21 priests: where are they nowNine of the 21 priests at the centre of the Ferns inquiry as a result of having had allegations of abuse made against them are dead.
The majority of the 21 priests attended seminary training at St Peter's College, Wexford. St Peter's boarding school closed in 1997 and the seminary closed in 1998.
It is now a secondary school for boys and the inquiry team stressed that events related in its report are not a reflection on present standards in the college.
Six of the 21 priests were named in the report, the others were not identified. An appendix to the report dealt with the cases of an additional five priests who were not named.
Allegations against these five men came to light only recently and their cases were not fully investigated by the inquiry.
The six named men were Fr Donal Collins, a former teacher and principal at St Peter's College; Fr James Doyle; Fr James Grennan and Canon Martin Clancy, who are both dead; Fr Seán Fortune, who committed suicide; Dr Micheál Ledwith who was laicised last month and now lives in the US.
Three of those against whom allegations were made have been laicised. As well as the priest alluded to in the previous paragraph, these are Donal Collins and James Doyle, whose laicisation was completed last year. The latter two men remain in the care of the diocese.
Dr Ledwith has strenuously denied the two allegations of child sex abuse made against him. Confidential settlements have been agreed in each. Both Donal Collins and James Doyle were convicted by the courts.
None of the remaining men has been before the courts,except for Fr Fortune, against whom proceedings had begun when he took his own life in 1999.
In 1990 James Doyle was convicted of indecent assault on a teenage boy and given a suspended sentence of one year.
In 1998 Donal Collins was given a four-year sentence, with three years suspended, for indecent assault and gross indecency against teenage boys.
The Ferns report remarked that a majority of the priests it investigated "attended seminary training at St Peter's College, Wexford". It observed that within a random five-year period selected by the inquiry, 10 priests who were in St Peter's "have come to the attention of this inquiry as being the subject of child sexual abuse allegations".
As to suggestions of a paedophile ring there, it said "this inquiry has found no evidence".
A spokesman for Ferns diocese said last night that none of the 11 men who are still alive and in the diocese's care were in active ministry. They lived in supervised accommodation, known to gardaí and the local health authorities. They had no contact with minors and the nine who were still priests were not allowed wear clerical dress or to celebrate the sacraments.
