The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland has been accused of failing to take action on a warning from a victim that vile paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth was abusing five other children.

Cardinal Sean Brady, now the most powerful clergyman in Ireland, was warned by Brendan Boland, a 14-year-old altar boy, that other children were being abused by Smyth.

The Irish Examiner reports that the explosive claims ‘once again raise question marks about Cardinal Seán Brady’s handling of sex abuse claims made to him about Smyth’.

The report also states that Cardinal Brady said three years ago that he would resign if he found himself in the situation where he was aware that any failings to act on his part allowed, or led to, the abuse of any child.

The information says that Boland handed Brady, now the Primate of All-Ireland, written names and addresses of three boys and two girls who were being abused or were at risk of being abused by Smyth in 1975 - 19 years before he was jailed in 1994.

It later emerged that four of the children were being abused while two continued to be abused after the 1975 inquiry.

One in Four victims support group leader Maeve Lewis told the Examiner: “The allegations cast a shadow on the credibility of Cardinal Brady as a leader of the new child protection policy.”

The new information also states that Cardinal Brady only made contact with one of the five children named, a young man from Cavan.

The paper says that he did not tell the boy’s parents, police, or the health authorities about the boy’s confirmation that he had been abused.

Cardinal Brady only sent a report to his bishop, who later barred Smyth from Confession and reduced his ability to complete public duties.

One victim told BBC’s This World programme that he was abused for another year after his name was handed to the Cardinal Brady by Brendan Boland, while the victim's sister was abused for seven more years and his four cousins were abused until 1988.

“Nobody came to our house. They should have came to our house and warned our family, or my parents and said, look this is what’s happening, this man is involved in this. We would strictly advise you to keep him away from the house,” said the victim.

“Brendan, poor Brendan, actually thought giving this information, he thought he was going to protect me and protect other people and thinking this was going to be the end of it. And by God, it is far from the end.”

Boland had made the revelations in a secret Church inquiry in 1975, where he described his own abuse at the hands of Smyth. The paper says that the boy’s father was made stay outside the inquiry while his son spoke to the then Fr Brady, a school teacher and bishop’s secretary, and two other priests.

Cardinal Brady has denied he should resign in the wake of this information.

His spokesman told the Examiner: “The cardinal wasn’t a bishop in 1975. He was a priest who was asked by his own bishop to record evidence in a process that was headed by more senior clergy.

“Fr Brady had no authority over Brendan Smyth and the inquiry he was asked to assist in was under the management of his bishop, not him.

“Even today, it is the ‘designated person’ who has responsibility for reporting to the authorities, not the person who first receives or notes the details of the allegation.”