Journey of atonement nearly over for priest who vowed to walk the walk

A WINTER-BLUE sky looked down on the country road outside Blessington as Fr Michael Mernagh began his penultimate day's walk yesterday from St Colman's Cathedral in Cobh to St Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin.

Cars dropped speed as they passed him, an unusual sight in his yellow high-visibility vest, with a placard tied to his front calling for atonement and black socks on his hands. He misplaced his gloves somewhere on the way, he explained, but socks were just as good, even better.

Other road users have been good to him for the most part, he said, except three young lads in souped-up cars who gesticulated to him to get off the road.

It is a private journey for him, made in public. His need to atone for 20 years of listening to rumours and stories of clerical sexual abuse, for feeling helpless and doing nothing, had pushed him to walk, he said.

Originally from Glenmore, Co Kilkenny, Fr Mernagh was ordained in the Augustinian order in 1963. He studied in Paris and was sent to work in Nigeria before returning to Ireland to study community development.

He has worked in the Liberties in Dublin for over 30 years, and was the director of the National Combat Poverty Committee in the 1970s. In March 1984, Fr Mernagh spent one night in jail after standing in front of bulldozers with a nun in Firhouse, south Dublin, to try to prevent a family of Travellers from being evicted from a council site.

He is involved in the South Inner City Community Development Association and also works in Capetown for four months each year promoting community development. It was when he returned from South Africa just before Christmas that he decided he would have to take some action. The news of clerical sexual abuse in Cloyne was just breaking and he felt he just had to do something.

"The day of thinking and talking was over, so I said I will walk the walk," he said.

He woke in the middle of the night before Christmas Eve and, telling no one, got into his car in Meath Street, Dublin and drove to Cobh. He maintained a three-day vigil outside St Colman's Cathedral and had a brief chat with Bishop of Cloyne, John Magee.

"I said that to him, this is bigger than you or anything that's happening here, this has affected all of us, in all the diocese, in all of Ireland," he said.He set out on his walk with no plan at all, he said, but with the help of his niece and people along the way he has managed to find accommodation on most nights. And he has met many victims of clerical sexual abuse along the way.

"I was humbled and I must say sobered by their stories and by what they are still suffering," he said. He said it was "abominable" that the victims were still being obstructed.

"We need to wake up and realise those who are obstructing their rights are themselves public sinners, they are colluding with those paedophile priests," he said.

Today, Fr Mernagh will walk from the Augustinian Novitiate in Templeogue to St Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin City Centre. He hopes to arrive at 1.30pm in order to hand in his placard.