Fear and Loathing
Putting the record straight about Marmion. And me.
In The Irish Times on 15 March 2025, Colm Keena wrote “In 2021 the congregation named deceased member Joseph Marmion as having been a likely abuser, and last year it named another two deceased members, Paul Andrews and Dermot Casey.”
What?! Marmion was a likely abuser? This is not just incorrect, a gross misrepresentation of the facts, but also a grave insult to those who were actually abused. We can say this much for the Jesuits, at least they finally told the truth about Marmion, unlike The Irish Times – the so-called paper of record – on this occasion.
I wrote to the editor at the time and, knowing how newspapers think, kept it short:
“Sir, I was surprised to read in Colm Keena's report (15 March) on historical abuse in Jesuit schools that "the congregation named deceased member Joseph Marmion as having been a likely abuser" in 2021. In fact, the Society of Jesus in Ireland named Marmion as a sexual abuser of children. There was no "likely" about it.”
My letter was not published and the record has not been corrected so anyone who is searching The Irish Times archive in connection with Jesuit abuse will, at the least, wonder if Marmion was, in fact, someone who molested little boys. That’s pretty shameful.
In response to my recent post in which I wondered if the Jesuits deserve a pat on the back for their handling of the Marmion affair, a friend and former classmate of mine points out that only two journalists have addressed the Marmion scandal in any detail – me, initially in The Irish Daily Mail and subsequently here (i.e. without the restrictions imposed by even the best of editors), and – much more significantly – Barry Lenihan of RTE who drew the public’s attention to the fact that some of those who knew about Marmion’s crimes and concealed them for decades paid no price for their scandalous neglect of duty but were, in fact, promoted, even to the highest echelons of the Society of Jesus.
While no doubt many people hearing Barry’s package on RTE News were horrified and scandalised, not a single Irish journalist thought to take the story further. While we must make allowances for a certain CSA fatigue – amounting to exhaustion for many – one can’t help wondering if the Jesuits’ influence extends to some of Ireland’s newsrooms.
As a journalist, I would like to think it’s down to fatigue but I suspect there may be an element of fear at work.
That same former classmate of mine was kind enough to suggest that my work on the Marmion Affair has demonstrated courage. I have to say, with my hand on my heart, that it involved no bravery whatsoever. Indeed, I think of myself as a rather timid person who goes to great lengths to avoid conflict. No, what has fuelled my work in this matter is nothing like courage, it’s outrage. And a loathing of those who abuse children and those who protect the abusers.
When I broke the Marmion story in The Irish Daily Mail and wrote a follow-up piece, I spoke with many people whose lives had been damaged - in some cases destroyed - by what Marmion had done to them when they were young boys. The understanding was, of course, that these conversations would remain completely confidential. Most said to me “I have never told anyone else about this and I never will again” or words to that effect.
This took a serious personal toll on me and I am eternally grateful to the counsellor, whose fees were paid by the Jesuits, who put me back together again and fortified me for future encounters with the horrors of what Joseph Marmion SJ did to children.
If there is anyone reading this who has unresolved issues concerning abuse, I implore them to seek such help. It really does work wonders and there is nothing to fear in admitting that, to put it crudely, stuff can fuck you up.