The latest episode of RTE’s Pirate Predator also investigates the DJ’s ties to serial abuser Jimmy Savile.
The new podcast series, narrated by Peter Mulryan, tells the story of one of Ireland’s most prolific child sex beasts.
In the latest bombshell episode, new information details how Fr Michael Cleary was allegedly involved in burying a tape-recording accusing the disgraced presenter of child sexual abuse.
While Cooke attempted to protect his image and his station, the family of one of his 11-year-old victims recorded testimony detailing her abuse at his hands.
The victim tells the podcast how the tape was sent to a local Dublin priest with the help of DJ James Dillon, who was trying to expose Cooke’s activities.
Later, after a walkout by staff, Cooke offered Fr Cleary a presenting slot at the station.
The podcast claims Cooke used his influence over his newest recruit and “asked him for a favour to get the tape of allegations made back from the local priest, and he duly obliged”.
Former DJ Sean Meaney tells the podcast: “Fr Michael Cleary brought the tape back to Eamon Cooke, and that way they buried it.
“I always got the feeling that because of ‘holy Ireland’, that they didn’t want all that kind of information to get out.”
Sean’s account of the tape is backed up by retired Detective Sergeant Jerry Kelly – one of the key officers involved in eventually bringing Cooke to justice.
He said: “The tape disappeared. They went to the priest. Cooke used Fr Cleary to talk to the priest in Inchicore, but it just died a death.
“Fr Cleary, who was big into singing, and he was just known as the singing priest, his partner in crime was no less than Fr Tony Walsh, a prolific paedophile abuser.”
The episode also delves into Cooke’s relationship with serial abuser Savile. It was during the summer of 1978 that predator Savile, when he was already a household name across the UK and Ireland, appeared to have first come into Cooke’s life, the narrator explains.
From 1967 through to the early ’80s, Savile came to Ireland to lead a huge annual charity walk for CRC, the Central Remedial Clinic in Dublin, a national charity that works with children and adults with disabilities.
“Jimmy Savile came to Radio Dublin at one stage,” Mr Meaney reveals. “I wasn’t there, but he came to the station. So there was definitely some kind of connection there.”
“It’s very likely Jimmy Savile abused women and children on his visits to Ireland, and that’s not just me saying it,” the narrator says. “One in Four, the sex abuse support group believes that too.
“When you put the two predators in the same place at the same time with access to children, there’s every chance they could have operated together, but, of course, we don’t know if that’s true – and we won’t know if it’s true unless victims come forward.”
New episodes of Pirate Predator drop every Monday. The series also airs on RTE Radio 1 on Sundays at 7.30pm.