Four men abused as teenagers by Wexford priest Father Seán Fortune tell their stories for the first time publicly, on a BBC2 television programme tonight.
Suing the Pope, a programme in the Correspondent series, will be broadcast at 11.20 p.m. It also associates the suicides of four young men in the Fethard-on-Sea area of Wexford with the activities of Father Fortune, who was curate at Poulfur there, and reports that four priests of Ferns diocese have been accused of sexually molesting children this past 20 years.
The programme includes clips from a video in which Father Fortune is seen having sex with an unidentified 15-year-boy who, it reports, later used the video to compel the priest to end the abuse.
All four men are deeply critical of the Bishop of Ferns, Dr Brendan Comiskey.
They also claim that the bishop has had no contact with any of them, despite being aware of their experiences.
Dr Comiskey declined to answer questions put by the programme, though when doorstepped by the programme on his way to say Mass, he said that when complaints were brought to his notice he moved Father Fortune out of his parish and sent him for treatment.
Mr Colm O'Gorman, now 35 and living in London, relates how he was assaulted and raped by Father Fortune for 2½ years from the age of 14, at Poulfur, where the priest was curate from 1981.
Mr Donncha McGloin remembers how when he was 15 Father Fortune raped him in a "very brutal, brief" act in a booth used for recording religious programmes in Dublin.
Mr Pat Jackman explains how when he was 15 the priest put him through "11 hours of a constant torture ending up in a sexual act of sorts" at Poulfur.
Mr Damien McAlean from Belfast tells how he was sexually assaulted by the priest on a scouting trip there when he was 13.
Mrs Monica Fitzpatrick tells how she discovered the body of her son Peter, who had committed suicide, and remembered him telling her about Father Fortune's activities with others. She is convinced her son's death was related to the priest's behaviour.
Ms Gemma Hearne explains how when Bishop Comiskey was appointed bishop of Ferns in 1984 she went to see him about Father Fortune.
But the priest was only removed after Colm O'Gorman went to the Garda in the mid 1990s and 66 charges were made against the priest, involving eight boys.
Father Fortune committed suicide in 1999 before the court hearing took place.
Six of his victims are now suing Bishop Comiskey, the Papal Nuncio, and the Pope.
