Irish-Salem.com
Email Us My Blog

Cardinal Cahal Daly

This is one of eight cases in the period 1994 to 2006 in which false sexual allegations were made against an Irish Bishop. Cardinal Cahal Daly was Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland in 1994.

In November 1994 Pat Rabbitte suggested in the Dail (Irish Parliament) that there had been a conspiracy between Cardinal Daly and the Attorney General Harry Whelehan to protect a paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth. In the confusion and hysteria that followed the Irish Government fell. In the Government that followed Pat Rabbitte got a specially created "Super-Junior" Ministry that enabled him to participate in Cabinet meetings.

In April 2010, four months after the death of the retired Cardinal, the media belatedly reported that in 1994 he had brokered an arrangement with the RUC to arrest Brendan Smyth, because he was dis-satisfied with the way that Fr Smyth's abbot was dealing with the issue. [As Father Smyth was a member of a religious order, Cardinal Daly never had any authority over him; the authority of Bishops is confined to "secular" (i.e. ordinary parish) clergy.]


False Allegations - Pat Rabbitte and Cardinal Cahal Daly - November 1994

Fintan O'Toole Accuses and Jim Cantwell Replies - 1996/97

Protection of child above institutional church is right - Kieran McGrath 1996

Cardinal Welcomes Reporting Of Scandals - 1996

Nuns' Wrongs Admitted But Good Done Also Important, Says Cardinal - 1996

Cardinal Gives Pledge of Prompt Action - 1996

Cardinal Daly on Traditional Church Teachings Concerning Women - Jan 1998

St Thomas Aquinas Views on Women (follow-up to above article) - Jan-Feb 1998

Cardinal Daly Brokered Secret Deal with RUC To Arrest Smyth - Reported in Media April 2010