Today I have been stung into action by one of my oldest correspondents, a man who originally came from Boyle, where I now live and who likes to be reminded of the old place. However he is getting no reminders from me this Sunday morning, as I look out of my kitchen window and watch 40mph howling westerlies blowing the heavy rain horizontally across the garden in an unimpressive 12 degrees centigrade temperature and this mid-July.
My correspondent has not liked my feeble, choleric attacks on the Salford Diocese and my alma mater, St. Bede’s College. He, I fear, is one of the old school, I suggest, and does not want the boat rocked in any way. So my subject this morning, brought on by another correspondent from British Columbia, where I, also have relatives, is ancestry.
This ex-Mancunian, but now British Columbian has briefly explained her ancestry of English ascendency, turned Irish patriotism, with solid religion both sides of the brush and always verging on celebrity status, which explains the stunning intellect that runs through all her siblings. Her ancestors volunteered for everything, the army, the priesthood, the medical profession and the IRA.
However my ancestry is far from that, we Malpi were the dumb strugglers, who never raised a voice in anger, accepted what life threw at us and just got on with it and with the small amount of education we received, made the best of our meager talent but learnt enough not to volunteer for nowt. We were people, who when told to jump, bloody well jumped but we had enough devil in us not to jump too high. Not for us posh colleges and velvet gloves, but village schools and no gloves at all and for a long time no bloody shoes either.
My maternal side I have spoken with relish about before, so I will not bore you with too much detail. The four great grand-parents from Queen’s County, or Laois as it is now, Kildare and two from Galway all lived through the Famine and carried on regardless. Their fathers and the fathers before them had lived all their lives paying unjust rents for scraps of land to absentee, in the main, landlords. These four are proof to scotch that old wives tale, that England set out, with genocide in mind, to remove the Irish nation from the face of the earth and use the vacated land as an agrarian idyll, where they could holiday in peace, drinking Red Barrel beer and riding home on the backs of asses with beautifully manicured hooves.
These four great grand-parents eventually bore stock that decided to come to England, to haunt the religious anglicans, who were by now ashamed of their previous demographic fumblings. None of the four made it much further than the first rung of the ladder. They preferred to shovel coke all day into gas retorts or wheel around fruit and vegetables by the tonne. This way they built up a thirst and met lots of people. They were there in the latter part of the 19th century, working hard and turning Manchester into one of the main armament exchanges that was channeling weapons into Ireland and making it into the boiling pot it became in the first quarter of the 20th century.
However my maternal grand-father, who survived the Fenian War, the Sudanese War, the Boer War parts 1 and 2, the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War, the Mau Mau and Cypriot Uprisings and the Suez Crisis without bothering his arse to fight in any of them, gained victory in his old age and retirement by living to the ripe old age of 84, astounding for a man who had worked at the blunt end of a gasworks all his life. He took a weekly amount from the Manchester Gas Board as a pension on retirement instead of the lump sum and gained great satisfaction from living in profit for his last nine years.
My fraternal great grand-parents were made of exactly the same metal but totally different, dissimilar in style and outlook. For a start they were of Protestant lineage, who only saw the inside of a church when it mattered ie. for marriages and deaths as opposed to my maternal side who more or less lived in church. These Protestants put their faith in hard work and kept at it. On my father’s fraternal side, they were a Cheshire species, saddlers from Poynton, on the Stockport/Macclesfield road. They were an important part of the community. A saddler in those days, was like a Mercedes dealership nowadays, only without the suits, free drinks, showrooms, money and limousines. The youngest son, my great grand-father, broke away and got himself a bit of land on the Bredbury/Denton border and began breeding shire horses for Robinson’s Brewery stables in Stockport, amongst others. He is probably the most successful commercially of my forebears, he bedded two sisters and the two families became entwined like a can of spaghetti. He died a happy man in the 1920s with his remarkable saying ringing in his ears. “There is always room for one more”.
On my father’s maternal side, I come from generations of hard rock miners, hewing scraps of tin out of the hard Cornish sub-strata. Henry Allen was married to Avis John, the daughter of a courageous Cornish woman, Grace John, courageous in as much as she had five children in her first three years of marriage. They came from Ludgvan, just outside of Penzance. When the Cornish tin mines were exhausted in the 1870s, he had two options, go to Bute in Montana, where the money was good and the danger greater or head up north to Cumberland, where seams of tin were opening up. He chose the short distance and took with him Avis and five children, stopping off for a few years on the way at Llantrisant, in South Wales, to mine iron ore and siring another three children, before settling in Arlecdon, near Whitehaven.
So there we have it, all hard workers, never put a foot out of line and never volunteered for nowt. I suppose that is what they all had in common. That must be where my life’s maxim was bred.
I notice with alarm the amount of emphasis put on this modern phenomenon people call PR. Public Relations to anybody who has been banged up for the last 40 years in one of her majesty’s penal institutions. PR is the first thing that comes to owners, managers, directors, chairpersons, bishops, and politicians minds when faced with a calamity or even just a mild hiccup.
My eyes have been drawn to it these last few weeks with the disasters taking place in and around the Pacific rim. Television pictures of these brawny men, kitted out up to the eyeballs with belts and all manner of equipment, yellow jackets and red helmets, boarding planes in the west and heading east and calling themselves Search and Rescue Teams, Above anything else it must be a very uncomfortable journey for them, wedged into their plane seats with all this life saving paraphenalia. Where it lets itself down is the fact that these scenes are taking place five or six days after the event. The poor people they are supposedly going to help, by this time, are well and truly dead, so the term Rescue can certainly be ruled out of the equation and certainly 20 or 30 men are not going to add to the efforts of the locals in the Search aspect of their title.
No, this is just a blatant PR exercise by the politicians who are not facing disaster helping themselves and those that are. Doesn’t David Cameron look good waving these multi-coloured, magnificently equipped Adonises off on their trips of mercy.
