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THE late Archbishop of Dublin, Kevin McNamara was one of the leading personalities in the Catholic Church in Ireland in his lifetime, but in death he now stands indicted as a figure who singularly “failed to 1m- plement canon law rules on dealing with clerical child sex abuse’.

The Clareman who was 38 years a priest before dying in 1987 after a serious illness has also been ex- posed as a church leader who facili- tated known child abusers such as Fr Ivan Payne and Fr William Carney to continue working as priests in the community.

“Bill Carney is a serial sexual abus- er of children, male and female. The commission is aware of complaints or suspicious of child sexual abuse against him in respect of 32 named individuals,’ the Murphy Report SEA

It adds, “He (Archbishop McNa- mara) restored priestly faculties to Fr Carney despite his having plead- ed guilty to charges of child sexual abuse in 1983 and despite the fact that there were suspicions about him in relation to numerous other chil- dren. He failed to ensure that Fr Car- ney obeyed instructions and allowed him, in effect, to flout the wishes of his superiors’.

Archbishop McNamara’s_ reputa- tion has taken another hammering

with the Murphy Report finding that one of his first acts as Archbishop of Dublin was to promote Fr Ivan Payne to a post of responsibility within the

church.

‘He promoted Fr Payne to the po- sition of Vice-Officialis of the Mar- riage Tribunal despite the previous

refusal of Archbishop Ryan to do so,’ the report says.

Subsequently in 1998, Fr Payne pleaded guilty to charges of indecent

assault on ten victims and was sen- tenced to six years’ imprisonment.

The shocking findings of the Mur- phy Report into child sex abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese published last Thursday has also revealed that Mc- Namara was one of four Archbishops of Dublin from the 1960 through to the 1980s who “failed to report his knowledge of child sex abuse to the Garda”.

“All the Archbishops and many of the auxiliary bishops in the period covered by the Commission handled child sexual abuse complaints bad- ly,’ the Murphy Report says. “Dur- ing the period under review, there were four Archbishops – Archbish- ops McQuaid, Ryan, McNamara and Connell. Not one of them reported his knowledge of child sexual abuse to the Garda.”

TEAM trainer Ger Lawlor wasn’t looking to hear any talk of moral victories or hard luck stories, but you know deep down he felt that this was an opportunity lost.

The seven point differential didn’t tell the story of this Munster final, of that he was convinced, albeit he didn’t really say so directly in his post-match reflections.

“We were back in it when it was down to two points. They were hav- ing a real go but they came back and hit some great points near the end,’ he said.

“If we had got a goal in the second- half we could have won this Munster title. We had them under the cosh. We took them on but at times were afraid to take them on and we went for a few impossible scores when we could have worked our way in more towards goal,” he added.

Mention of goal and he came to Spa’s goal, but at either end of the first-half that represented the two biggest hammer blows to Cratloe’s hopes of becoming the first side to win a Munster intermediate title.

“We gave them too much respect starting off. We stood off them too much in the first ten, 15 minutes of the game.

“We let them get the ball first, showing too much respect for them

– whether it was because they were from Kerry, I don’t know. You can’t do that with a team from Kerry and they punished us with that first goal that meant we had a terrible start. “They’re natural footballers” – they’re playing football since they’re out of the cradle and they’ll punish you if you give them too much space as we did at the start. The goal before half-time really killed us. We should

have only been two points down at half-time.

“But you have to admire our lads. They showed great determination and heart. They never gave up and you couldn’t ask them for any more. They’re unbelieveable. They’re great. A credit to their club and credit to their families.

They all stood up in that first-half when coming back and again in the

second-half.

“It was always going to be very hard to recover from five down but we brought it back to two again and with seven or eight minutes to go I really thought that we could kick on ANG MY eU0mHsom BLO loe

“We were playing the better foot- ball and they were getting very edgy, but it wasn’t to be when they kicked a few points.”

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A SMILE still stretched across his face, Sean O’Sullivan, Spa manager tells it like it is. A Munster interme- diate title that the club never dreamed about, a scoreline that probably flat- tered the Kerry champions and a Spa full-forward that the Kerry manage- ment must call upon.

