CARDINAL SECRETS

“Cardinal Secrets” deals with the issue of sexual abuse of children by clericals in the Dublin Archdiocese. With no documents of any kind released from the Catholic Church, the programme pieced together from hundreds of separate sources a picture of widespread abuse of children by priests and cover-up by Church authorities. By connecting up this research with the often disconnected pieces of information which were already in the public domain, “Cardinal Secrets” succeeded in producing an enormous public outcry. As a direct result of the programme, the Irish government announced its intention to establish a nationwide inquiry, and the Irish police embarked on a high level investigation of its own handling of such allegations against priests.