Certainly with PR being a modern science, exactness has not yet been reached, there are plenty of examples of PR going very wrong, just Google in “PR cock-ups” and you can see how it has all gone awry for a lot of these people who favour good looks rather than honesty and hard work.
So having googled PR cockups and looking at the PR cock-up of the year in Iceland, brings my mind to the Catholic Church here in England. By heavens, doesn’t the Church need a bit of good PR, and it looks as though they are achieving it with the appointment of Baroness Scotland to the Chair of the National Safeguarding Commission.
From my experience of the Safeguarding Commission in Salford the Commission is just a poor PR exercise in its infancy that has gone wrong , completely wrong because of the Bishop’s disregard for matters of abuse. The Church faced with this problem of clerical abuse a few years back and in the light of the Nolan Report of 2002, organized these Commissions in every Diocese and filled them with doctors, lawyers, policemen, social workers and priests. These appointees were of all religious persuasions, to ensure no bias and it said to the world “there you are, we have fixed the problem, look at the quality of our Commissioners”, but these Commissions, especially the one in Salford, only meet a few times a year and not everybody attends. They do not really get involved with cases. To be a Commissioner is a good career prop, they prefer a light touch rather than the nitty gritty.
The day to day running in Salford is left to a priest and a poor one at that, Fr. Barry O’Sullivan. Prison chaplain, psychopath, sycophant and liar, who thinks more of his dogs than he does of the victims of clerical abuse. He is ably assisted by the Chair of the Commission, Mr. Michael Devlin, a solicitor, and a very able man at blowing the Church’s and his own trumpet, excellent at sweeping up the disasters that his mate O’Sullivan throws around like confetti at a wedding. Just mark my words Mr. Devlin is in line for a Bene merenti medal from the Pope.
Look at the Diocesan response to the article in Tuesday’s Manchester Evening News regarding the abuse of St. Bede’s pupils by Monsignor Thomas Duggan in the 1950s and 60s.. Their response and it smacks no end of O’Sullivan, was to say that when I made the accusations against Duggan in my Preliminary Report in August 2010 they immediately went to the police. They said:-
“For the purposes Of clarity, it should be stated that when this distressing issue was raised with the Safeguarding Commission, the police were immediately informed. However since there was no documentary evidence to support any of the claims, the police have not pursued the issue”
Documentary proof! They had 47 pages of documentary evidence in my Report, what more did they want? At the meeting we had with the Commission in September 2010, Devlin spoke at length about their great work and how the police are informed straightaway. We mentioned the fact that Duggan was dead for 42 years and what would be the point. The conversation on the matter ceased and I never was contacted by a policeman. So I would suggest that the Diocesan response was a lie and just another PR exercise to show the unknowing general public how good and caring the Church is.
What you need in these Commissions are honest, intelligent and articulate people, Christian or otherwise and it strikes me that in Salford, at least, the Bishop has not achieved this and that is why I consider the appointment of Baroness Scotland, the former Attorney General, to be an improvement on what was there before, which was Bill Kilgallon, who you could say was honest but I have my doubts about his intelligence and articulacy.
Baroness Scotland could be the new broom that hopefully will sweep the uncaring dross away. But wait, I have just googled her and unfortunately she has a cemetery full of skeletons in her cupboard. Her bisexual house maid, Loloatu Tapui, who is married to lawyer, Alex Zivencovic has been jailed for eight months for breaking immigration laws and the good Baroness has been fined £5000 under legislation she helped to draw up and pass through Parliament. In fact according to the Daily Mail, her ladysmith reverted to lying in court. Baroness Scotland, when interviewed on television likened her fine and crime to a motoring offence. Some motoring offence for £5000. In court, in mitigation, she admitted that she had been under some pressure and that her mother and brother had died recently. Not a nice thing to say when you are caught bang to rights. Most of the politicians on both sides were calling for her resignation and in fact her Parliamentary aide, Stephen Hesford, resigned in disgust at her conduct.
While all this was going on, she was under investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioners for claiming out of town expenses of £170,000, while her permanent home was in central London. This woman was not just a simple money-grabbing, grubby politician, she was the Attorney General of the country, but the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, stood by her in true New Labour style. When someone enquired under the Freedom of Information Act has to whether she had a criminal record, they were told that that information was classified. It gets all the more turgid as you read, there are pages and pages of it.
So let us look at the situation again. Is Baroness Scotland, a personality, a barrister and a Catholic even, a really good peg to hang your Safeguarding Commission hat on? No she is not, because although articulate she may be, intelligent she cannot be and honest she most certainly isn’t. Another blow to the Church, the personality cult once again raising its head and falling flat on its face, a PR balls-up in a PR obsessed organization but I bet she will still be in the chair for years to come, that is how things work in this horrible society.
Almost a year to the day from when I decided to set the record straight about that cruel pederast and paedophile, Monsignor Thomas Duggan, one time Rector of St. Bede’s College in Manchester, the Manchester Evening News is going front page today. After months prevaricating and procrastinating, they have decided to grasp this anti-establishment, anti-clerical, bull by the horns and I can only guess that it is because the Guardian, the Independent and the Telegraph are showing an interest. We let them in because of Old Bedian connections, connections that proved useless. The editor and the reporter assigned to the case, although Old Bedians, had not had the experience of the man that we had and when faced with the idea of this anti-establishment barrage, decided to chicken out rather than be proper journalists. They had seen the diocesan big-wigs in all their glory, denying, obfuscating and finally accepting the fact that sexual abuse took place at the school long before there was a dictionary definition of such an act. They were actually in attendance at a meeting with these clerical word jugglers, even a young child could see the lack of quality in the ecclesiastical team, but still they did not publish, but now they are, faced with a commercial rather than an idealogical decision.
