Michael Feichin Hannon, Louis Lentin, Nora Wall, Michael Fitzpatrick, Patsy McGlinchey

In February 1996 RTE broadcast Louis Lentin's TV documentary "Dear Daughter", concerning allegations of physical and sexual anuse in Goldenbridge residential school which had been run by the Sisters of Mercy. Within a year of the broadcast - and an apology by the Sisters of Mercy - Ireland experienced a series of fake child abuse scandals. In the course of the year the following were accused:

(These are of course only the allegations that were subsequently exposed as fraudulent.)

This section is about Michael Fechin Hannon who was accused by a ten year old girl in 1997 during the course of a land dispute between his family and that of his accuser. As per an article in the Sunday Tribune on 3 May 2009:

THEY came for Michael Feichin Hannon early in the morning. He was awoken and told he was being taken away for questioning in relation to an alleged sexual assault of a 10-year-old.

What followed was a nightmare for a man who was just 22 years of age in 1997, when the matter arose. He was convicted of sexual assault two years later. Fortunately, his sentence was suspended for four years. He moved away from the area, in an attempt to come out from under the dark cloud that envelopes anybody convicted of sexual assault of a minor. In the ignorant discourse that often surrounds sexual offences, he could have been classified as a paedophile.

Last week, he received a certificate of miscarriage of justice following the retraction of the allegation by the girl, who is now a young woman.