A mother who alleges her son was sexually abused by a priest in a confessional at Knock Shrine nine years ago is to be shown a list of 45 priests who attended at the shrine on the day, following a High Court decision yesterday.
At an earlier hearing Mr Justice Smith had made an order that the names of priests who attended on the particular day should be shown to the mother to see if she could identify the name of the priest which had been above the confessional.
Yesterday Mr Paul Gardiner, for the Archdiocese of Tuam, which is being sued by the mother, asked the judge to review his order but the application was refused.
Mr Gardiner said the child's mother and the child, who was 13 at the time, did not recollect the name of the priest. The application to give the mother the list of names had been made in affidavits supplied by solicitors acting for the mother. Such evidence was hearsay, he said, and the affidavit should have been supplied by the mother herself as her evidence was critical.
Mr Gardiner said it now turned out that a name had been supplied by the mother during the Garda investigation. He was resisting the mother's right to see a list of priests in order to pick a name, perhaps a name nearest to the one supplied to gardai.
Ms Carrie Jane Canniffe, for the mother, said the name supplied by her client had been a possible name and not an actual name and that was why she wanted to look at the list.
Mr Gardiner said allowing the mother to see a list was highly unfair to those on the list, and if one name was chosen then that person's reputation would be damaged. He asked Mr Justice Smith to review his order that a list be made available. Mr Justice Smith said he was reluctant to vary his order.