It was the middle of March 2010, with over three months blogging experience behind me that I decided to tell the story of this evil man, who in fact had died 42 years previously. Why should it need telling so long after the event? Well, because nobody would have believed us then. We all left the school disheartened by the regime and went our seperate ways in life. We never had chance of a post-mortem, we scattered round the world, almost blotting out our experiences, but at the back of our minds we had this little thing that kept reminding us of those dark days in the 1960s. Every now and then I kept hearing a story of how one or two of us had died in strange circumstances, by suicide and its two allies, drug misuse and alcohol abuse. I tried to do the mathematics and found that the number of these deaths in our cohort were far and away above national statistics. Spurred on by my surfeit of spare time that retirement had offered me and by the recent disclosures of the shocking detail of priestly sexual abuse and especially with the publication of the Murphy Report here in Ireland, I decided to give my story and what I witnessed.
I wrote a series of blog postings about Duggan, not realising the need there was out there for people, especially Old Bedians, to share my grief. It was like standing before a tsunami. I was overwhelmed with old men in their sixties and seventies pouring their hearts out about their days at Bede’s. Some blurted it out immediately, others took weeks moving from denial to certainty that misdeeds were done to their person. Most wanted it kept secret, they did not want their loved ones in and so a discipline of anonymity prevailed with only myself in the know. Some of the tales were harrowing, these men had lived with this so called disgrace all their lives and they had found it hard at times to sustain relationships. Some although abused would not even countenance a confrontation. On a good few occasions I was told to forget it, it was water under the bridge, let sleeping dogs lie and all the rest of the arguments put forward by the convinced victims who are still in denial. Some were really angry that I should be bringing this subject up after so long a time, as though these grisly recollections had a statute of limitations imposed.
Along the way, I met and was introduced to some very nice people, some who although having suffered could still stand up to it with humour, some who had been saddened all their lives, others who would change their minds every few days wavering between acceptance and denial. It was an amazing and harrowing experience for me. Of course I also met some awful characters and these were mainly on the diocesan bench and nearly all from the group of people sanctioned by the diocese to look after children and vulnerable adults, The Safeguarding Commission. At our very first meeting when they welcomed us and allowed us to record the proceedings, they stressed the need in these circumstances for openness and transparency. Yet when I published the audio of the meeting on my blog, they threatened to sue me and eventually decided to cast me off. They said they could not see me, therefore I did not exist ergo they could not deal with me. I was an “untrustworthy and unreliable advocate”.
However I had three good envoys and the Diocese trusted them and the process, after a little delay continued until the diocese admitted the three As, Acceptance that this abuse took place, Acknowledgement that it happened on their watch and Apology for the deeds done. Now this apology became a stumbling block. We wanted a form of words from the Bishop that did not mince about, the Bishop with his legal and insurance driven advisors could not bring themselves to do it. We told them time and again our purpose was not money, it was the easing of minds. Read my previous blog “I Have No Recall Of That etc” for this episode to be explained in detail. Suffice it to say that the Bishop got angry and would not budge and we decided to go ahead without the apology. The MEN said they would publish …… but they didn’t and that was over two months ago.
I have just read Keegan’s article and a more wishy-washy piece have I yet to read and it took him three months to write it. We were supposed to review and comment on the piece before publication, but no. The arsehole Keegan and his sycophantic boss are that far up the Diocese rectum that you can only see the soles of their shoes. The article concentrates on the Bishops excuse for an apology and the errant Fr. Green and is full of factual errors. You do not wonder, when Keegan has not had the grace to ring me in the five months he has been on the scene. Nowhere is there a place to comment on line, like there is with other articles and this alone smacks of underhandedness. My fears about the Evening News have been justified. As one of my daughters said recently the Evening News is a moribund rag.
I feel for the victims, there is no place to comment and for new men who have yet to contact us there is no information in the piece to enable them. I am so annoyed and if Keegan was here now he would get the full weight of my fist. He is not a journalist, just a diocesan clerk. So the fight goes on. I am disgusted with the press, with the way they have handled the Hollie Greig case in Scotland and now with the way the Evening News have made a polite cough instead of an almighty sneeze.
All the above I posted at noon on 15th March, an hour later I had an indignant Mr Keegan on the phone telling me that himself and O’Neil were not in the pocket of the diocese and that what he had written was a hard hitting piece. I tend to believe him when he says that, but acceptance of that fact downgrades them even more as journalists when all they can write is the tat that I have just read. He said it was a powerful story and somebody or some organization would possibly take it on from there. Why could he and his journal not do that.
He said he could not put a comment section to the article because of legal problems but the Diocese in their own tedious way had accepted that everything in my report was correct. O’Sullivan, the safeguarding priest had known about Duggan’s behaviour for 23 years. Why can there not be a debate? He came up with a lame excuse as to why it had taken three months to write 500 words, in fact he sunk lower in my estimstion, but I do believe now he is not a diocesan employee. I now know he is just a lousy journalist, his article is still factually incorrect and it rankles when he did not have the decency to interview me about my report which started the whole thing off. He soon contacted me, within the hour in fact, when his feelings were hurt.
My last words are for the victims known and not known and in fact those victims who are still in denial. This campaign was for them and them alone, not for Paul Malpas or the Evening News and certainly not for the Safeguarding Commission who have behaved abominably in this matter. At the end of the day they have been let down by all and so will continue with their torment.
Following on from my posting of 9th November entitled “The Safeguarding Commission of the Salford Diocese; Has the Inquisition Returned”, I continue the saga of the outing of the infamous Monsignor Thomas Duggan, one time Rector of St. Bede’s College in Manchester. By its nature and having promised not to publish anything on the blog until the campaign was complete, this final blog on the subject of the outing of Duggan has developed into a diary of the last three and a half months. As I was no longer at the coal-face and now was relying on snip-bits of e-mails, this blog, I think, shows up my disillusion at not being in the driving seat and having to listen to the second hand meanderings of a Church that is not in control. Enjoy!
As a preamble, I just want everybody to know that the start of this piece commenced in early November 2010, but before I published it I was acting on my promise to wait and let the action take its own course. However today I have been told that the Salford Diocese is just pissing us about and my patience has worn thin. This whole piece has to become a diary of events until denouement day.
