Pope was informed of Bill Kenneally crimes
Monsignor John Shine
In the past month, the state, Fianna Fáil, the gardaí, and the Minister for Health on behalf of the South Eastern Health Board, have all apologised to the victims of Bill Kenneally for their failure to apprehend the prolific paedophile over many years.
Kenneally’s depraved masochism was well known locally to gardaí, a South Eastern Health Board psychiatrist, two government politicians, senior figures in local schools and a senior clergy member. Despite this knowledge, Kenneally was not brought to justice until 2016.
Amidst a sleuth of apologies in the past month from numerous state bodies, the question remains, where is the church?
Monsignor John Shine was Bill Kenneally’s uncle.
He was a senior clergyman with a distinguished career in Waterford. He was very visible in Waterford life, serving in the parish of Tramore and Carbally for decades.
Monsignor Shine knew in late 1987 and early 1988 that Bill Kenneally had sexually abused at least one child, and possibly another.
The Commission of Investigation’s report into the crimes of Bill Kenneally said that Monsignor Shine failed to bring the matter into the public domain at least to the extent of reporting the matter to the statutory agencies responsible for child protection.
The commission's report also criticised false statements that Shine provided to gardaí in 2013. He told gardaí that he never heard about any further allegations of assault against Bill Kenneally after 1987. This was an untrue statement, as he had been informed in 2001 that the abuse had continued long after the psychiatric intervention in 1987.
In the aftermath of the State Apology to the survivors last month, Damien Tiernan of WLR FM asked if the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore would also be offering an apology to the victims of Kenneally.
A spokesperson for Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan said that the Diocese acknowledges the profound suffering endured by the survivors of Bill Kenneally’s abuse and recognises their courage and perseverance over many years in seeking truth.
A statement read: “Bishop Cullinan wrote to the then Minister for Justice in 2017 calling for an investigation into these matters and fully accepts the findings of the Commission of Investigation.
"The Diocese will not be making any further statement to the media on this matter at this time.”
A survivor of Bill Kenneally, Jason Clancy, told the Waterford News & Star that this statement was 'cold'.
"The church are the only entity that have not apologised, and to be honest I didn’t expect an apology from them," Jason said.
Jason outlined his dealings with the Bishop in the past, saying: “I wrote to the Bishop in the past about Monsignor Shine, because we were calling for him to be removed as the chairperson of the Holy Cross School and because he was the Bishop's representative on the Board of Management at the time.
“We outlined everything to the Bishop, and he said he was heading to the Vatican. He said that upon his return he would consider our request for a meeting. In response to that we wrote a letter about him and Monsignor Shine to the Pope. Journalist Damien Tiernan confirmed to the Bishop that we sent that letter out, and two days later there was a statement that Monsignor Shine had stood down as the Chairperson of the school.
"About six weeks later, Monsignor Shine passed away, and about a month after that the Bishop contacted us to say he’d meet us. Little did we know at the time, that the Bishop had met with his legal advisors beforehand to get schooled on what to say and what not to say to us," Jason said.
He concluded: "During the inquiry they were invited to attend and they never turned up once. All the other entities did, but not the church, and so I would have absolutely no interest in meeting the Bishop at this point."
