State apology to be offered to Kenneally abuse survivors on July 14th – O’Callaghan

By Rebecca Black, Press Association

A State apology is to be offered to the survivors of paedophile basketball coach Bill Kenneally on July 14th.

Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan confirmed the plan on Sunday.

Kenneally died on Thursday, aged 75, two days after the Minister for Defence told his victims they would receive a state apology.

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald said it is the view of survivors that Fianna Fáil should also apologise for the abuse carried out by Kenneally.

A Commission of Investigation report published on June 9th found there was a “clear and serious dereliction of duty” by Gardaí, who became aware of abuse by Kenneally in December 1987.

It was not until 2016 that he was jailed, and when he died he had served more than 10 years of a 19-year sentence for the indecent assault of 15 boys.

Kenneally came from a prominent Waterford family: his grandfather, uncle and cousin were all Fianna Fáil TDs for the constituency, and another uncle was a prominent cleric in the area.

The report found knowledge of his activities became known to two senior Garda officers in Waterford as well as his uncles – retired TD Billy Kenneally Senior and Monsignor John Shine – in the late 1980s.

It also said his cousin, Brendan Kenneally, also a former Fianna Fáil TD, knew in 2001 that Kenneally had seriously sexually abused two boys in the 80s and 90s.

The report found Brendan Kenneally “should never have allowed” Bill Kenneally “to continue to canvas and act as tallyman for him or the Fianna Fáil party”, which he did up until 2011.

While O’Callaghan confirmed the date for the state apology, he described a “harrowing report”.

“I met survivors and victims of Bill Kenneally two weeks ago. I couldn’t avoid the fact that in the report there is a clear finding that there was a dereliction of duty by An Garda Síochána in 1987,” he told RTÉ Radio’s This Week programme.

“I am the minister responsible for An Garda Síochána. That’s why I apologised to them when they came into the Department of Justice to see me.

“I know they met the Taoiseach last week and he did the same, and there will be a formal apology in the Dáil on July 14th.”

But in terms of Fianna Fáil, O’Callaghan said: “If a senior person in an organisation does something wrong, the organisation does not become responsible for that wrong doing unless it was aware of or endorsed the behaviour.

“So there is no finding in the report that shows culpability on the part of the Fianna Fáil.”