Declan McSweeney

Exposing the darkness at the heart of Irish Society…

Declan McSweeney on May 23, 2022, 10:26 am | Readers 2070

I joined the staff of the now-closed Offaly Express in 1988 but did not begin to cover law courts in earnest until 1995, following the retirement of the late Eddie Rogers. That period coincided approximately with the first cases relating to child sexual abuse. From 1994 onwards, local and national media found themselves having to cover such cases as they began to come to light to a greater degree. That year saw the revelations of the Brendan Smyth saga, which …

How should Irish Churches responds to racism?

Declan McSweeney on April 12, 2022, 1:38 pm | Readers 1126

In recent weeks, we have seen the churches play a key role in the efforts to welcome Ukrainian refugees, with priests’ houses and convents among the buildings used to house them. This reflects a wider trend in which church leaders have urged Irish people to welcome migrants, just as the Irish were welcomed in other lands down the centuries. In this article, I wish to focus on the Catholic Church, though doubtless much of what I say applies to other …