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BISHOP COMISKEY, VERONICA GUERIN AND CONOR CRUISE O'BRIEN


Added to www.alliancesupport.org on October 21, 2006

"Diocese of Ferns Faces Queries Over Parishioners Bequests"
extract from article by Veronica Guerin, Sunday Independent, 22 October 1995

[Rather than just reporting on the issues, it is clear that Veronica Guerin is trying to fabricate a scandal here. I get the impression that -unlike journalists like Conor Cruise O'Brien- she was not motivated by anti-clericalism but simply by the desire to make a name for herself. The Cruiser then accepted her fabrications as gospel truth and used them as a basis for his own wilder fantasies. (See "BISHOP COMISKEY AND CONOR CRUISE O'BRIEN [October 1995])" Veronica must have known that this sort of thing would happen but I doubt if it bothered her.

Rory Connor
October 2006
]

Bequests totalling £353,000 left in a number of wills to the Diocese of Ferns have become the subject of enquiries from relatives of those who bequeathed the money.

But the absence of Bishop Brendan Comiskey means they will have to wait to get answers to their questions.

Parishioners in the diocese are enquiring about money left for the upkeep of the parishes of Templeton and Gorey in Co. Wexford and Coolfancy in Co Wicklow, Local priests have been unable to give specific details on use of the various funds because of the Bishop's absence.......

Parishioners in the three parishes have been trying to establish how money bequeathed for the upkeep of their parishes has been used by the church. In Templeton in Co Wexford parishioners asked Bishop Comiskey in January 1994 for details of how he had applied £181,000 left by Alice Cooney in 1978.........

In Gorey in recent weeks, locals have being asking about a building, the proceeds of which were left to the parish nearly five years ago by two sisters. The property was sold for £100,000 but locals can see no evidence of how the proceeds have been spent in the parish.

And in Coolfancy in Co Wicklow parishioners are unhappy with replies given to them from their local curate about a bequest of £100,000 made to the parish.....

Another unanswered question which only Bishop Comiskey can address is who funded the acquisition of a 29 per cent share in Wexford's local radio station and the construction of a radio centre in St Peter's College in 1989? This project cost £150,000 and was undertaken by Christian Media Trust (CMT) a brainchild of the bishop's.

CMT was formed in May 1989 when a consortium of the Christian Churches in Wexford, at the suggestion of Bishop Comiskey, decided to get involved in local radio. CMY includes representatives of of the Church of Ireland, Catholic, Methodist and Presbyterian denominations. However no one but the bishop knows where the money for this project came from.

MY COMMENT: Mud is being thrown as widely as possible in the hope that some will stick. Even an ecumenical project is seen as a useful target. What crime is Veronica Guerin hinting at here? Maybe that Bishop Comiskey funded the project out of his own pocket??


Rory Connor


http://www.alliancesupport.org/news/archives/001488.html