Abuse victims of a former primary school teacher and senior GAA official expressed their relief after he was sentenced yesterday to three years' imprisonment at Monaghan Circuit Court.
Ms Margaret O'Neill, now living in Australia, said she was very happy at the verdict. "He's got three years. I feel it's a new beginning for me. I feel like a two-tonne weight has been lifted off my shoulders."
Another victim, Ms Marie O'Neill, no relation to Margaret, said "three years is better than none". The past 44 years had been her sentence. They insisted he should serve the full term.
Michael Feeney (68) from Ballybay, Co Monaghan, former GAA Ulster Council secretary, pleaded guilty to indecently and sexually assaulting 11 children from 1957 to 1978 when he was a primary schoolteacher.
The two women made separate initial complaints to police in Perth and Melbourne, Australia. Both returned for the trial.
A third victim, Ms Rose Connolly (40) said, "We are all very relieved that he has been jailed - what we went through would have been in vain if he had walked off without a sentence. We will always feel the pain of what he did."
Three victims also spoke to Joe Duffy on RTE Radio's Liveline. One man, John, said Feeney abused children while he was a teacher and before his involvement with the GAA.
John said he was abused when he was about seven or eight. "He came and sat down beside you in the class. If you weren't one of his victims you were the exception. He sat beside and groped you or put your hand in his trousers."
He added: "This was the guy who was teaching us. This was the guy who led the choir, who was the badminton teacher, who was the shining light in the community."
All the victims said they commended the gardai on pursuing the case, but felt let down by the State which had made it difficult for them to pursue the matter. There was no State support - the victims were told they would be kept informed of what was happening and "had to forgo our rights to anonymity so this man could be publicly named".
John and his sister did not know the other had been abused until they made their statements of complaint.
"Parents have to believe children," said Ms Marie O'Neill. "Children have no voice. Children go home and say things to their parents. Parents have to listen to them."
Ms Margaret O'Neill said she decided in 1995 to report the abuse. "I had gone through intensive counselling, hoping this would complete the healing process. I went to police in Melbourne. Nobody had ever come before to report an international case."
She only realised when she made the complaint that others had been abused. "I was totally sure I was the only one. He was a family friend," she said. Feeney did not teach her, but he abused her "in his car, in my family home and local hall where he took me to say he was teaching badminton." The abuse started when she was around 12 and continued until she was 16.
"I lived in total fear. I had this secret. I was so totally ashamed of what was happening to me. I would never even have had the words to describe what was happening to me."
She said he "never threatened but would make fun of me, saying `no one would ever believe you'. He just intimidated me."
Ms O'Neill said to all the other victims of Michael Feeney, who were listening on the radio but unable to come forward, that they were part of the "victory" of getting him convicted.