A Catholic Bishop has urged the High Court to stop him being sued by a man who received £25,000 (€30,341) after settling his Northern Ireland court action over being sexually abused as a child by paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.

It seemed incredible in 1994 that the cover-up involving the paedophile activities of Fr Brendan Smyth had been going on for 19 years by the time it brought down the government of Albert Reynolds.

THE 1975 oath of secrecy extracted from two child sex abuse victims to which Cardinal Seán Brady was a witness is simply another vivid and catastrophic illustration of the consequences that arise when there is no accountability within an organisation and the vanity of leaders takes absolute precedence over the vitality and integrity of its mission.