DIARY ON 8 NOVEMBER 2010,
I drafted the following “The next fretful meeting with the Safeguarding Commission was resurrected for 5th November, I was persona non grata now, after all the work had been done. Three good men and true had been appointed to meet the Safeguarding Commission while they discussed the “serious and sensitive” information that the catholic panel had unearthed and which had proved beyond doubt that some awful things had happened at St. Bede’s College in the 1950s and 60s. This information was so “serious and sensitive” as you recall, that the Commission had requested that I fly over to Manchester to digest it. This was of course before Fr. Barry O’Sullivan, that sycophantic, psychopathic bully, who is the Coordinator of the Safeguarding Commission, had fallen out with me for being an “incompetent and untrustworthy advocate”.
So with a heavy heart and a mind full of questions which I would not now have a chance to ask, I flew to Manchester on 3rd November. Without the meeting with the Commission, I had still two important rendez-vous to cover with people heading along the same tortuous path. On 4th November I met a legal bod who had been fighting the Salford Diocese for years and knew every trick they could possibly play. After catching up with recent correspondence on the matter, he told me that the Church had become so immune to allegation and criticism, that in cases like these, they plead guilty to nearly everything without any internal investigation. This immediately stops the case, they apologise and the whole incident is forgotten about within weeks. It is damage limitation of a high order. He went on to say that he forecast, that at the meeting the following day with the Commission, they will immediately accept Duggan’s guilt and put procedures in place to apologise. How right he turned out to be.
I was there at 1.45pm outside St. Chad’s Church on 5th November and watched the three sacrificial lambs walk into the Commission’s web to hear of this “serious and sensitive” information. To their surprise, expecting serried ranks of Safeguarders, only O’Sullivan, that mentally impaired rottweiler was there, sitting in lonely welcoming majesty at his highly polished antique French dining table. He would not allow any audio recording and there was nobody there taking minutes.
After pleasantries which slipped through his pearl white incisors like machine gun bullets, O’Sullivan held his hands up and admitted that Paul Malpas’ Preliminary Report was good enough for the Diocese to accept, that Duggan’s abuse of pupils at St. Bede’s was real and it was of a “sadistic physical and sexual nature” and was completely unacceptable and “caused the premature death of many from drug or alcohol abuse or suicide.” O’Sullivan went on to say that Mr. Malpas’ work had been invaluable and he (O’Sullivan) had been waiting a long time for evidence such as this to be brought forward, having heard various stories about Duggan “over the years from other priests on the golf course and during retreats.” Why? Do they not act if they think that one of their own is abusing? Why have they to wait for a layman to complain? What has changed O’Sullivan’s view of me, from being an “incompetent and untrustworthy advocate” two weeks previously to say my work was “invaluable” at the meeting?
When one of the prosecuting trio asked what was the “serious and sensitive” information that the Famous Five had uncovered, O’Sullivan said in peremptory tone “I have no recall of that”. Now with this lie, his sole attendance and the non-recording of the meeting, it would seem to me that this holy man had broken a few rules. By this time even a newborn lamb would have started to get suspicious but the meeting was quickly moved on to discuss the fact that a piece would now appear in the Manchester Evening News, recording the abuse. This was to be followed by an apology from the Bishop, on behalf of the Salford Diocese and O’Sullivan intimated that the Bishop would be willing to meet a delegation of victims at a place to be decided, to offer his own personal apology. I have a copy of the report of the meeting which all four attendees signed up to by e-mail the following day, so I am certain of what I am reporting.
This talk of meeting victims is rather strange because I am the only person who knows who all these victims are and I now do not exist in the Commission’s eyes, so who the bishop is going to meet is mind boggling. Myself and one of the trio are supposed to have full editorial control over the article in the MEN but O’Sullivan wanted his name and contact details appended to give succour to any new victims who came forward as a result of the article. I would rather throw any new victim into a lion’s cage than subject them to the therapeutic expertise of O’Sullivan. His people skills are abysmal.
The managing editor of the Manchester Evening News, and his ace cub reporter, are both Old Bedians who served their time after Duggan’s time and my feeling is that they might not be the crusading journalists I would hope for, but could well be more, members of Manchester’s establishment. As Old Bedians, they may not like to put as much as a shoelace out of line. We will see.
It appears we have won a victory over the Salford Diocese but of course this story is not yet out . The trio are convinced, but if this is a victory, I would not like to suffer defeat. The acrid taste of shite and bitterness emanating from the back of my throat indicates skullduggery of high proportion. Our representative on his first meeting with the ace cub reporter, was told that there is no story without the Bishop’s apology and there is now some doubt as to whether this is forthcoming.
My fears are confirmed that we are not dealing with crusading journalists but those in the pocket of the Catholic Church. But there is a story. It is in my Preliminary Report, the report that O’Sullivan thought so invaluable and anybody who wants to read it can, by posting a comment on this blog. I will send the report to you by e-mail, read and devour it, to see what a horrible man Thomas Duggan was. I will ensure anonymity in this process so do not be worried.”
26NOVEMBER 2010
Well that was my piece written two weeks ago and since then no progress. Last week O’Sullivan, the slimy toad who calls himself a coordinator said the bishop would not give an apology whilst I was still part of the process and I was persuaded to write to him for the third time to explain that I was out of it. This whole business of excluding me makes me wonder at their thought processes. I was the one who had made the allegations, so by any meaningful law, I should be the one to be addressed, certainly not Fred Bloggs who had come in at the last minute and knew hardly anything about the case.
By saying this I have nothing against the three worthy advocates but their position was untenable. O’Sullivan could and did do what he liked with them, take for example his sole attendance and his refusal to allow any recording of the meeting. Since then The Coordinator has gone off on holiday, the MEN reporter has said that he has not been able to contact O’Sullivan, this supposed man of God, which I find strange, because whenever I have e-mailed him in the past, he has replied immediately, albeit with bile and lies.
