RTE to screen documentary on Mail exposé of Casey abuse
A DOCUMENTARY based on the harrowing Irish Mail on Sunday investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse by Bishop Eamonn Casey will be shown on RTÉ.
Campaigning journalist Anne Sheridan, now News Editor of the Irish Daily Mail, last year uncovered allegations made by three women – including Bishop Casey’s niece Patricia Donovan – that he sexually abused them as children.
Ms Donovan told the newspaper at the time: ‘He was quite organised and selective and I think he saw that I was vulnerable and quite sensitive.
‘It was rape, everything you imagine. It was the worst kind of abuse, it was horrific.’
She claimed she was raped and sexually assaulted in Limerick, Kerry and Galway by her uncle from the age of five and for more than a decade.
Settlements were made in relation to the allegations by two other women, as revealed by our sister newspaper. The documentary, Bishop Eamonn Casey – Shepherd or Wolf?, sees Ms Sheridan investigate the claims, and she speaks to many people who knew the cleric.
Bishop Casey has long been a notorious figure in Ireland.
The revelation in 1992 that he fathered a son shocked the nation, after it emerged the then
Bishop of Kerry had an affair with Annie Murphy, an American divorcee and a distant cousin of his, in the 1970s.
As part of her investigation, Ms Sheridan spoke exclusively to Ms Donovan, who was born in
Spoke exclusively with accuser
Limerick but now lives in England. The date the documentary will air will be announced at a later date. It is part of RTÉ’s autumn line-up, which will include documentaries covering a diverse range of topics.
Home: A Year in Ireland’s Housing Crisis will follow a crosssection of people as they attempt to navigate their way through spiralling rents, soaring house prices and now the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Case I Can’t Forget will feature retired and serving gardaí telling the stories of the cases that had a profound impact on them, while the documentary, Marian, will offer an intimate portrait of the late broadcaster Marian Finucane.
Meanwhile, three years on from the death of Martin McGuinness, a new documentary will look at his life and legacy.
And for sports, a film about the enigmatic Cork hurler Christy Ring will air as the centenary of his birth approaches.