Bethany, a support group for women in relationships with priests, now has 110 members: "This may sound like a lot, but it isn't really, when you think Ireland has about 6,000 or 7,000 priests," says the group's founder, Bishop Pat Buckley. Six members of Bethany have had children with their priest partners, and four have had abortions. Bethany - named after the house of Martha and Mary, where Jesus went for female companionship - was set up after the Bishop Casey affair came to light and a woman who had had an affair with a priest contacted Bishop Buckley from Cork.

Full meetings with all 110 members do not take place. Rather two or three members from the same area might meet each other quietly for a meal. They are greatly in fear of their identities being discovered: "Some of them are nurses in Catholic hospitals, or teachers in Catholic schools, or nuns. They risk losing their jobs," says Bishop Buckley, who runs his own alternative, liberal ministry based in Larne, Co Antrim, which he calls "a return to scripture and compassion, putting people ahead of canon law". He does not believe that celibacy should be imposed on all priests. A few members of Bethany are in situations that work well, such as one widow who has been involved with a priest for 25 years: "He is a good priest and a kind partner. They share interests. They haven't had children together." But that sort of contentment is rare: "Generally the woman wants a more open commitment, or even for him to leave the priesthood. The priest quite often wants more than one partner - some of them are Jack the Lads, like 16-year-old boys with forbidden fruit."

Bishop Buckley recalls: "I introduced two members of Bethany to each other in Limerick. They made an appointment to have dinner, and in the course of their conversation they discovered they were having an affair with this same priest."

Another priest, in the North, had an affair with a woman and dropped her. The woman committed suicide, says Bishop Buckley. The priest went on to have another affair and has since dropped his second partner, who is now having a nervous breakdown. "The priest has been sent for counselling," Bishop Buckley says wryly.

He recalls another woman who had a child by a local priest and found it distressing to have to encounter this priest in the street after he broke off the relationship and began an affair with a nun: "I drove this woman 200 miles to the bishop's house, where we weren't even offered a cup of tea. She wept and pleaded with the bishop to move the priest to a different parish. She also wanted him to guarantee her that she wouldn't lose her job as a teacher in a Catholic school. He said he couldn't guarantee anything, he was only there to listen."