I wonder how hard this ace cub reporter is working? Would you not think if he is compiling a story and it is now three weeks since he received this commission, that he would have contacted me? I am the only one in the world who knows the full details of this case. The latest news is that we might have something in writing by Christmas eight weeks after the agreement. Are they hoping this apology if it comes will get lost in the abysmal reporting we always get at this time of year? We are being pissed about by an unworthy organization calling themselves the one holy catholic and apostolic church which seems to me to mean that they are the only religion world wide trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes while saying that the Gospels, the apostles and the pope are colluding with them.
Oh! by the way in all this meandering and shuffling, lying and procrastinating, illegality and obfuscation, they, ie. the one holy catholic and apostolic church seems to have forgotten all about the poor victims of this unholy mess and they are supposed to be their raison d’etre in these matters. I suppose they think that these victims have waited 50 or 60 years, what’s another 10. I suspect that they hope they might all be dead by then, so they will not want an apology.
But wait! Just as my finger was hovering over the publish button and after two weeks of inactivity by the Commission an e-mail comes through from Manchester, from one of the trio, attaching an e-mail from the blundering O’Sullivan of Salford which I append here:-
“Hi Mike,
I’ve had several meetings recently, with a view to facilitating a meeting about your proposed article. All those who I’ve approached are keen to meet with you and the other delegates. Are you free on Friday 10th Dec at 2.00pm – here at St Chad’s? Those representing the Diocese are:
Mgr. Michael Quinlan. (Chair of St Bede’s Governors.)
Michael Devlin, (who perhaps should chair the meeting).
Ed Nally, Solicitor and representative of the Diocesan Trustees
Fr Barry O’Sullivan
Fr John Flynn. (Diocesan Communications Officer.)
How does this sound to you? It might seem top heavy, but it’s an indication of how seriously the Diocese are taking the issues you have raised.
Regards, Barry”
Note the wheedling tone; he once sent me an e-mail like that, before I told him a few home truths about openness and transparency and certainly signing off with “Barry” grates, but he seems to have learnt manners by asking rather than demanding. He is bringing out the big guns when it comes to the proposed article in the MEN. It looks as though they are demanding editorial control and not leaving it to Mike and myself. He talks of how seriously the Diocese are taking these issues that were raised. They are no longer issues or allegations but fact; the blundering fool O’Sullivan signed off to that on 6th November. Quinlan is next to Brain, the bishop, in diocesan thinking, a skilled canon lawyer, he will make sure nothing is said against the Church or the School. Devlin is a master of chairman control, he will ensure the meeting goes in the Diocese’s favour. Nally with his traditionalist views and professional mien will back up Devlin and ensure that the diocese will get more than fair play. O’Sullivan will be O’Sullivan, a fawning fart who will contribute nothing. Flynn is not the Press Officer for nothing. A skilled operator with the media, it is a pity there are not a few ladies present who have been known to have distracted him in the past. It is certainly top heavy to ensure that the Diocese has control and for nothing else I pity our prosecuting three.
Again it is a Friday afternoon 26th November and I am dallying over the keyboard wondering whether to publish or not, wondering what is the point of this whole charade, when I get an e-mail from one of the Manchester trio. The meeting called, to presumably talk about the meeting of the 5th November and the MEN article, has been put back until 17th December and another year goes by. Over 44 years since Duggan last pulled down his zip at Bede’s. It looks as though the idiot O’Sullivan overstepped his mark, it seems as though he cannot go around agreeing that Duggan was a pervert, only the bishop or his representative can say that and it seems that O’Sullivan is neither of those. Therefore the agreements reached have been rescinded and we are back to pre-5th November. That meeting was a non-event but that was obvious when only O’Sullivan was there. Our trio have been duped and hopefully they have learned a lesson. So it is all back to square one for the 17th December and in the meantime the trail is getting colder.
One bright spot is that an eminent solicitor, well versed in the riddles of the Church, has offered to help, having read the correspondence and the Preliminary Report. When we started this exercise, money was not the aim, but I have been so pissed off with the Diocese and their treatment of me, the victims and now their treatment of the trio, I think anything goes. We will open the door, step into the street and see where it leads us as November comes to a close and Santy is on his way.
DECEMBER 2010
We wait patiently for the 17th to arrive, we are all getting anxious, we have no patience left. We think the Diocese is pissing us about. O’Sullivan is running true to form, one minute all over us, next minute playing hardball. Then how quickly the thing changes. The three get permission to bring Keegan, the MEN man with them. They, the Diocese, want him to understand how they would like his piece to go. To us it means they cannot retreat from their position with an independent witness. At the meeting our three stalwarts are there with Keegan in tow, for the Diocese, Monsignor Quinlan rooting for the Bishop and the School, a young solicitor representing the Diocesan trustees, Father Flynn of the Diocesan Press Office and Devlin and O’Sullivan from the Safeguarding Commission. There was little discussion, they immediately accepted the results of the November meeting. They were more interested in the direction that the newspaper article will take.
They have rolled over too easily, there was not enough in my Preliminary Report for them to take this position. It is purely damage limitation. There is obviously something a lot more damaging and obviously we are not going to find out about it from them. The “serious and sensitive information” that O’Sullivan had in October and required me to come over from Ireland to hear , will not be aired as Sullivan has now ” no recall of that”. Our representatives are so pleased with their gains they did not bother to pursue this theme. It is a victory of sorts but not good enough for me. The greatest victory was theirs in getting me out of the way.
The newspaper article will appear in January alongside the Bishop’s apology, the real truth will be buried, people will have forgotten before February. Things will go on as before. My legal eagle, so used to the dodgy activity of the Diocese, was absolutely right. However I have other irons in the fire that will make the Diocesan sphincter twitch and let us hope so. In fact it needs to more than twitch it needs a touch of the Edward II treatment, ie a thrust of the red hot poker up and far past those sphincter muscles.
