Fergus Finlay: What is it about religious orders and land? It makes me want to gag

'The Holy Ghost fathers have a lot of worse skeletons in their closet. Ten years ago, an audit by the Church’s National Safeguarding Body found at least 47 abusing priests in the order in the past.'

You couldn’t be up to them, could you? The religious orders in Ireland, I mean. Let’s talk about one of them in particular, the Holy Ghost Fathers. Or the Spiritans, as they’re grandly called. It was an interview about them that made me almost gag this week.

I suppose I should declare an interest first of all. When I was younger I had an uncle who was a Holy Ghost priest. Not quite an uncle, he was my mother’s first cousin, and the same age as her. Father Jack we called him. He died when I was in my 20s, but he used to visit our house fairly regularly when I was a kid.