How did Irishman die after returning to sinister cult?

IT’S hard to come to terms with the Palmarian religious cult. I first came across them when I discovered that a house near where I live in Clontarf was owned by the secretive breakaway sect, which was set up some 40 years ago by a trio of Spanish ‘visionaries’, who claimed they were the true Catholic Church. Now operating from a gaudy basilica in Palmar des Troyes near Seville in Spain – with armed guards and an impenetrable boundary wall which owes more to a hidden lair in a Bond movie than an open religious building – the cult, which claims Ireland is its most fertile area for followers, is in freefall at the moment.

This comes after its most recent ‘Pope’, Gregory XVIII , fled the group’s basilica in the ‘Popemobile’, a top-of-the-range BMW, claiming he had lost his faith.

Now living with his partner in Granada, the man, who lived in the Palmarian compound for 36 years, said: ‘It was all a sham. There were apparitions but it all developed into opulence for the bosses of the place.’

There have also been serious allegations of abuse in the compound over the years. Over the last nine months, we have been hearing from ex-participants and relatives of members, who revealed a living hell.

But things took a serious turn last weekend when a 49-year-old Irishman – who was physically and mentally unwell, according to his family – returned to the cult HQ in Spain after being expelled 22 years ago.

Then on Monday last, his distraught relatives in Ireland were told he had died suddenly in the compound and would be buried on the site within 24 hours.

His siblings tried unsuccessfully to get an independent autopsy before the burial.

The siblings of this man are bereft of knowledge, baffled and deeply distressed. If this happened to an Irish tourist abroad there would be uproar.

So why the silence surrounding this tragedy from the Irish authorities? But this is par for the course when dealing with religious sects in Ireland.

Look at how a blind eye has been turned to the ‘House of Prayer’ in Achill, centred on the so-called visionary Christina Gallagher, who now seems to spend most of her time in various palatial properties here and in the US.

There have been many tragedies involving cults in crisis.

Jim Jones convinced 918 of his followers to commit suicide when his sect imploded in 1978.

And in Waco, Texas, the actions of another religious lunatic, David Koresh, led to 86 deaths – and most of them were members of his ‘Branch Davidians’ – in 1993.

What next for the Palmarians now that they are in crisis after the defection of their ‘Pope’?