5th JANUARY 2011
I really need some hard evidence of what happened at the meeting on 17th December. All I have received so far is a quick telephone call on the 18th December as I was heading off to Manchester for the Christmas . The lads who have helped in this campaign, lads who live in all corners of the world, lads, whose lives have been affected in no small way by Duggan’s dire deeds, want the truth, they want the detail and they deserve it now. So after a series of e-mails on the 19th December, 22nd December, 23rd December and a last despairing one on the 4th January, I received a reply. Even our side have forgotten their own. I was after a fully documented report of the meeting to pass on.
What I got was this:-” Paul Ill write more asap … theze ipads are amjoke. The meeting was attwnded by Paddy Pete and myself. Lawyer, PR person and two other officals fromthendioces including BOS were ther. it was minuted … nomminutes tomsend u as yet. Mike Keegan also ther from the men and the monsignor who is head of Bedes govnors aggreement finally eeached on the. three A s and nothing less apology to be printed infull as part of amlarger article.
They were worried about insurance but I told them our concern was justice not insurance. concern also raised about living relatives of TD… again I told them it was not our concen. A few days ago a draft letter frome bishop came to me It was fine except that it implied that abuse appeared to have taken place under Duggan I took thenletter to pieces and sent it back written as qe want it ie that abuse of a mental, physical and sexual nature did take place and was carried out by Duggan over the pwriod of his reignt my a,endment and agrees with everytihng I’ve said The lettwr is back at tne palace for rre-drafting and I should have a final copy friday. (7th January) I will, once I have at, send ypu copies of everything in luding … if I get them… the minutes of the. eeting.. sorrynthis is somscrappy and late but I,ve. hsd famiky her from 17 th. dec until today cheers”
Not what I expected but at least it was something and on translation there was just about enough information for me to pass on. This information seems to have been given begrudgingly and nearly three weeks after the event. One thing does strike me though; I was promised editorial control but so far the Bishop’s draft apology has been commented and edited without my seeing it. Would any of you say I was being frozen out, because I certainly think so? The MEN piece is near fruition and Keegan has not had the grace to even telephone me about it. On what facts are they basing the article? My three friends in Manchester only know about their own circumstances. Is that enough on which to base the piece? I feel totally isolated and useless. A good lesson for anybody embarking on the quest for openness and transparency. Do not record the truth, do not tell it as it was, give out useless snippets but most certainly do not give any information to anybody with an inside need for this opaqueness that is openness and transparency.
Some people would think it was diplomacy but it strikes me that it is more a case of “it’s my ball now and I’m not playing”. All my three friends can say is do not publish your blog, wait until the Evening News has had their scoop and it is all out there for people to comment on. In spite of my absolute disgust at the way I have been treated, first of all by the Diocese and now by my so called allies, I still feel bounden by my promise not to comment until it is all over, but that time will have to come soon because this subject is controlling my life and I cannot let that happen for much longer.
January 14 2011
Instead of positive news from Manchester I get a plaintive telephone call from one of the three. The second draft of the bishop’s apology has arrived and except for a few alterations from the first draft it is still a wishy washy attempt at apology. It is being sent to me and I hope to have it on Saturday and will then comment. It does seem, according to my Manchester man, that the insurers have been getting to places that even Duggan could not reach. The Diocese are slowly but surely retreating from their position of December 17th, our only hope is that the MEN reporter was at the meeting, but both him and O’Sullivan are remaining strangely quiet. Perhaps my darkest thoughts are about to display themselves. I will comment further on receipt of this e-mail.
Two days elapse and still no e-mail regarding the Bishop’s stance. I send off a reminder with a few more questions. Straight back came the reply or six of them. What was he waiting for? My friend was a little annoyed saying that he could not sit by the computer all the time. He was a busy man. He took on this role without any discussion, he should not have done so if he was that busy. He was looking for personal glory, the victims could wait. However grumpiness aside he sent through the Bishop’s first draft apology.
“I am deeply shocked and saddened by the complaints from some pupils of St. Bede’s College which have come to our Safeguarding Commission. They cover a period of time from the 1950s to the mid 1960s when St. Bede’s was a Diocesan school. From the disclosures we have now received, it appears that the late Monsignor Duggan was guilty of abusive behaviour which has no place within the Catholic Church. I acknowledge and am deeply sorry for the pain and distress that has been caused to those affected. I hold them in my thoughts and prayers. Rt. Rev. T J Brain Bishop of Salford”
Our man wrote back saying the apology was a little weak considering at the last meeting everyone agreed that physical, mental and sexual abuse by Duggan did take place, not”appears” to have taken place and he suggested a different third and fourth sentence viz:- “From the disclosures we have now received, we acknowledge that the late Monsignor Duggan was guilty of abuse that was in its nature, physical, sexual and mental. This abuse whilst neither widespread or institutional was nevertheless abuse and as such, as no place within the Catholic Church.” He went on to say that worded like that, would give some comfort to the victims. Back came the immediate reply from the Bishop angrily marked “final statement”.
“I am shocked and saddened by the complaints from some former pupils of St. Bede’s College which as been brought to the atttention of our Safeguarding Commission. The complaints have been made against the late Monsignor Thomas Duggan and relate to a period of time from the 1950s to the mid 1960s, when St. Bede’s was a Diocesan school. Although it is not suggested that there was a culture of institutional abuse at St. Bede’s, nevertheless the abusive behaviour that has been reported has no place within the Catholic Church. I acknowledge and am deeply sorry for the pain and distress reported to have been suffered by those affected. Rt. Rev. Terence Brain Bishop of Salford” There was a post scriptum saying that anyone with concerns or disclosures about Duggan should contact Bazza. I think they would get better treatment if they contacted me.
