Abuse by priest could have been prevented had church authorities acted sooner. And so ends one of the sorriest sagas in the abuse crisis which has engulfed the Catholic Church in Ireland. It first came to public notice with the jailing of Fr Brendan Smyth in 1994.
On March 29th 1975 Fr Seán Brady, later the Catholic
primate, was asked by Bishop McKiernan to conduct a canonical inquiry
into allegations of abuse against the Norbertine priest.