OK, your starter for ten. Did Fr Michael Cleary father children? If you’d asked me that yesterday I’d have said without hesitation that he did. How do I know? Well, wasn’t there a young guy appeared on the Late Late Show who was his son? Or am I thinking of the son of Bishop Eamon Casey? Give me a minute…No, that wasn’t Fr Cleary’s off-spring, I think I saw him on some other TV show…Or did I? Suddenly I realise my grounds for saying he had children or a child are unstable, scattered, maybe even plain wrong.
The reason for my sudden doubt is there’s a Dublin parish priest who has weighed into the, um, affair. He was rebuked last June by two Catholic archbishops for casting doubt on media reports of Cleary’s paternity. He says the archbishops remind him of the pop group the Housemartins from the 1980s:“Their melodies and harmonies were always a mixture of populist politics and Christianity, which gave them lots of public appeal.” He’s not too impressed with the media either: he says their claims about Fr Cleary’s paternity are “shoddy practice”, exasperating and unproven.“
Is he wrong? Is there clear evidence that Fr Cleary fathered children? To be honest I don’t know. I’d always assumed so because…Well, essentially because it said it in the papers and on TV.
The dangers of believing everything you read is underlined by another item in today’s Irish Times. A planning tribunal in 2002 had claimed former Minister Ray Burke had hindered and obstructed its work. The planning tribunal now says it’s withdrawing all findings based on the evidence of a James Gogarty from its second interim report. Which means Burke is clear of these charges The tribunal started in 1997 and has published five reports. Its most recent estimate of the total cost of its operations is €159 million.
And the point is? Because Fr Michael Cleary had “Fornicating father” stamped on his forehead by the media doesn’t mean he was a fornicating father. He’s only entitled to that posthumous branding if there’s proof. And according to this Dublin priest, there is none. Is he wrong? Or are the archbishops wrong? I confess: I have no idea. But until this turbulent Dublin priest spoke I was convinced he was and that there was incontrovertible evidence he was.
Was Ray Burke corrupt? If you’d asked me I’d have said Yes. After all, this long-running and expensive tribunal had found him guilty of dodgy stuff back in 2002. But now by its own admission, the tribunal wrongly accused Burke, and he is going to have to be refunded at least €5 million in legal costs.
So two questions: were the media just parroting an unsubstantiated claim about the late Fr Cleary? And what in God’s name are the people of the south doing, pouring money into a tribunal that by its own admission has brought forward totally inaccurate findings which will now cost the state a further €5 million?
You’d be pardoned for thinking there’s a lot of accusations flying around out there that are accepted as gospel by the media – and even government bodies – even though they have as much substance as a fistful of smoke.
After reading about a fornicating priest(who i knew nothing about) over breakfast i have now pushed my sausage to the far side of my plate in disgust.
Tales like this are not good for a gentlemans digestion.
So you’re safe enough, neill…Sorry, couldn’t resist that one…Mea culpa
No respect for your social betters Jude ; )
I know , Neill – life-long failing. That’s why I’ve stayed at the bottom rung…
Go on Neill, have a bit of sausage, ya might like it…….
Ryan I am flattered in your interest but sadly i must decline : )
Jude, in light of these revelations I believe the families of Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin are considering legal redress for all the unfounded allegations against their loved ones.
But if they’re depending on this troublesome Dublin priest to vouch for the maligned victims they may have to wait some time for justice.
And from what I can gather Hannibal’s descendants are waiting to see how these cases go before entering the legal arena themselves. Poor Hannibal didn’t mistreat his beloved elephants as alleged, apparently.
The Church and the State
Concubinage is not a new problem for the church. In 1561, the Papal Nuncio, Giovanni Francesco reiterated the duke of Cleave’s remarks that, “there were not even five priests in his lands that did not live in public concubinage.” (Laqua-ODonnell 2014:136) It is evident that in Ireland some clerics adhered to the adage, “Don’t do as I do, do as I say.” Mental reservation assuaged pangs of conscience. Other clergy facilitated the sexual abuse of men, women, boys and girls by their silence and inaction.
Davos was host to the World Economic Forum, the annual meeting of global political, business elites and roaming ambassadors. How does one become a ‘roaming ambassador?’ The population in Ireland should reflect on a trend that shows no change, wealth is maintained and controlled by a small number of groups, corporations and families. A death in Saudi Arabia results in an immediate increase in the price of oil. Any individual or group that questions the need for austerity is told to live in the real world. Some readers will recall that Mr C J Haughey told people to tighten their belts in order to promote and sustain a healthy economy. The tax payer continues to bear the burden for corruption and incompetence by successive administrations in Ireland, North and South. People are justified in their scepticism and mistrust of politicians. Such scepticism should prevail in relation to the formation of new political parties and individuals who claim to be independent. If evidence is needed, pause and reflect on the manner in which the Labour Party and the Green Party abandoned core values in order to get into the ministerial Mercedes (vorsprung durch technik).
A first glance at today’s issue, Esteemed Blogmeister, caused one to hop, step and jump to the wrong conclusion. This was on account of the front-view mugshot of Ray Burke.
