Sir, – Many seem to regard the Murphy Report as holy writ that cannot be questioned. One can fully support the Murphy investigation and other such investigations taking place, but still question the adequacy of some of the analyses, the judgments made and the ways in which these judgments were expressed. People who do so are also concerned to ensure the full truth is arrived at, but also that the good names of people like the late Bishop Dermot O’Mahony are fairly protected.
Many who would have known of Bishop O’Mahony over the period of his ministry and were acquainted with the situations he had to deal would have come to different conclusions and made different judgments than those contained in the report. These should also be heard.
Bishop Eamonn Walsh deserves great credit in this regard for seeking to restore the good name and reputation of Bishop O’Mahony (“Bishop ‘scapegoated’ by clerical abuse report, funeral told”, December 16th). At the very least he deserves to be heard by those who purport to be concerned with seeking the truth, not least in relation to all aspects of how the terrible scandal of clerical child sex abuse came about and how and why a person as manifestly good as Bishop O’Mahony acted. – Yours, etc,
JOHN MANGAN,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.