“This win will take a while to sink in,’ he says. “We never dreamed we could even get this far but we worked so hard.

“I’m sure Cratloe are the same and my heart really goes out to them because losing a Munster Final like this is difficult and I don’t know how I would handle it if we were beaten here today because it means so much Comte

“The bottom line is I’d have to congratulate Cratloe after the year they’re after having and Id have huge respect for them. Huge respect.

‘As for ourselves, we had a target and a game plan coming up here and we were always going to stick to it. We’re after picking up a couple of bad injuries and we’ll have to assess that damage but right now the cup makes up for it.”

There were some shaky moments, O’Sullivan says, when Cratloe clawed their way back into the game and put Spa under pressure. But he identifies Mike O’Donoghue’s second goal of the game, just before half-time, as an important score.

“The second goal came at a cru- cial time. And no better man than Mike O’Donoghue. He really stood up to the pressure today. Even when we lost Andrew Garnett, that was a savage loss, as was the loss of Niall O’Mahony and Brian Gleeson, but after we lost Andrew, Mike inter- cepted a ball and got a savage point out of it.

‘That was another big score for us. We needed it then and Mike stepped up and looking back on that game, that was a serious turning point. The bottom line is that Jack O’Connor should be seriously looking at this ner eb

“But we did lose our way a small bit in the second-half. At half-time we knew we were in a decent posi- tion, up a few points, but I saw Crat- loe play Valley Rovers in Clarecastle last week and I knew that they can play well against the wind.

“I knew we were going to be up against it in the second-half. We had to consolidate our win but they made us work very, very hard and we did pull away in the end but that score- line might be a small bit flattering.”

And off he goes into the half-light of the dressing room, the short road and bonfires on the edge of Kuillar- ney laying in wait.

GARDAI are investigating claims that a 14-year-old boy was sexually assaulted in a graveyard in Clare.

A complaint was made at a garda station in the county last week, in re- lation to an alleged incident in recent weeks.

It was alleged that a man sold fire- works to a boy and when insufficient money was paid, the boy claimed he was sexually assaulted. It was alleged that the boy was sexually assaulted at a graveyard in the county.

An investigation was immediately set up and a 50-year-old man was ar- rested on Friday.

The man, who is living in Clare, was questioned at a garda station and was later released without charge. When the garda investigation 1s completed, a file will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions, who will decide whether he will be charged.

This was the second – separate – investigation into an alleged sexual offence in the county over the past week. Several gardai have been in- volved in the investigations, both of which are of a sensitive nature.

Search continues for missing Clareman

THE village of Cooraclare is com- ing to terms with the tragic death of a 24-year-old man in a road accident in Dublin at the weekend.

Flan McMahon, who was an only child of Martin and Mary McMahon, from Brisla, Cooraclare, died after he was struck while crossing the road at Leonard’s Corner in Dublin’s south inner city in the early hours of Sun- day morning.

He had attended the Ireland v South Africa rugby international at Croke Park on Saturday and went socialis- ing with friends after the game. He is understood to have been intending to get a taxi home when the accident occurred. According to gardai, he was struck by two cars.

Mr McMahon worked in the bank- ing sector in Navan, where he lived. His father Martin is the caretaker of the local primary school and the lo- cal GAA field and recently retired from FAS. His mother Mary works in Tubridy’s bar in the village.

Flan attended primary school in Cooraclare and secondary school in Kilrush, before going to Cork where he studied business.

Cooraclare national school prin- cipal Margaret Donnelly said the close-knit community is devastated by Flan’s death.

“He was a keen sportsman. He played GAA, underage, for Coora- clare and he also ran. He was in one of my first communion classes years ago,’ said Ms Donnelly.

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LOCAL authorities remain on alert in Ennis over fears that further floods could be on the way.

While flood waters in Ennis have, in the main receded, and most roads leading to the town have fully re- opened, the forecast of heavy rain- fall and expected peak tides later this week has led Clare County Council to issue a severe flood alert for all parts of the county.