Goody, one thought, more juicy morsels from the perspicacious author of ‘Booing the Bishop’. Perkie, as is reasonably well known, being all in favour of perspicacity. Alas, not to be. Au contraire, as les hommes et les femmes who go under the banner of ‘Nous Sommes Charlies’ might put it.,
The author of Ray Burke, TD, by the way, was Patrick J. Burke, TD who was universally known, even by his supporters, as ‘The Bishop’.
So, no boos for the Bishop’s Son. A mhalairt ar fad, as ‘Is mise Cathal’ might put it, : rather a hip-hip replacement operation. Thus, the absence of the side-view mugshot of the ‘disgraced’ TD.
The incorrect destination being down to the bum steer given by the media? Indeed a whole herd of bum steers. Or, as the redoubtable Roger Miller once eloquently put it; ‘You can’t rollerskate in a herd of buffaloes’.
Possible or probable?
There was Perkie’s inner impure prure after cancelling his daily ‘Sun’ in the highest of dudgeon and in a lordly fit of pique, umbrage and out-of-joint nosiness. And next thing, what happens? The hills are alive once again with the sound of ‘Here comes the Sun’s Page Three’.
What next?
The Abbey Theatre to announce the cancellation of the eagerly anticipated, upcoming production of a sex-sex Shakespeare play: ‘Anthony and Leopatra’ ?
Probable or Possible?
One is even beginning to doubt the integrity of that bulwark of skin-deep decency, the sports pages. Take Rugby, for instance. Back in the dear dead and alive days and long before the egg-chasers with their ovoid vowels began to lose the Captain’s run of themselves, there used to a final trial for the Oirish Team. This featured the Probables versus the Possibles.
Which at least showed a certain level of literacy in perfect harmony with the toniness of the Lansdowne surrounds.
Now, there is a panel of 45 longlisted, containing every maybe, perhaphazard, and perchancer who ever laced a boot, had a racehorse named after him or carried a bulging briefcase of endorsements. So many hacks, so many acres of newsprint to be packed with bootblack prose and haka-like posturing.
Nowhere is the dropping of geography as a compulsory school subject more keenly felt. Thus a new generation of Irish scholars are growing up with a rather bockety take on obscure words like ‘Europe’ and ‘World’.
Such has been the proliferation of bargain-basement jargon since the decision of the rugby bros to go pro. The introduction of bread has caused terms like turnover ball, grubber kick, drift defences, box kicks, gainlines, choke tackles, overlaps (mainly in wimmins’s rugby), spear tackles to become current.
Sadly, a term such as ‘use it of lose it’ came into use long after Sir Tones O’Reilly had hung up his gilded jockstrap.
Thus, we have children and those in their second childhood of all ages (from nine to 99) who actually think that Europe (as in the European Rugby Championship) consists of 7 nations and the World (as in the Rugby World Cup) has shrunk (the only chronicled example of shrinkage in the brave new rugby world of gym bunnies) to a a Baker’s Dozen of countries.
To these students Christopher Columbus is a tight-head prop for Argentina, Marco Polo a loose-head prop for Treviso and Vasco da Gama a scrum-half for the Latino representative team known as Los Stumblebums. While, ni ga a ra, Rodney Ay You couldn’t be anything other than a true, blue Corribean son of Connaught..
Commonwealth and wealth have a world in common.
Mind you, Egg-chasing is not the only pursuit covered in the sports pages which has a nimbus of doubt lying low over it. Take the game that used to be called ‘soccer’. Just as Eamonn McCann, radical, did in The Unionist Times as recently as the day before today..
In which he took gratuitous potshots at the Grand Youngish Duke of York. By first enticing the unfairly reviled Royal up the hill by dangling a bar of Yorkie in front of him only to sell Andy a Brandywell dummy at the summit. Before kicking himunceremonously back down the length of the hill again.
This juvenile bog-standard Bogside broadside at a pilloried victim in no position to defend himself (not cricket, old boy) led to much fluttering in the dovecotes of TUT.The Told-you-So’s tut-tutted loudest: we told you ‘Eamonn McCann’ is not just the leprechaun version of Edward du Cann !,they trumpeted to those in possession of an ear-trumpet.
This view prevailed until someone pointed out that Ole McCanvas Shoes is indeed one of ‘us’. As instanced by his use of the term’ football’ instead than ‘soccer’.
‘This more than anything shows his adherence to the imperial measurement !’,they thundered. At one stroke the professional Bogsider denied the very existence ofamateur Bogball.
The Londonderry champion of Du Cannabis seems set fair to keep trotting to the fair, for a fairly long time to come.
Fr Cleary may or may not “have come to close quarters ” with his housekeeper but one sure thing he was not a very pleasant individual.An anti Republican egotist who wrote for the Sindo and thats enough for me!
On the basis of your headline,should we believe everything that you write in your blogs?!!
I see blogs, Argenta, as an unfettered expression of thoughtful sincerity. Which is why I’m so puzzled that you disagree with me so often…
Jude
Wouldn’t life be very boring if all your respondents agreed with you all the time?!Don’t think it does any harm to have some constructive dissent and reasoned argument.
Couldn’t agree more, Argenta. For a period of time I wrote to an audience which agreed with every word I said. Like punching the air and about as satisfying. What’s the point if you can’t annoy some people? At least that’s what the Grand Master of the Orange Order told me one night we were both quite pissed…