"Betrayal of Trust" - Chris Moore and the Fall of the Reynolds Government (1994)

Chris Moore's book "Betrayal of Trust - The Brendan Smyth Affair and the Catholic Church" was published about April 1995, five months after the fall of the Fianna Fail/Labour coalition led by Albert Reynolds (November 1994). Chris Moore is described as "an award winning UTV journalist based in Belfast". He was a reporter on the UTV current affairs team Counterpoint which produced the TV programme "Suffer Little Children" on 6 October 1994.

Kevin Hegarty wrote the Foreword to the book in April 1995. At the time he was a Catholic curate in Co Mayo and former editor of the Church magazine "Intercom". He writes that: "Though he may not be thanked for it, Chris Moore has done the Irish Church some service in his expose of the Brendan Smyth affair. If the Church listens humbly to what the scandals have revealed about its structures this time of tragedy and pain can also be a time of redemption."

According to Chris Moore in his Introduction:

"This broadcast ["Suffer Little Children"] may forever have changed the face of Catholicism in Ireland and perhaps history will look kindly on it for having forced into the open the shameful deeds the Church for decades tried to bury." In relation to his book "Betrayal of Trust" he describes it as "the story of Brendan Smyth - a paedophile who sheltered, and who was allowed to shelter behind the protective patronage of the Catholic Church in Ireland. Ultimately his crimes not only shamed the Church, but brought down a government in circumstances heavy with suspicions of corruption and double-dealing [my emphasis]".

It is clear that Chris Moore takes some credit for the fall of the Reynolds government and that he has no problem at all with the methods used to bring it down. In Chapter 13 of "Betrayal of Trust" entitled "A Government Falls", he writes:

"If there was to be a storm and possibly a new government in the Republic I wanted to be in Dublin to witness whatever was going to unfold. By three o'clock in the afternoon of 12 November [1994] we were both packing our bags for the hundred-mile south journey to Dublin and for what turned out to be a truly remarkable week in Irish politics. To be truthful it was difficult for me to absorb the dramatic events, for in ten years in newspapers and fifteen years in broadcasting on both television and radio, I had never experienced anything like this before. In my experience once stories were written and printed or transmitted, that was the end of them. It was time to move on to the next story. Six weeks after the transmission of our report there was a very real threat that a government was about to fall because of one of the issues we had raised in the report concerning extradition warrants for Fr. Smyth."

Omitted from "Betrayal of Trust"
Chapter 13 contains quite a detailed account of the fall of the Reynolds government - and I will quote more of it later. However it completely omits the suggestion (on 16 November) by Democratic Left TD Pat Rabbitte that a document existed in the Attorney General's office "that will rock the foundations of this society to its very roots". The leader of Democratic Left Proinsias de Rossa waded in to support Rabbitte: "Is it true that a memorandum has been found in the Attorney General's Office which indicates that there was outside interference in the decision by the Attorney General not to proceed with extradition for seven months?" [1] . It quickly became evident that Rabbitte and de Rossa were suggesting that the Catholic Primate Cardinal Cahal Daly had made representations to then Attorney General Harry Whelehan to delay the extradition of Father Brendan Smyth. The claim created a sensation with a major investigation in the AGs office including a recall of some staff members from abroad. Cardinal Daly was forced to issue a public statement denying the allegation, as was Mr Whelehan who had just been made President of the High Court

This allegation was made on 16 November. The atmosphere of hysteria that it generated was a major factor in the resignation of Albert Reynolds the next day. However Chris Reynolds fails to mention this episode in his book. Yet "Betrayal of Trust" demonises Cardinal Daly and indeed concludes with a personal attack on him. AND Chris Moore (as indicated above) takes credit for the fall of the Government. So why did he omit all reference to this very grave attack on the Cardinal's integrity?

MY SUGGESTION: The claim that Cardinal Daly intervened with the Attorney General to protect Fr Brendan Smyth is utterly without foundation. However it did not spring out of thin air. I suspect that Pat Rabbitte got the idea [2] from the documentary "Suffer Little Children" broadcast the previous month in which Chris Moore played a major role. "Suffer Little Children" did not make that explicit claim but anti-clericalism in the media has a similar effect to anti-Semitism and will generate similar stories (e.g. vile Rabbis/Cardinals conspiring against innocent children). I think that Chris Moore omitted the episode from his book because by April 1995, it was clear that Rabbitte's claim was false and indefensible. Chris Moore did not want to claim credit for THAT particular aspect of the fall of the Reynolds Government!

Neither would he discuss the implications of a government falling because false allegations regarding child abuse were publicised by dishonest politicians. In Ireland today every person in authority - teacher, doctor, priest, social worker etc - is obliged to take precautions against the possibility of false allegations being made by people they are trying to help!! This is the lasting legacy of the destruction of the careers of Albert Reynolds and Harry Whelehan in November 1994.

Rory Connor
1 February 2008

References:
[1] See "Pat Rabbitte, Cardinal Cathal Daly and the Fall of the Reynolds Government" on www.alliancesupport.org - posted on 11 December 2006. Also on the same website "Fintan O'Toole and the Fall of the Reynolds Government" on 30 December 2006 AND "Opus Dei and the Fall of the Reynolds Government" posted on 4 January 2007.

[2] He appears to have got the idea at second-hand e.g.from a senior member of the Labour Party who opposed his party's alliance with Fianna Fail and used Pat Rabbitte to destroy the coalition.