The Dog's in the Street – Saying it as it is

The saga continues, but are you surprised. This is the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland. This is the church that let priests bugger alterboys and then stood in the way of justice.

The priest at the centre of the Kerry sex assault case – and let me stress I am not in any way suggesting that he is/was a sex offender only that he appears to sympathise with one – has defended his actions.

This is like a throwback to 50 years ago when the clerical attitude was that the offender was the victim and the person he assaulted was “asking for it”.

Today the Bishop of Limerick resigned his ministry for his inaction in dealing with clerical sex offenders. This case is no different. The priest should not have defended a man who the law deems to be guilty.

The victim has now been made to feel like the guilty one.

This article further angers me. I almost considered travelling down there this weekend to stand up and disrupt Fr Sheehy’s service. My reservation in this regard is that I now consider Castlegregory to be no different to the Deep South USA during the 1960’s when civil rights activists disappeared or were violently attacked. Rednecks with attitude.

This clergymans bishop had better suspend him quicksmart before he further kills off the tourist industry in this country.

Priest says he has no regrets for supporting sex offender in court

Irish Independent news report:

A priest has insisted he did nothing wrong in joining a group of people who openly supported a convicted sex offender in court prior to the man being sentenced.

Fr Sean Sheehy joined 40 to 50 local men who queued up to shake hands and
embrace Danny Foley in the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee yesterday.

Foley, of of Meen, Listowel, Co Kerry, denied the sexual assault charges
against him. CCTV footage showed the 35-year-old carrying a young women to
the skip area in the town centre car park where she was later found
semi-conscious, half-naked and covered in scratches and bruises. Foley told
gardai that he “found your wan” in the skip area as he was going to relieve
himself.

Two weeks ago a jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict. Yesterday Foley was
sentenced to seven years jail and he will be placed on the sex offenders
register for life.

Presiding judge Donagh McDonagh criticised Fr Sheehy’s character witness
statement during sentencing.

Speaking to Claire Byrne on Newstalk, Fr Sheehy defended his support for the
convicted man and described the sentence as “harsh”.

“To hand down a seven year sentence in that kind of situation, it seems to me
is a miscarriage of justice,” Fr Sheehy said.

The Castlegregory parish priest says he backed Foley because he knew him to be
an “even tempered, placid individual.”

“I just wanted to support him and let him know he wasn’t alone,” Fr Sheehy
said. When asked how he felt about supporting a man found guilty of sexual
assault, the priest said “the fact is, it was an alleged attack… but the
jury convicted him.”

He added that had he known the victim, he would have shook her hand too. “My
Christian responsibility was to the person I know,” he said.

Fr Sheehy denied claims that the hand-shaking and hugging of Foley by the
group of men was organised. He said he’d been asked to say hello to the
defendant by his mother .

“I was simply responding to her invitation, she (Foley’s mother) was
completely broken-hearted,” he said.