On the ground:Members of the clergy and victims have expressed relief that details of sexual abuse are being publicly recognised, writes Carl O'Brien
In the sitting-room of her home in Enniscorthy, with RTÉ's Six-One news blaring in the background, Martina Dempsey felt an overwhelming sense of relief.
"For me, it's the first time since the 1980s that people know for sure what happened," says Martina. "It's a scandal that it's taken so long. Kids were just brushed aside. "All of those priests got away with what they did," she said, as photographs of named clerical abusers flashed on the television screen.
As a schoolgirl, she was one of at least seven classmates abused by Fr Jim Grennan in a pre-confirmation ceremony in 1988. Allegations were made to authorities but never adequately investigated.
For victims like Martina, who say they were repeatedly failed by the authorities, yesterday was an important day of public recognition for the first time of what they suffered.
Many are glued to the television and radio, or waiting to get copies of the 271- page report, to quietly digest how far it goes in pointing out the failures of authorities such as the Garda, health boards and the church.
Over in Gorey, where senior members of the clergy gathered for Bishop Éamonn Walsh's press conference, there was also a similar sense of relief that what had been whispered about for so long was now finally out in the open.
In the same cramped study of St Michael's presbytery, where Bishop Walsh addressed the media at the height of the crisis facing the diocese three years ago, this evening he was imparting a more hopeful message.
"There are no excuses for what has happened in the past. However, the most effective response to what we cannot change in the past is what we are doing today, and what we will do in the future," he said.
He paid tribute to the bravery and courage of victims who came forward and, departing occasionally from his prepared script, said some members of the clergy had failed their parishioners.
"We were ordained to reach out to the most vulnerable. And what did we do? Some people preyed on the most vulnerable and abused them in the most vile and horrific way."
Innocent priests of the parish, who met last week to discuss how to cope with the fall-out of the report, had also been through "hell and back" amid the horror of discovering the abuse of their fellow priests.
Away from the media glare, Mgr Lory Kehoe was at a loss to explain how the diocese of Ferns has become, proportionally, a diocese with the highest number of priests accused of sex abuse worldwide.
"Are we the same as any other diocese? I really don't know. I don't know if we're any different.
"There are a lot of people hurt. That's totally acknowledged by the priesthood, but we've got total support from the parishioners. I was talking to one this morning who said to me, 'good luck - I hope it all goes well for you. There are always a few bad apples'.
"We still have full churches here and good congregations. People seem happy enough. It's been a hard time. But we're here to bring people to God and we'll continue to do that."
Back at Martina Dempsey's house, she was still waiting for details to form a full opinion on the report, but seemed upbeat that the apologies from the church at least were genuine.
"You can see he's sincere in his apology," she said, referring to Bishop Walsh's statement, which had just featured on the news.
"He genuinely seems to feel very bad for what has happened."