Mr O’Gorman told this newspaper, saying that he received a lot of supportive phone calls as well as emotive, negative ones. ‘It was basically a tirade on the basis of who am I to cast aspersions about anybody?’

Mr O’Gorman restated his position that he never sought the downfall of the church or the resignation of the bishop, and in fact he had argued for Bishop Comiskey to remain in office.

‘I’m not any great moral crusader, but people seem to feel threatened by what’s happening to the church, and wanted somebody to blame,’ he said.

‘When I left the radio station, I wondered what reaction there would be in the town, but many people were and continue to be supportive. That kind of stuff is always going to happen and it will happen again.

‘One person said during the programme that I wasn’t welcome in Wexford, but Wexford is my home and it’s my Diocese, and I have the same right to be here as everybody else,’ said Mr O’Gorman, who as a child was abused by Fr Fortune.

Mr O’Gorman said the BBC crew visited Wexford town and Fethard as part of a follow-up programme interviewing some of the people who appeared during the airing of the documentary.

‘They just wanted to make a follow-up, talking about the whole issue in Ireland, to highlight how far Irish society has moved, to see how things have moved for them, what the impact has been for them personally.

‘I think when there’s an institution, that many people believe is at the centre of their lives, coming under attack, the reaction is understandable. Some people will feel very angry so I’m not shocked and not surprised at the extreme views,’ he said.