The newly published Chapter 19 of the Murphy report gives details of how five of Ireland’s most notorious clerical child abusers developed close links with one another during the periods they were raping and molesting their victims.
 
This new evidence has prompted grave concern that there was a priest pedophile ring in the Dublin archdiocese.
 
Prominent abuse survivor Andrew Madden told the Tribune the very thought “sends a chill down the spine”.
 
Those involved include Ballyfermot’s “singing priest” or “Fr Filth” Tony Walsh, Fr Bill Carney, Fr Noel Reynolds, Fr Francis McCarthy and Fr Patrick Maguire.
 
Chapter 19 of the Murphy Report which was published last Friday gave details of Walsh’s crimes. It also explained how Walsh used a room provided by Reynolds in Kilmore to abuse his victims. Reynolds had given him a key.
 
Walsh then took over leading altar boy’s trips to Clonliffe College from Carney and McCarthy. They were bought convicted of child abuse. The report described how these two men brought children on holidays and shared accommodation with two complainants. It states “A boy who was initially abused by Fr McCarthy was subsequently abused by Fr Carney.”
 
The report also describes how Carney abused children at swimming pools and was sometimes accompanied by a fifth abuser, Maguire, according to the Tribune.
 
This information, for the first time, shows the extent of interaction between the five abusers.
 
Madden said that his new information gives another dimension to what is known. He said “The only thing that is missing is a record of the private conversations between these men…Pedophile rings are informal by nature. While somebody who is determined to abuse children will do so regardless, if there are people there who know the other will not say anything, then it facilitates the sexual abuse of children.
 
"It is certainly no coincidence that these five men appear together in the report and knew each other."
 
The report itself stated that there was “no direct evidence” of a pedophile ring but noted that they found “worrying connections” between the five priests.