Donegal sisters abused by former priest say apology will 'finally close wounds'

Two sisters who a priest abused as children in Donegal have said an apology from the church after a battle they started in 1994 will help them “to finally close these wounds.”

Margaret and Paula Martin from Fán a Bhualtaigh, Fanad, were victims of Con Cunningham, and were today given an apology by the Diocese of Raphoe.

Monsignor Kevin Gillespie, Diocesan Administrator, who issued the apology, said not only had the Martin sisters been “abused but also deeply offended in your human dignity and wounded in your lives of faith.”

He acknowledged the sisters have been deeply motivated from the beginning by a preoccupation for the safety and well-being of children in our Church.

Con Cunningham, above, was sentenced to 15 months in prison in Letterkenny Circuit Court in 2021 for abusing Paula and Margaret when they were just young girls while he was in active ministry as a priest between the years 1972 and 1975.

This followed a previous conviction dating from November 2018, when he was given a nine-month sentence for three counts of indecent assault against a separate girl.

Although the women had gone to the church three times over a 25-year period with their story from 1994, nothing was ever done about it until they went to the Gardaí themselves in 2018.

Previously, the sisters said that they had been let down by the church, which was focused on protecting the institution rather than victims of child abuse.

The sisters thanked representatives of the Diocese of Raphoe, Monseigneur Kevin Gillespie, Bishop Alan McGuckian and Bishop Phillip Boyce, “who took the courage to open and participate in this process.” They also showed the gratitude their families and others who helped them on their journey.

“We look forward to closing this chapter of our lives and allowing healing to finally close these wounds," they said through their solicitors , Caldwell and Robinson Solicitors in Derry. "We encourage others who are suffering in silence to come forward and find the support you deserve.”

Monsignor Kevin Gillespie, Diocesan Administrator, issued the apology, where the Martin sisters were never told they were believed, having first reported the abuse over 30 years ago.

This, Monsignor Gillespie added, “created an additional burden” for the next eight years until the matter was reported to An Garda Siochana.

“On behalf of the Diocese of Raphoe, I wish to apologise to each of you for the trauma and harm you have experienced through the abuse that was perpetrated upon you as children by Con Cunningham, a priest of our Diocese, and through our failures, as a Diocese, in the manner in which we responded to you after both of you first came forward to Bishop Seamus Hegarty in 1994, and throughout the years since then.

“When you first reported your childhood experiences to Bishop Hegarty in 1994, he considered that your accounts of your abuse were truthful.

“Unfortunately, you were not made aware of the process which he was following, or of the actions that he took following receipt of your complaints.

“Most importantly, you were not informed that you were believed. Bishop Hegarty had concluded at that time that each of you 'spoke the truth'. In 1994 you entrusted responsibility to the Diocese that it would take all necessary steps in response to your complaints, without having an awareness of what those steps might be.

“You were left in the situation of not knowing what had been done, if anything at all. This created an additional burden for each of you over a period of eight years before you next heard from the Diocese.

“In 2002 the Diocese fulfilled its responsibility to report your complaints to the Gardaí, for the first time. In doing so, the Diocese then also contacted you both and informed you of its acceptance of its requirement to make this report.

“This in turn led you to meet with the Gardaí and to begin a process of making criminal complaints. You were both thrust into a criminal investigative process at that time, for which you were not yet ready.

“Whilst this was underway, you identified to the Diocese three measures that you wished to see happen at that time. You asked that Con Cunningham would resign from his position of Parish Priest of Falcarragh, that he would be prohibited from contact with children through his role as a priest and that he would be asked to respond formally to your complaints. Con Cunningham resigned his position as Parish Priest and agreed that he would cease the exercise of public ministry.

“He also put in writing that he accepted the truth of each of your complaints. Upon being made aware of these outcomes, you both informed the Gardaí that you did not wish to proceed further with your criminal complaints.

“You trusted the Diocese to fulfil its responsibilities to oversee Con Cunningham's adherence to the restrictions that were imposed upon him.

“In 2018, both of you were again contacted by the Diocese in the context of criminal charges which were then coming before the Courts in connection with Con Cunningham's abuse of another child, now also an adult, and which related also to the 1970s.

“You became concerned at that stage that adequate steps had not been taken by the Diocese in its supervision of Con Cunningham between 2002 and 2018. You both continue to carry a deep sense of concern that other children may have been left vulnerable to risk of abuse through these years.

“I wish to acknowledge that our Diocese failed profoundly in its pastoral responsibility of care and concern for your wellbeing during the years from 1994 to 2018. I acknowledge that we failed to fulfil our own policy of reporting complaints of this nature to the civil authorities between 1996 and 2002.

“I acknowledge that during the period 2002 until Con Cunningham's conviction in 2018, it was not made clear within the Diocese that he was the subject of complaints of child sexual abuse and therefore potentially a risk to children.

“I wish to apologise to each of you for our profound failures and for the effects of these failures upon your lives over more than three decades. I acknowledge our part in your egregious suffering and its lifelong effects. I recognise that this has affected your parents and siblings and your own families and friends.

“You have not only been abused but also deeply offended in your human dignity and wounded in your lives of faith.

"Margaret and Paula Martin have been deeply motivated from the beginning by a preoccupation for the safety and wellbeing of children in our Church, and I know that this lies at the heart of the decision of so many others who have come forward."

“I recognise that your motivation in coming forward in 1994 was that others might be protected from the abusive experience that was yours. That motivation informed your actions in making public your abusive experiences in 2020 and in renewing your criminal complaints at that time.

“Having listened carefully to all that you have shared with us of your experiences, the Diocese has decided to make a public appeal to others who have suffered abuse in our Diocese through the wrongdoing of a cleric, to consider coming forward to us. I would assure any such person that we will do all in our power to ensure that anybody who comes forward will experience care and support to the very best of our ability.

“I am deeply grateful to each of you for the learnings that you have imparted to me, to Bishop Boyce and to Bishop McGuckian, from your pain-filled experiences of interaction with the Diocese over so many years. “My hope is that you may find peace and that the diocese may do better in accompanying those who have suffered abuse at the hands of a priest as a result of what you have shared of your experience.”