THE PARENTS and siblings of the late Peter McCloskey, who died in 2006 while in negotiations with Limerick’s Catholic diocese surrounding allegations that he had been sexually abused by a priest, have asked that the remit of the Murphy commission be extended to include Limerick diocese.Peter McCloskey (37) took his own life on April 1st, 2006, two days after a bruising meeting with representatives of the diocese. He alleged that Fr Denis Daly, a priest who served in Limerick from 1978 until his death in 1987, abused him in 1980 and 1981.
Writing to the Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney, on behalf of his parents, his sister Aida and himself, Joseph McCloskey (brother of Peter) called on her to “deploy an urgent audit into the Limerick diocese. The name of Dr Donal Murray is spotlighted in the Murphy report; a logical next step is to examine the tenure of his dealing with similar cases as a fully-fledged bishop”.
He continued that “adding to the urgency of this audit is the report written by Mr Ian Elliott, on whose findings Cloyne is at present under audit .”
He was referring to a report by the Catholic Church’s own child protection watchdog, the National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC), of which Ian Elliott is chief executive. Its report, published last December, on child protection practices in Cloyne diocese found them to be “inadequate, even dangerous”. On foot of that finding the remit of the Murphy commission was extended to include Cloyne diocese.
Mr McCloskey points out that the NBSC report on Cloyne “notes the inextricable linkage between both Cloyne and Limerick. These two dioceses shared the same Joint Case Management Advisory Committee”.
Referring to his brother’s final meeting with representatives of Limerick diocese, he recalled accompanying Peter “on that fate-filled day when he met the Joint Case Management Committee”.
He continued: “The chairman Mr Diarmuid Ó Catháin and another committee member Fr Gerard Garrett had acted for Bishop Magee . Both acted for Dr Murray when Peter attempted to articulate his experience of ‘abuse as a child’ by a priest of the diocese of Limerick.”
He said an audit of Limerick diocese would “acknowledge the untold story of Peter and hopefully bring closure to a bereft family”.
Last week Peter McCloskey’s wife Cathy, from whom he was separated for six years before he died, said she felt his death was being used to get Bishop Murray’s “head on a plate”.
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