TDs HAVE ECHOED calls for a public inquiry into the state’s handling of abuses carried out by disgraced doctor Micheal Shine, ahead of a meeting between survivors and the Health Minister.
Micheal Shine, a doctor at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda and at his private surgery in Louth town, was found guilty of assaults against nine boys. More than 360 men have reported being sexually abused by Shine.
In 2010, a non-statutory review was tasked with dealing with allegations of sexual abuse against convicted paedophile Micheal Shine, as well as examining the safeguarding procedures in place at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital where he was employed. It was never released.
On RTÉ’s Saturday with Colm Ó Mongain programme earlier today, one of Shine’s victims, Cianan Murray, spoke about his experience of abuse at the hands of Shine, and his hopes for justice through the form of a public inquiry.
The father of two, from Duleek, County Meath, encountered Shine when he was sixteen-years-old at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.
He was examined by Shine, where he was having stitches removed from his eye, and then invited to attend Shine’s surgery in Louth town for a further examination.
Cianan Murray, who encountered Shine when he was aged sixteen. Saoirse McGarrigle / The Journal
At Shine’s surgery, Cianan was assaulted, he said.
Cianan didn’t report the abuse until over 20 years later in 1995, when Shine was accused of abuse by a whistleblower.
The DPP did not recommend charges in relation to Cianan’s case.
In 2010, retired Judge of the High Court, Judge Smyth, was appointed to carry out the independent review.
Cianan told RTÉ that in 2010, 140 survivors of Shine’s abuse went to Dublin to tell their stories for use in the review.
“One man even came from Canada,” he said. “When it was all said and done anyway, they told us, oh, sorry, we can’t release his findings for legal reasons.”
In February 2024, in a written answer to a parliamentary question, then-Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said she had “been informed that Judge Smyth reported in September 2010 and recommended that it would not be in the public benefit, as envisaged in the Terms of Reference, to undertake a further investigation at that time.”
Today, on the same RTÉ programme, Minister of State Charlie McConalogue thanked Cianan for sharing his story, and said, “it’s just disgusting the abuse of trust and the abuse that so many experienced here in this instance, in relation to Mr. Shine, and from a government point of view, it’s absolutely our objective to make sure that we take a victim-centered approach.”
When asked about the current standing of the 2010 report, McConalogue said that it was his understanding that legal advice is being sought on publishing it comprehensively.
He said he wasn’t aware of specific issues prohibiting its publication, and that Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill meeting members of the victim support group Dignity4Patients is “welcome”.
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín and Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan, who were also guests on the show, said that there was a need for a public inquiry.
Boylan said that it was “insulting” for McConalogue to “come on knowing that one of the questions that’s being asked is around the Attorney General’s advice on that review that is 15 years old being released, and to not be able to give a concrete answer as to when that advice is going to be given out, whether or not the Attorney General has said it can be published or not.
“That’s basic information that the victims deserve.”