An unholy secret that still haunts Ireland

Its shame confirmed by an official report, it’s time to pronounce the last rites for the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland

May 29, 2009. David Sharrock, for Times On Line (UK). A storm is blowing through Ireland, its moral outrage unprecedented in the state’s history. For the Roman Catholic Church and Irish society, its consequences will be profound. The plain-speaking of one man merits lengthy quotation. Michael O’Brien articulated the rage of a nation this week when he appeared on the RTÉ show Questions and Answers, the Republic’s equivalent of the BBC’s Question Time. He listened patiently to the answers given by politicians to his question about whether the assets of religious orders found guilty by a commission report of systemic, endemic child abuse should be frozen. Then he let rip.