Irish journalism missed the “blindingly obvious” reality of clerical sex abuse for years until a new generation of reporters began to tell the stories that would go on to engulf society, the veteran broadcaster Vincent Browne said.
Speaking at the launch of Patsy McGarry’s memoir Well, Holy God, Mr Browne praised the former Irish Times correspondent’s role at the forefront of the journalism that would ultimately deliver the truth.
“Us journalists, for the most part, didn’t notice what was going on,” he told a large audience at Dublin’s Mansion House on Tuesday. “We didn’t [get the story] and I can’t explain why we didn’t because it was so blindingly obvious.”
Listing off various scandals Mr Browne described how they had been allowed to go largely unexposed in a society “brainwashed” by the omnipotence of the Catholic Church.
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“Happily other journalists came along in a different generation and they filled in for us...but the most persistent person in holding the Catholic Church to account was Patsy McGarry.”
Mr McGarry spent over 25 years as Religious Affairs Correspondent of The Irish Times, during which he reported on numerous controversies in an era of systemic institutional abuse and cover up. His time corresponded with the unfolding of scandals including the clerical assault of children; industrial schools; mother and baby homes; and Magdalene laundries.
The memoir is an account of his early life and later work, and at the event Mr McGarry praised the bravery of survivors, many of whom were in attendance.
One in particular, Marie Collins, recounted the pain of stepping forward to tell her story, and explained how it could not have been done without the courageous journalism exemplified by McGarry and others. “The church leadership thought that its power and authority would silence the survivors. But they reckoned without journalists like Patsy.”
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