Speaking yesterday, Town Man- ager, Ger Dollard said that while the situation in Ennis has improved considerably since the weekend, there remained a risk of flooding.

Highlighting the difficulties caused in Dublin and Kildare by sudden bursts of heavy rainfall, Mr Dollard said water levels in the River Fergus may rise with tides ex- pected to hit peak levels on Thurs- day, Friday and Saturday.

“The forecast is for rain later in the week and so the potential is there for floods,” he said.

“As we saw in Dublin, it can so easily happen. We have been doing a lot of work in terms of pumping water out and putting up flood de- fences, so we hope that if there is further heavy rain, the system will be able to cope,” added Mr Dol- lard.

“We would urge people to be vigilant, to take necessary pre-cau- tions and to have a flooding plan in place.”

Commenting on the local author1- ties response to the floods crisis, Mr Dollard said, “The operation was cohesive and everyone associated with it deserves enormous credit.”

27 families remain in temporary accommodation after being forced from their homes by floods.

On Thursday, Ennis Town Council stated that one family had returned to their home and alternative ac- commodation has been identified for a further two families.

Mr Dollard said that flood damage

to some homes has been so exten- sive that some families may not be able to return to them for a number of months.

“Properties are still being in- spected and some will be habitable again fairly soon, we hope. Others will require a few months. There has been some minor damage but in some cases the damage is fairly sig- nificant. Naturally, we want to get people back into their homes in the shortest period possible,” he said.

Mr Dollard explained that the council is working with local auc- tioneers and Ennis Chamber of Commerce to private rented accom- modation for affected families.

CHILDREN from all over Ireland were this month invited to follow in the footsteps of Liscannor legend John Philip Holland. The inventor, who became world-famous as the man who built the first working sub- marine, was one of the main attrac- tions during National Science Week.

Children were invited to follow in Holland’s footsteps by building their very own submarine at the Irish Ma- rine Institute in Oranmore. Indeed, Holland was one of the central fig- ures being celebrated through the week alongside such world-famous scientists as Einstein, Jacque Coust- eau and Marconi.

The young scientists were asked to dream up a “futuristic” submarine capable of exploring Ireland’s 220 million acres of underwater terri- tory.

John Holland was born 1841 in Lis- cannor. He attended St Macreehy’s National School and the Christian Brothers School in Ennistymon be- fore joining the Christian Brothers in Dito.

He left the Christian Brothers in 1873 and joined his mother and his

two brothers in Boston where he joined an engineering firm. Hol- land’s brother, Michael, had been introduced to the Fenian Movement who had organised a “skirmishing fund” administered by John Devoy.

Devoy helped fund John Holland’s research into the submarine. His first submarine, the Holland No 1, was built in Todd and Raftery’s shop, in New Jersey in 1877.

It was 14 feet long and was pow- ered by a primitive 4hp engine and carried one man.

It was brought down to the Passaic River and launched before a big au- dience. But someone had forgotten to insert the two screw plugs and the sub began to sink underneath the wa- oe

His net attempt, The Fenian Ram, built at Delamater Iron Works in New York in 1881. It was 31 feet long and could travel at 9 mph. over water and 7 under water, displaced 19 tons and was armed with an underwater canon fired by compressed air.

After many frustrating efforts to deal with the American Naval au- thorities Holland won an open com- petition for a submarine design and in 1896 the John Holland Torpedo Boat

Company was set up with Charles A Morris as Chief Engineer.

In 1900, the Holland’s No 6 would prove a major improvement on previ- ous efforts. It was 53-feet long, car- ried a crew of 15 and had a torpedo tube in the bow. It took its first dive on St Patrick’s day, 1898, in New York Harbour and was acclaimed a SECA

Despite inspections and favourable publicity and indeed the recommen- dation of the then Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt, the Gov- ernment did not buy the submarine.

Holland made some _ alterations and after a final test in March 1900 the US Government bought the Hol- land No 6 on April 12, 1900, for ny LOR OLOeF

John Philip Holland from Liscannor died on August 12, 1914. He is buried in Totowa, New Jersey, less than one mile from where he launched his first submarine.