Mary Raftery’s work exposed many abusers who had been protected by the Church, writes Andrew Madden.
I WAS shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the death of broadcaster and investigative journalist Mary Raftery.
I’d known for some time that Mary had been unwell and was very much hoping that she would recover, but sadly that was not to be.
Although her career had started years earlier, I first became aware of Mary Raftery when the States of Fear documentary series, which she had made, was broadcast in 1999. States of Fear revealed the extent of physical and sexual abuse suffered by children in Irish industrial schools and residential institutions and its broadcast forced the then government to set up the Commission of Inquiry into Child Abuse presided over initially by Justice Mary Laffoy and subsequently by Justice Sean Ryan.
I’d known for some time that Mary had been unwell and was very much hoping that she would recover, but sadly that was not to be.
Although her career had started years earlier, I first became aware of Mary Raftery when the States of Fear documentary series, which she had made, was broadcast in 1999. States of Fear revealed the extent of physical and sexual abuse suffered by children in Irish industrial schools and residential institutions and its broadcast forced the then government to set up the Commission of Inquiry into Child Abuse presided over initially by Justice Mary Laffoy and subsequently by Justice Sean Ryan.
The work of the Child Abuse Commission led to the publication of the Ryan Report, which in turn set out in detail its findings in regard to the allegation that thousands of children had been physically and sexually abused in schools and institutions run by religious orders.
The year prior to the broadcast of States of Fear, Catholic priest Father Ivan Payne had been convicted for the sexual abuse of nine boys, including me, over a 20-year period from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s. I had already gone public myself in 1995 about my childhood experiences at the hands of Ivan Payne and I started campaigning for an inquiry into how allegations of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests were handled as it was by then obvious, from both the Ivan Payne case and the Brendan Smyth case, that both priests had continued sexually abusing children long after Catholic Church authorities had been in receipt of allegations about them. How many other priests had Catholic bishops covered up for and where were they now seemed a reasonable question to be asking at that time. Not too many people were interested in the answer.
For four years my efforts were in vain until early in 2002, when Mary Raftery approached me about a Prime Time Special she was making with journalist Mick Peelo. She had been investigating the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin and had uncovered that Catholic bishops had knowledge of allegations of child sexual abuse against several priests and the evidence suggested these allegations had been covered up and those priests had been left, like Ivan Payne, in positions where they had access to more children.
Mary knew much of the detail of my story but asked me to share as much of it as I felt able to with her, which I did. I found her easy to talk to and I knew from her reaction that she understood the significance of what I was trying to do and she shared my concerns about children being sexually abused by priests that the Catholic Church was protecting. The broadcast of that Prime Time Special, Cardinal Secrets, changed everything.
Within days the then Justice Minister Michael McDowell announced that the Government would set up an inquiry into how allegations of child sexual abuse against priests in the Archdiocese of Dublin were handled. That inquiry led to the publication of the Murphy Report in November 2009. Two hugely significant pieces of work from Mary Raftery, States of Fear and Cardinal Secrets caused an Irish Government to eventually rise to its responsibilities and investigate an issue it clearly wanted to ignore, and an organisation it didn’t want to upset. Without Mary’s determination so much of what we know about our collective past would still remain hidden.
We see from the Ryan and Murphy Reports, and indeed the Cloyne and Ferns Reports, that very few of those priests and religious who physically or sexually abused children were ever charged with criminal offences and certainly no bishop who concealed such abuse ever saw the inside of a courtroom for acts of cover up, which left child molesters and rapists with access to more children in new parishes. And so, for too many survivors, having those reports on the public record is the only justice they have ever received.
Mary Raftery contributed hugely to helping survivors receive at least that level of justice: the Ryan and Murphy reports are part of the public record of this country and will remain there and continue to inform us for many years to come.
Mary was instrumental in helping many people, including me, as we sought to expose the truth about what the Catholic Church and others knew about the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in Ireland.
The year prior to the broadcast of States of Fear, Catholic priest Father Ivan Payne had been convicted for the sexual abuse of nine boys, including me, over a 20-year period from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s. I had already gone public myself in 1995 about my childhood experiences at the hands of Ivan Payne and I started campaigning for an inquiry into how allegations of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests were handled as it was by then obvious, from both the Ivan Payne case and the Brendan Smyth case, that both priests had continued sexually abusing children long after Catholic Church authorities had been in receipt of allegations about them. How many other priests had Catholic bishops covered up for and where were they now seemed a reasonable question to be asking at that time. Not too many people were interested in the answer.
For four years my efforts were in vain until early in 2002, when Mary Raftery approached me about a Prime Time Special she was making with journalist Mick Peelo. She had been investigating the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin and had uncovered that Catholic bishops had knowledge of allegations of child sexual abuse against several priests and the evidence suggested these allegations had been covered up and those priests had been left, like Ivan Payne, in positions where they had access to more children.
Mary knew much of the detail of my story but asked me to share as much of it as I felt able to with her, which I did. I found her easy to talk to and I knew from her reaction that she understood the significance of what I was trying to do and she shared my concerns about children being sexually abused by priests that the Catholic Church was protecting. The broadcast of that Prime Time Special, Cardinal Secrets, changed everything.
Within days the then Justice Minister Michael McDowell announced that the Government would set up an inquiry into how allegations of child sexual abuse against priests in the Archdiocese of Dublin were handled. That inquiry led to the publication of the Murphy Report in November 2009. Two hugely significant pieces of work from Mary Raftery, States of Fear and Cardinal Secrets caused an Irish Government to eventually rise to its responsibilities and investigate an issue it clearly wanted to ignore, and an organisation it didn’t want to upset. Without Mary’s determination so much of what we know about our collective past would still remain hidden.
We see from the Ryan and Murphy Reports, and indeed the Cloyne and Ferns Reports, that very few of those priests and religious who physically or sexually abused children were ever charged with criminal offences and certainly no bishop who concealed such abuse ever saw the inside of a courtroom for acts of cover up, which left child molesters and rapists with access to more children in new parishes. And so, for too many survivors, having those reports on the public record is the only justice they have ever received.
Mary Raftery contributed hugely to helping survivors receive at least that level of justice: the Ryan and Murphy reports are part of the public record of this country and will remain there and continue to inform us for many years to come.
Mary was instrumental in helping many people, including me, as we sought to expose the truth about what the Catholic Church and others knew about the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in Ireland.
Mary understood that the Church’s concealment of the sexual abuse of children was systemic but that it could best be exposed by helping survivors share personal experience and through her work provided a way for some of us to do that.
I will be forever grateful to Mary for all she has done to help shed a light where it wasn’t wanted and I offer my condolences to her family, friends and loved ones.
* Andrew Madden, author of Altar Boy: A Story of Life After Abuse
I will be forever grateful to Mary for all she has done to help shed a light where it wasn’t wanted and I offer my condolences to her family, friends and loved ones.
* Andrew Madden, author of Altar Boy: A Story of Life After Abuse