Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
So many people in the school would have had to have known, and who could have done something about it
Mcaleese opens up on brother’s abuse by priest and blasts Church cover-up
MARY Mcaleese has opened up for the first time about her brother being “sadistically” abused for years by a disgraced priest.
The former President of Ireland attacked the Church and said clerics scared their victims to secrecy.
She also told how her elderly mum only found out about the abuse this month and it crushed her.
Ms Mcaleese, who grew up in North Belfast, wants those who knew about the vile crimes of Fr Malachy Finnegan and never stopped him to be held to account.
She said: “My youngest brother, my baby brother, the youngest of nine was seriously, physically and sadistically abused by Malachy Finnegan.
“My mother, almost 90 years of age, had to discover that from the Belfast Telegraph three weeks ago.
“What frightens me is that we only find this out all these decades later.
“I’m the oldest of nine children and I always said my brothers could tell me anything but he didn’t because the culture of silence was so oppressive and these children were so frightened.
“My brother will be 50 next year. He is so incredibly loved and adored by all of us and to think he suffered and didn’t think he could tell anyone.” The teacher at St Colman’s College in Newry has been accused of sexually abusing 12 boys, but died in 2002.
Ms Mcaleese told RTE’S Sean O’rourke Show: “It went on all of the years he was there.
“It was known and as he pointed out that so many people in the school would have had to have known, who could have done something about it.
“We know the very first complaints about Malachy Finnegan go back to the 1970s, not the 1990s, which means there is a body of information that was available to people who could have done something.
“There are huge questions to be answered by all the people who were involved at a senior level in that school and in the diocese about what they knew and when they knew it.
“It shouts for an inquiry really and I think an independent inquiry is warranted.”
The scandal has sparked fury after a recent BBC Spotlight programme exposed the extent of the abuse. Bishop John Mcareavey, who
YESTERDAY
officiated over Finnegan’s funeral, resigned after parents at local schools said they did not want him at their kids’ Confirmation ceremonies.
Ms Mcaleese said the abuse has left “a mountain of hurt” for many families.
She added: “I’m speaking as somebody who knows, for example, John Mcareavey very well.
“He was a very regular visitor to our home.
“My brothers were all cigire [inspectors] up in the Gaeltacht, up in Donegal and they used to travel up and down with John and stay in the same house as John and he was always very kind and good to them.
Earlier this month, Bishop Mcareavey said in a statement: “Following media reports, which have disturbed and upset many people in the diocese and further afield, I have decided to resign with immediate effect.”
His nephew John Mcareavey, widower of Michaela Harte who was murdered in Mauritius, defended his uncle after the public backlash against him. He wrote online: “I’ve lived with people questioning my decision to seek life and love again.
“I’ve been accused of unspeakable acts, I’ve endured injustice of a great magnitude, but to see my uncle vilified like he has been causes great pain and anger.
“Uncle John... has always acted with people’s best intentions at heart.”
Ms Mcaleese has been at loggerheads with Church hierarchy in recent weeks when the Vatican blocked her speaking at a conference for her views on gay rights.
The decision sparked outrage and she wrote to Pope Francis in protest.
But Ms Mcaleese said he has not engaged with her.
She added: “I have received neither an acknowledgement of my letter nor a reply.”
The organisers changed the venue and it went ahead last Thursday in a different part of Rome, with Ms Mcaleese the keynote speaker.
Yesterday, she described the Church as a “primary carrier of the virus of misogyny and of course homophobia”.
And she said it has “an underpinning determination that women will always be second class”.