Two nuns negotiated a ‘secular miracle’

YOU wouldn’t expect two middle-aged nuns to out bargain a senior minister and an experienced career civil servant, but that’s what the Government claims happened on the days leading up to May 16, 2002 .

This was the date when, on the eve of a general election, the state signed a legal indemnity with the Catholic Church.

For less than €128 million that institution signed over responsibility for compensating those systemically raped and abused by the clergy over the last five decades.

The taxpayer, would eventually be forced to pay out over €1 billion. As something of an extra, the perpetrators of child abuse were de facto amnesty from prosecution.

The two nuns that pulled off this secular "miracle" are Sr Elizabeth Maxwell, then the secretary general of the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI) and currently head of the northern province of the Presentation Sisters, and Sr Helena O’Donoghue leader of the Sisters of Mercy, south central province.

For days leading up to the controversial deal, the two women went into Government Buildings with briefcases packed with papers.

There they discussed over tea and biscuits how the Church and state would divvy up responsibility for the destruction of the lives of thousands of children committed into their care.

This weekend the nuns’ public relations representative said: "I believe neither are giving media interviews at this time."

However, following the inception of the deal, which provoked raised eyebrows, Sr Maxwell was much more forthcoming. She said the state "is getting very good value".

Despite the multitude of horror stories that had already leaked out of the Catholic Church industrial school system, Sr Maxwell added: "All our legal advice is that the Government has done well by getting so much from us... To give away €128m for claims that have never been seen... very few of those claims have gone to court and the likelihood is that they won’t. We’ve been more than generous."

Commenting on why the country’s largest property owner was only handing over some of its less sought after assets Sr Maxwell said: "The congregations could have realised the value of their properties in the market, but we chose to donate them instead. I don’t think we get credit for that."
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