What has upset the Jesuits?
Is there a huge scandal yet to be revealed?
I have lost count of my posts dealing with Jesuit sexual and other abuse; let’s just say there have been lots. Given the subject matter and what I have learned about it, especially in recent years, I have not pulled my punches. They are not the kind of material that would make soothing bedtime reading for the Society of Jesus.
And yet it was in response to this post, which I have reposted below, that I was approached – admittedly indirectly – with a strong hint that it should be taken down. Out of their “concern” for one of the victims. But I don’t buy that.
(Incidentally, they never admit to reading my posts. Indeed, when I first wrote about Marmion in the Irish Daily Mail, the then Provincial said, on the record, that he had not read it. I don’t believe that for a moment and he did, of course have a history of being economical with the truth. This post was brought to their attention by a former employee, would you believe?)
Anyway, why this one, out of all my posts? I simply don’t know. Could it be that there is much more to be revealed about the repellent “Father” Laheen SJ. Or is it his abuse of the Confessional? Or perhaps he is not the only Irish Jesuit to have impregnated a woman? I hesitate to use the phrase “fathered a child”.
If you have any ideas or, better still, a story to relate (in complete confidence, of course), I would be most interested to hear from you by email.
Anyway, this is what seems to have upset the Jesuits…
An Unholy Father
Kevin Laheen and his abuses
March 12, 2025
I have always found the fact that Roman Catholic (and some high Anglican) priests are called “Father” rather odd. I mean, they are officially precluded from being parents. Having members of their congregations address them a with a more formal version of “daddy” just makes me feel rather uncomfortable.
Amongst the fifteen Jesuits accused of sexual and other abuse of children who were named recently there are several of whom I had never heard. One such man was “Father” Kevin Laheen SJ who died, aged one hundred, in 2019.
The blameless Sir Terry Wogan and “Father” Kevin Laheen SJ at Belvedere House
I now know that Laheen, who has been described to me variously as obnoxious, vain, narcissistic, bullying, clever, talented and shameless, fathered a child with a married woman in 1965. He had met her in the confessional and pursued her outside it, eventually becoming a part-time resident in the family home.
Here he treated the woman’s long-suffering and very devout husband “like a servant” and sexually abused one of her children from the age of about four. Laheen destroyed her family.
The online Jesuit archives give very little detail of Laheen’s career. I know that he taught briefly at his old school, Belvedere, and at Mungret in Limerick. He spent time in the Jesuit retreat houses of Tullabeg in Offlay and Manresa in Clontarf.
A senior Jesuit told one person at Laheen’s funeral that he had been kept away from people in his later years as “he was so unpleasant” and “he behaved obnoxiously”. Clearly he became too much for his minders in Cherryfield in Milltown Park and he died in a private psychiatric hospital.
In the early 1960s a complaint was made to the Jesuits about Laheen’s conduct of a retreat in a girls’ school where his behaviour was reported as inappropriate. In 1999 he was reported to Gardaí for child sexual abuse but the DPP decided that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute.
This is all I know about Laheen but I also know that a former Provincial said to one of my informants that “Marmion was far from the worst of them.” I wonder if he was thinking of Laheen. And I wonder what else this deeply unpleasant man did to other children and to vulnerable adults. I would be most interested to hear from anyone with a story to tell – in confidence, of course.
Laheen, I am told, was very keen on dressing up. Here he is, on the right, in the regalia of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem
Keep up the good work.
Gave formal statement to the Garda about the abusers, both clergy and lay teacher from my years in Belvo
Only way things will change is for the organization to be prosecuted under "conspiracy to pervert the course of justice".
Junior school headmaster and acknowledged predator Fr Finbar Lynch, headmasters Fr Barber, Fr Crow and Fr Bradley ALL knew about predators and ALL protected the predators rather than the innocent students, who they had a sacred and legal obligation to protect.
As for poor Dolores Meagher, on the sixth anniversary of her passing, her headstone remains unengraved—despite funds being allocated for it from her estate. AOS’s claim that she visits the grave regularly is difficult to believe, given that six years on, none of the adult children have ensured her name was even added to the Meagher family plot.
If Baby Kevin is truly interred in Glasnevin Cemetery, he would be turning 59 this July. But that’s a big “if.” Records at Glasnevin were only updated on 16 April, confirming that a baby is indeed buried there. However, verification requires a request to Kirwan’s Funeral Home in Fairview, which handled the burial at 10:56 a.m. on 7 July 1966.
According to Dolores Meagher, who was in a distraught state at the time, Baby Kevin was taken from her alive. She never saw her child again. And the question remains—what did Kevin Laheen do with that baby?
A bizarre and offensive rumour was later spread: that Dolores had fallen out of a window at 72 Kincora Road after being locked out. Dolores was a famous opera singer—renowned, quite diva-like—and it was highly unlikely she would have opened a window of her own volition, let alone climbed through one. Absolute nonsense. This rumour was propagated by Kevin Laheen to suggest premature birth. Dolores loving husband John Meagher, the most gentle soul imaginable, would never have laid a finger on her.
John Meagher, her husband, was a dignified and talented tenor, born at St John’s on Castle Avenue. He was successful, wealthy, and came from a home with staff (Josephine the housekeeper is buried in Glasnevin). But everything changed after Laheen inserted himself into the family. John was reduced to a servant in his own home, dominated and degraded by Laheen’s manipulation. His business collapsed. By 1966, the family was destitute—unable to afford 17 Earlsfort Terrace, the private nursing home where Baby Kevin was born.
