Key steps in Ireland's struggle to confront child abuse committed by Catholic church officials
1994
June The Irish Catholic priest Brendan Smyth pleads guilty in Northern Ireland to 17 counts of indecently assaulting five girls and two boys in Belfast. His order, the Norbertines, spent decades shuttling Smyth among Irish and US parishes and harboured him from British arrest.
November The Irish prime minister, Albert Reynolds, resigns and his government collapses amid claims his attorney general colluded with church authorities to delay the British extradition demand for Smyth. The case shatters Irish taboo against pursuing criminal charges against priests.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/may/20/irish-catholic-church-child-abuse
June The Irish Catholic priest Brendan Smyth pleads guilty in Northern Ireland to 17 counts of indecently assaulting five girls and two boys in Belfast. His order, the Norbertines, spent decades shuttling Smyth among Irish and US parishes and harboured him from British arrest.
November The Irish prime minister, Albert Reynolds, resigns and his government collapses amid claims his attorney general colluded with church authorities to delay the British extradition demand for Smyth. The case shatters Irish taboo against pursuing criminal charges against priests.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/may/20/irish-catholic-church-child-abuse