This second attempt at apology is a joke. Brain has hardened his position; I suppose he does not like being asked for a rethink. He is no longer “deeply” shocked and he no longer holds the victims in his “thoughts and prayers” and he certainly is not willing to mention “physical, sexual and mental abuse”, but he has kindly given Duggan a first name. My Manchester friend is at his wit’s end and he asked me again not to report any of this ( twice in three days, why does he think I might break my word?) He said “please keep all of this out of the public domain until we have the piece published – at the moment I still have a reasonable relationship with the Diocese – if any of this gets on to your blog or the web we’ll lose impact and Keegan may not publish”
If listening to and reading trickiness from these evil holy men is part of a reasonable relationship, God help him. He has been trussed like a chicken. A strong Keegan is his only hope and I doubt Keegan can lift a tin of Vaseline. They have still not received the minutes of the 17th December meeting nor are they likely to.
I sent him an e-mail in condolence “Mike, I am so sorry for interrupting your main work but you did promise information and I am grateful for the e-mails you did forward to me. I think you have gone as far as you can with the Salford Diocese. There is no point in playing the gentleman with that bunch of rogues. Forget them and get Keegan to write a piece on the unholy mess he has witnessed. If he is strong enough he can and will do it. It might be the making of him. Certainly do not have any contact with that greasy, womanizing scumbag X (a diocesan priest whose name I have deleted in the hope he might have more liaisons with the fairer sex), he is probably as bad a person as any of them. By the way I was promised a hand in the editorial control of the MEN article, so far I have heard nothing. Am I to assume that my persona non grata status applies to our side of the fence; also you keep stressing every time we are in contact not to put any of this in my blog and I keep telling you I wont. So far I have not said a word about events from 4th November 2010 onwards and I will not, you have my word, for what value you put on that. Please move this on as quickly as you can because I and my list of victims are fast losing interest in what the Salford Diocese might or might not do. As I have said before there are more ways of skinning a cat than engaging in niceties with a rotting carcase. Paul”
He writes back saying that they are going ahead with the piece and as soon as it is in draft form he will send it over for my comments.
Our man in Manchester now wants a list of victims for the MEN article. As this compromises our mantra of anonymity I tell him that I will canvas my list to understand their feelings on the matter. After I send off the circular, he comes back and tells me a number will do, not a list of names and criticizes me once more for sending out confidential information. With the request to drop anonymity, I had also given the victims the Bishop’s two attempts at apology. To a man, disgusted with the Diocese, they wrote back not wanting to play a part in this charade. I have to agree. I wrote back to Manchester that the confidentialities I gave out were to the victims. Without them we would be nowhere. They need to know everything. The Manchester Dude wrote back apologising.
It was a good exercise. I know how the victims feel, I also now know how the three in Manchester have approached their task. There will be no further passing of information, persona non grataism works both ways. Let them make up their own story, I will not be part of their connivancies. We will see what the near future brings but my word as certainly got a time limit.
31 JANUARY2011
It is now the last day of January and footballers are being sold for hundreds of millions of pounds and yet our Manchester staff do not seem able to put the article together. It should have been written last week but still no sign. The article at best will be no more than a thousand words. It could be laid out in finished form in a couple of hours but something is holding it back.
Then an e-mail in the early afternoon of the 31st January. Our man is delighted. He has persuaded Keegan to put the following few sentences into the MEN article. “At each and every meeting we had with the Safeguarding Commission it was acknowledged that sexual, physical and mental abuse had been carried out by Monsignor Duggan during his rectorship at St Bede’s College. It was also accepted that the abuse took place when St Bede’s was a diocesan school and was therefore under their watch. It was also acknowledged that the abuse was fairly common knowledge and was the subject of gossip amongst the priests ” on the golf course and in the locker rooms.” You can imagine how disappointed I and the victims of the abuse are at the very guarded apology from the bishop. It seems that the diocese is more concerned with their insurers than they are with giving some element of closure to the victims. From the very beginning we stated that compensation was not the motivating force behind our coming forward. More than fifty past pupils have come forward and more contact me as the days go by. Only this morning an old Baedian working in Beijing texted me to say that he wished to be included amongst the victims. All we are asking for is that the truth be out and the diocese accept that a wicked man took advantage of his position to abuse the boys in his care. Again all I can do on behalf of the abused is say how sorry we are that the Bishop did not make a fuller and more Christian apology.”
Indeed he should feel delighted these few words have far more impact than an insurance driven mealy mouthed apology from a bishop. If it gets published in the article it seems I might owe Mr Keegan a little apology. It seems he is at the least monorchid, he might yet have both in place. My one criticism is that our Manchester man tells me of another Old Bedian who has contacted him regarding Duggan’s abuse. I am supposed to be running a data-base of all these chaps but our man steadfastly refuses to pass on the details. This is the fourth or fifth victim he has dug up but still no detail. Perhaps there are now two data-bases with statemented accounts from victims but somehow or other I doubt it. Some people wallow in disorder, I prefer order and detail. A small thing perhaps, but when facing the deviousness of the Diocese , you need to have something more than chaos in your armoury.
I am happy with the development. I understand the article is not for discussion by the Diocese, but out of politeness they will be shown the piece. Keegan is supposed to be contacting Flynn, the Diocesan Press Officer, to see if the Bishop’s second attempt at apology is the last and when that is confirmed the piece will be circulated and approved before going to press. I have always said that ignoring the Diocese is a better ploy than rubbing along with them. Keegan has now seen their devious behaviour at first hand and should now be emboldened to write a robust article.
14 FEBRUARY 2011
Another week passes and we are well into February and no news from Manchester. I send a gentle hinting e-mail and get an instant reply. Keegan has been too busy with his football stories, end of the transfer window, Torres and Carroll, etc, etc. If I gave this excuse to the lads on the list they would be round to see Keegan and they would stick the Premier League and all its footballers up where the sun does not shine. At least we know how seriously he ranks our story. Somewhere between Stockport County’s laundary bills and Barnet Town’s debtors list at the bottom of League Two.
I cannot continue to call the wankers in the Diocese team when our whole defence suffers from the same aberration. It is now 14th February and still no news, 101 days since O’Sullivan agreed that the abuse took place and 59 days since the hierarchy met and agreed same and still no article in the Evening News. If I was in Manchester I would be cracking some skulls. For an ace cub reporter, Keegan seems to write in slow motion. My memoir of 125,000 words took me four weeks and this particular episode about Duggan, which was possibly 2000 words, I wrote between the fall of England’s 4th and 5th wickets in Adelaide in December 2006.
