The most confronting issue for any Roman Catholic has been the revelation that members of our church clergy were responsible for the horrendous and systematic sexual and physical abuse of children on a scale that is almost impossible to comprehend. The exact figures revealing just how many victims there were will never be known because this behaviour has been going on for not years or decades but certainly centuries. We have to come to terms with the fact that the Catholic Church has been the largest paedophile ring in the world with the crimes of these men not restricted to merely Ireland. I prefer not to think of these bastards as priests – they never joined the church to administer the sacraments or serve God and spread his word – they joined simply to have access to innocent children. They were paedophiles first and foremost, never true members of the clergy. And like the three monkeys pictured, the Vatican conspired to see nothing, hear nothing and do absolutely nothing.

I was lucky though; I had a positive experience in my catholic upbringing being educated by nuns who were kind, caring and highly educated women. I saw the excellent educational results they helped us achieve in school and I also witnessed the benevolent side of those women who were truly devoted to serving God through their vocation. If only other children were as lucky as I was…

But they were not – and there have been millions of them. Ireland – that nation where the Roman Catholic Church has enjoyed such influence and privilege over the centuries – is only now starting to acknowledge the appalling crimes committed by it’s clergy against it’s own children. It is still not enough and those victims – now grown up – are still fighting for justice for the cruelty they suffered at the hands of sadistic and paedophilic clergy while The State ignored what was going on. And what of those children whose own parents refused to believe them when they dared to mention what old Father What’s-His-Name did to them after altar service in the sacristy…? shame on those adults for being so brainwashed by their religion, so indoctrinated, that a priests word was more important than their own child’s…

One of the many victims, former mayor Micheal O’Brien 72, makes this heartbreaking speech to some clueless Ministers during a recent episode of RTE’s ‘Questions and Answers’…

What a brave and courageous man – but can Mr O’Brien and all those who also suffered ever be fully compensated for what happened to them? and why has it taken so long for the Irish Government – and The Church – to acknowledge and apologise for the fact that for many, many years it was open season on children in Ireland and all over the world…?

But hopefully now the hunting season is over…