The disgruntled former carer of Kevin Laheen has confirmed that Leonard Maloney, then head of the Jesuits, is on record admitting the Jesuits paid the Earlsfort bill. That alone implies institutional complicity. And by July 1966, John Meagher, along with his young family, had been utterly broken. He later died a wrongful death at St Michael’s Hospital, he was killed by medical staff who overdosed IV medication in December 2001, he was a frail and slight man and despite only having one kidney the staff gave a dose so strong that they killed him. The adult children allowed his death without making a big deal. His wrongful death has now been reported and it’s hoped the adult children might actually speak out amid this wrongful death as lawyers for St Michael’s hospital wish to speak with John Meaghers children to offer a settlement. Perhaps a donation to an operatic society in John Meaghers name could redress this awful wrong. Still mystery why John Meagher had only one kidney. Laheen bankrupted the family in trauma and rewarded them with summer holidays he paid for. Presume Laheen was only trafficking children to the swimming pool in Milltown, and selling children to America, in 1966 he surely was not selling body organs. His clerical suits were made of the finest cloths and Laheen smelled of money.
Shockingly in August 1977, another child entered Laheen’s orbit—a 2-year, 3-month-old girl and her unmarried mother. By December 1977, Laheen had officiated a wedding between the eldest Meagher son and the single mother, and the child—not a Meagher by birth—was fraudulently absorbed into the household.
In July 1978, the little girl stayed at 72 Kincora Road while her mother gave birth to a son. She wore a red dressing gown with four ladybird buttons, which she carefully counted—four days without her mother. This child and her mother would never have come into contact with Laheen had the Jesuits acted on the 1962 report of sexual assault. Or the earlier abuse: in 1955, Laheen impregnated Dolores Meagher. In 1967, he assaulted another young girl outside the family.
The adult children of Dolores have their own stories to tell. But one claim stands out: Tom Doorley reported that when Dolores was pregnant, Kevin Laheen sexually assaulted her 4-year-old daughter—a fact told to him by MM, the eldest child himself.
This is not historic.
This is ongoing.
And it must now become the subject of a full criminal investigation—not only for abuse, but for identity falsification, child trafficking, and a gross clerical cover-up that has spanned generations. Silence is complicity. And the time for silence has long passed.
Once again, this family thrives on cover-ups and burying their heads in the sand. It’s their currency. MM has long operated a strategy of divide and conquer—fracturing the family until everyone is isolated, confused, and half-misled. The only person who’s had their head screwed on throughout this entire ordeal is the fifth child of 72 Kincora Road—who, ironically, wasn’t even born a Meagher.
MM met the young single mother in August 1977. At that time in Ireland, single mothers couldn’t even get a job, never mind social acceptance. You’d expect that a Catholic priest like Kevin Laheen would have discouraged the relationship and advised the Meagher family to keep their distance. But no—within five months, Laheen had personally officiated their wedding, and shortly thereafter, the Meagher name was fraudulently placed on the little girl’s birth certificate.
The child was never adopted by the Meaghers, and the falsification of her identity is now under active investigation by Pearse Street Detective Unit and Senior Inspector Wogan of Donnybrook. HSE Registrar Superintendent Charlie McGuinness has been asked to liaise directly with Gardaí, and David Dillon at the GRO is also implicated. A formal list of individuals who participated in, facilitated, or covered up the identity theft and fraud is being submitted to An Garda Síochána. Those responsible—both the direct perpetrators and those who colluded—will be held accountable.
John Bale has been absolutely central to this cover-up. He was with MM in 1977 when the single mother was first encountered during painting work in Georgian Dublin. He continued to lie in 2018, and again as recently as the same week the Sunday Mirror broke the story—barefaced, without hesitation. John Bale, for anyone interested, is also the first cousin of Lorcan Bale, who crucified John Horgan on the 19th of June 1973. Perhaps if John Bale refuses to tell the truth about his role in the cover-up and identity theft of a young girl’s entire life, he might like to explain to the Daily Mail or another national outlet how his cousin served just seven years for one of the most brutal child murders in Irish history.
The connections run deep. Norman Bale (John Bales father) and uncle of Lorcan Bale, John Horgan’s father, and the priests who cut down the crucified child were all members of Opus Dei. John Bale now resides in the UK—as does his cousin, Lorcan Bale. It raises very serious questions about the protection, collusion, and cover-ups that have spanned decades.
Maybe, Tom, you could look into this matter. It’s long overdue.
https://paedophiles20.rssing.com/chan-22338774/article572.html
https://www.thetimes.com/best-law-firms/profile-legal/article/murder-most-forgotten-g5r028ms9lr
John Bale is one of the central figures in this cover-up of falsifying identity of little girl born Danielle Collins who is great grand niece of Michael Collins.
John Bales involvement in identity theft spans decades. And his own family history speaks volumes. His father, Norman Bale, was infamously caught with his trousers down behind the marquee at a 21st birthday party in Georgian Village, Dublin in 1973 the summer after John Horgan was cut down from the cross he was crucified. Norman Bale of Georgian Dublin straddled by a friend of Caroline Bale—while his wife was inside cutting the cake and giving a speech. That’s the calibre of people we’re dealing with.