I can no longer take the procrastinations of the sporty Keegan and his masters, the MEN. They are part of the establishment and the blow if it comes at all will be like the purring of a cat and not the roar of a lion. I send the following e-mail to my Manchester ambassador.
“Mike, Another week has gone by and still nothing from Keegan. What is he doing writing a book on the subject? I promised you months ago that I would write nothing about our tribulations with the Diocese until the MEN piece was written, but it is now 101 days since that meeting on 5th November and 59 days since your pre-Christmas meeting with the Diocesan big-wigs. My patience is running out and the list of victims are slowly writing in, washing their hands of the whole messy business. I have thought all along that the MEN are part of Manchester’s establishment and I do not think I am far wrong. Could you please tell Mr Keegan that he has until Friday 18th February to produce something because I will be publishing my long and many times postponed and overdue blog of my take on this disasterous affair on Saturday. Saturday the 19th February is my 65th birthday and I intend my dotage to be unimpaired by either Duggan, the Evening Rag or the Salford Diocese.
Paul
ps Thanks for all your hard work in this campaign.”
I received an e-mail by return saying our ace cub wotsit was just returning from holiday in Kenya and that if I publish he might pull the piece. I wrote back:- “Mike, I could not give two flying fucks if he has been to the moon. The article is the thing and just let him know the deadline and get him to act like a proper journalist. He is probably better at pulling his wire than the non-existant piece.
Paul”
Truthfully speaking I have lost all interest in the campaign against Duggan and the machinations of the Salford Diocese. Perhaps that is what they wanted all along. They and their servants the MEN have neutered me. I no longer care; give Duggan the George Cross for his work in the Catholic Community, but there is one thing for certain I know, Duggan was a perverted sadist and a Catholic priest and that knowledge is my Valentine to the Catholic Church.
Given at the end of my 65th year at Wooden Bridge, Boyle, Co. Roscommon to encourage those with a stronger disposition than mine to take up the cudgel and batter the decaying God Squad that calls itself the Catholic Church. Might I just add that all the references, slurs, innuendos, opprobrium, impugnities and truths contained in this blog are mine and mine alone, but I hope and know they are seconded by that strong and resilient band of men scattered world wide, the victims of Monsignor Thomas Duggan.
19 FEBRUARY 2011
I do not feel a day older than the day Duggan kicked me out of Bede’s in late June 1963 except for the fact that there is not a part of my body that is pain free. 65 years old and no birthday presents only a kindly letter from the Queen of England or possibly her representative telling me that for my labours on this earth she is going to award me £220 per week until the day I die, with a rise in April of £12 per week no less. Benevolence is not yet a forgotten virtue.
To return to the subject, there has been a twist in the tail of the entrails of Duggan. An e-mail from Manchester:- “just heard from Keegan that he’s given Salford until tomorrow to respond then he’s publishing. Probably Monday next week” What as prompted this outpouring of enthusiasm on the part of our ace cub thingamajig? It could not have been my anxiety.
I replied in haste. ” Mike, having recovered slightly from my pent up frustration of the beginning of the week and having taken wise and learned opinion from one who has followed this case with a professional interest from Day 1 and who is neither victim nor Old Bedian, I was about to text you today saying I was holding back on my threat of publishing my blog. However your news has now pre-empted all that. What has caused this energy by the MEN man? What is he waiting a response about? It certainly looks as though he is not seeking a response from me, as promised. However thanks for all your good work in this matter and I hope that my unfortunate aggression has not upset our mutual politesse. He has got until next Wednesday.
Paul”
Now I am off for a slice of well earned birthday cake and we will see what next week brings. Is the twist in this tail of this tale never to be untied. Well it seems there was more twists. The day unfolded with a hurricane of e-mails as my relationship with our Manchester man developed into mediocrity. The Diocese had been given the ultimatum that if there was no response by 5.30pm on Friday 18th February, Keegan’s piece will be published in Monday evening’s paper, 21st February. There was no response and so presumably it is all systems go, but we will see.
My man is setting himself up for his picture in the paper alongside that of Duggan and he has offered to take all the plaudits that are available. My Wednesday date is still on however although I have been told in no uncertain terms to stop threatening my good ambassadors, as now I am a nobody and the three are the heroes of the hour. That really hurts after all the hundreds of hours I have put in for the campaign, but as the Kerry man says “what harm”
I will finish off with a poem sent to me by that famous musician, comedian, raconteur and poet, Mike Harding, who all those years ago was at school with me. It gives a vivid picture of the darkness and horror that was St. Bede’s during Duggan’s dictatorship.
“Come in” he said, and the great oak door
Of the web, slid open with a solid moan.
On smooth panelled walls, brass hinges, oh those nuns
Kept it well burnished and well oiled.
Silent sisters with soft cloths
They fluttered down the corridor, silent, holy moths.
Outside the dying September sun
Spun bars of fading light into the long
Dark tunnel thick with the smell of flowers
And polish and righteousness.
Introibo ad altare Dei,
The small boy took his small white soul
Into the cold black night, At the heart of the iceberg
Where the spider in the soutane
And the cummerbund lived.
And still the nuns polished and cleaned
And still the handmaidens of the Christ
Worked on to shine the brass and the woodwork
And the silence in the room was as deep as any sea.
Forty years on the boy, the rock of shame
Still hanging from his neck, lays down
His head upon the rivers pillow,
And finally sleeps his way towards the healing light.
In memory of Anthony Heap from Levenshulme, old boy of St. Roberts Primary School in Longsight and St. Bede’s College in Whalley Range who was found dead in the River Irwell all those years ago, many years after he had been abused mentally, physically and sexually by Monsignor Thomas Duggan, Rector of St. Bedes College, 1950-1966.