BISHOP EAMONN CASEY’S NIECE SAYS HER PRIEST BROTHER ABUSED HER TOO
When she tried to tell truth about brother’s abuse, Casey started a smear campaign to keep her silent
A NIECE of disgraced Bishop Eamonn Casey, who has claimed the late bishop sexually abused her from the age of five, has also alleged she was abused by her own brother, Fr Michael Donovan.
Fr Donovan has made a separate sex abuse settlement in a case that was previously raised in the Dáil – and three child abuse allegations have been made against him.
Patricia Donovan, 56, who lives in England, is speaking out about her brother, the bishop’s nephew, in the hope of ending a campaign to discredit her allegations, which was started by Bishop Casey, after she reported him 14 years ago.
The mother of two exclusively told the Irish Mail on Sunday last month about her battle to try and protect other children from her uncle. She alleges she was sexually abused and raped by Bishop Casey for more than a decade. She is among four women to have made complaints of child sexual abuse against him, two of whom received settlements, including one through the institutional redress board.
‘I was simply quoting Bishop Casey. I regret quoting him’
However, prior to reporting her uncle to gardaí, she made another complaint, that her brother, now dead, was abusing her at around the same time.
The Limerick diocese has now confirmed it received three complaints against Fr Donovan, one of which resulted in a settlement of £30,000. Allegations against the priest by an altar boy led to questions, in the Dáil in 1995, as to why no charges were brought.
Ms Donovan reported her claims against her brother to police in the UK in July 2004, and to gardaí in September that year. She was worried about the safety of children after Fr Donovan moved to Poland, where he was teaching English to students.
The MoS has established that Bishop Casey used members of the media and the clergy, including the former Bishop of Killaloe Willie Walsh, to discredit his niece’s claims, after she reported him to UK police in late 2005.
Bishop Walsh told the MoS this week that he now regrets remarks he made in 2005, after receiving a phone call from Bishop Casey. He said Dr Casey claimed ‘there wasn’t any foundation for this allegation’ and his niece made ‘unfounded allegations’ against others. He did not back up his claims to Bishop Walsh.
Bishop Walsh said: ‘I was simply quoting Bishop Casey. I regret quoting Bishop Casey at that time. I should not have expressed confidence then that his name would be cleared.’ He had made the comments to Clare Fm at the time.
Separately, in August 2006, Bishop Casey told the Irish Times of his ‘utter and absolute relief’ that no charges were brought against him. He was ‘utterly amazed’ at the speed of the decision, as it was just three weeks since gardaí questioned him.
The article stated: ‘The woman, who is believed to have known Dr Casey most of her life, made similar unproven allegations against others in the past and is understood to have suffered ill-health in recent years.’
Ms Donovan said the only complaints she made to gardaí were against Dr Casey and Fr Donovan. Bishop Walsh’s comments have been repeated numerous times over the past 14 years, and continued to be aired even after the MoS exclusively revealed her allegations.
On March 24, the results of the six-month investigation by the MoS revealed compensation payments were made to two other women, including a woman who had been in a Magdalene Laundry in Limerick.
The same day as those revelations were published, Patsy McGarry, religious affairs correspondent with The Irish Times, quoted Bishop Walsh’s remarks on the Marian Finucane show on RTÉ Radio One.
Mr McGarry said: ‘These allegations first emerged in 2005 when he was in the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton. It was known that she was a relative of Bishop Casey’s at the time, though that wasn’t publicised, and as I said, he wasn’t the only person accused by her.
‘All I am saying is that very few abuse victims make false allegations, that’s proven again and again and again. Low percentages are false. But I just don’t know. There are a lot of holes in this... I am not saying she’s .... I just don’t know, I just don’t know.’
Abuse survivor and campaigner Colm O’Gorman, who spoke to Ms Donovan after the article was published, told the MoS: ‘It is not shocking that someone in Bishop Casey’s position behaved like this and the institution would have responded to it in that way. But it is very upsetting to know that in 2019, 14 years after she first came forward, she still hasn’t received the acknowledgement that shows some level of accountability, of justice, of healing for her. I really hope the Church authorities and dioceses think about their responsibility to Patricia and others.’
He added: ‘Much of the hurt that Patricia experienced since 2005 is due to how the Church responded to her and to cases like hers, involving Bishop Casey. They need to take responsibility for that and they need to work very hard to address that.’
Both the Limerick and Galway dioceses were again asked this week if their respective bishops had any comment or words of healing to give the four alleged victims of Bishop Casey and to the three alleged victims of Fr Donovan. But no statement directly addressing this was provided by either diocese.
The Limerick diocese did confirm to the MoS that it received three complaints against Fr Donovan: one in 1990 by an altar boy; one in 2005 by Ms Donovan; and one in 2011 by a third complainant. In a statement to the MoS, a spokesperson for the diocese read: ‘An Garda Síochána was notified in all three cases but no prosecution ensued. Fr Donovan was taken out of ministry in 1995 and did not return to ministry prior to his death last year. Any instance of child sexual abuse is abhorrent and the diocese gravely regrets any such actions involving its priests.’
The MoS has also established that Bishop Casey moved Fr Donovan from Limerick to Galway, where he was bishop, after the complaint by the altar boy. The Diocese of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora has told this newspaper: ‘No complaints involving Fr Donovan concerning the safeguarding of children or vulnerable adults were ever made directly to the diocese.’
A spokesperson said: ‘On 19th November 1995, Fr Donovan was stepped aside from ministry by Bishop James McLoughlin. Fr Donovan returned immediately to Limerick and never again ministered in this diocese. While at all times honouring the wishes of survivors of abuse, Bishop Brendan Kelly, Bishop of GK&K offers to meet with any person who has suffered abuse by clergy or others.’
Fr Donovan was initially based in Limerick, from 1983 to 1990, then for a number of months in Ennistymon, Co. Clare, under the Galway diocese, and then in Galway from 1990 to 1995, when he was removed from ministry. In Galway, he served at the Church of the Resurrection and at St Patrick’s Church.
When he died last November no death notice was published. He was disgraced in 1995 when it emerged he paid about £30,000 in damages to a former altar boy, who was allegedly sexually abused in Limerick in 1989, when he was aged 12.
In November 1995, the then Bishop of Galway, Dr James McLoughlin, announced the removal of Fr Donovan, in a statement read out at Mass, and Bishop McLoughlin said the Galway diocese did not provide funds for the damages. The Limerick diocese has now confirmed that it paid those damages.
Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter raised the issue in the Dáil in 1995, with calls for an inquiry as to why there was no prosecution.
Deputy Shatter, who later became justice minister, said at that time: ‘It is not good enough that damages are paid, matters are covered up and people are shifted around the country as if they are participating in a game of musical chairs.
‘It is my understanding that the Director of Public Prosecutions, for whatever reason, decided in this case, as in the other two [cases, in relation to other priests], that no prosecution should proceed. I am very sad to note that it was only as a result of the publication of The Sunday Tribune on Sunday that the priest concerned was withdrawn from parish work.’
‘It is not good enough that damages were paid’