A Catholic priest who was defrocked by Rome following a Church investigation into child abuse claims still carries a picture of his alleged victims on his phone, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal. 

Michael O’Connor, the former president of a seminary in the diocese of Waterford and Lismore, also continues to live rent–free in a Church–owned property despite being dismissed from the priesthood.

The former priest claims that he is not guilty of abusing five girls, some of whom made allegations of abuse against him from incidents between the 1970s and the 1990s. 

This week, O’Connor – a former captain of Waterford Golf Club – confirmed that he has written to the Pope’s ambassador in Ireland and the Vatican in a bid to be reinstated to the priesthood.

Speaking out for the first time this week, some of his alleged victims have come forward following a three–month MoS/WLR [Waterford Local Radio] investigation, with shocking claims about how they were abused by O’Connor as children.

These include allegations that:

•  The former priest fondled and molested an eight–year–old girl at her home while her parents were in the next room
•  Molested another 11–year–old girl he took to a golf tournament in his car
• When confronted by the father of other alleged victims, he told him: ‘Sure, I’ve a girlfriend now – and I kiss her and everything.’

Michael O’Connor has also spoken for the first time about the abuse allegations that culminated in his removal for the priesthood.

The now–84–year–old admits drying off the naked bodies of some children he took swimming in 1972 but still denies he ever committed any abuse.

O’Connor also admitted he was interviewed by gardaí in two separate investigations in the past.

The former priest was sent to the Saint Luke Institute in Maryland in the US by the former Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, William Lee, where he was classified as ‘being a danger to female minors without successful treatment’.

However, O’Connor admits he never went for treatment. 

He said a separate assessment by a psychologist from UCD found he was ‘a man of adult, heterosexual interests… and there was no evidence of sexual attraction towards children’.

The former priest also admitted he still carries around a photograph of himself posing with some of the alleged victims that was taken back in 1975, on his phone.

Asked why he still carries the photograph, he would only say ‘it became relevant’.

The defrocked priest claims the internal Church inquiry into the allegations was superseded by a Garda investigation into the claims, which the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) ultimately decided not to pursue. 

He told the MoS: ‘It seems important to me and to many of my colleagues that the protection of the civil law should be available to priests.

‘In the view of most people, no private agency, like a bishop or a diocese, can override the conclusions of the prosecution service of the Irish State.’

O’Connor also claims that the internal inquiry he said was spearheaded by the current Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, Alphonsus Cullinan, ‘clearly violated the Church regulation, which stipulates that the investigation should be carried out with respect for the civil laws of each state’.

However, Bishop Cullinan has insisted the inquiry was initiated ‘in accordance with Church procedures’.

In a previous statement, the Bishop noted that he had referred the case to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican – the Vatican’s chief doctrinal and disciplinary authority, which was formerly known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

‘The result of this inquiry is that Michael O’Connor has been dismissed from the clerical state, and therefore is no longer a priest,’ Bishop Cullinan said in January 2024.

‘This decision is solely based on the outcome of this Church inquiry.’

While O’Connor continues to deny he harmed any children, some of his victims who spoke out for the first time in recent weeks said the alleged abuse they suffered at his hands has stayed with them throughout their adult lives.

One woman recalled how ‘Fr Michael’ abused her in her own home while her family members were in the next room.

She told the MoS: ‘One summer’s day, when I was eight, I was wearing shorts and T–shirt and was alone with him in my cousin’s sitting room.

‘There were grown–ups in the kitchen at the time.

‘I was sitting on his lap. He started to move his fingers up towards the top of my leg, just near the end of my shorts.

‘He continued with this until his fingers eventually ended up inside my underwear up the leg of my shorts.

She recalled: ‘He then continued to do more to me until it stopped. I’m not sure what stopped it, to be honest, I think I jumped off but I can’t be 100 per cent. 

'No one saw him and I said nothing after for years until I felt like I needed to release it to someone else.’

The victim said the alleged abuse stayed with her for the rest of her childhood – ‘it would always be there in my head’ – until she told her now husband and, ‘with his support, I decided it was time to try and get help’.

She went to a counsellor, who encouraged her to report the alleged abuse to gardaí but was later told ‘the file would not be going to the DPP because there wasn’t enough evidence’.

She also reported the abuse allegations to Safeguarding Ireland in 2011.

‘I don’t know what the DPP or Garda reasoning was in not progressing my complaint. I was never told,’ she said.

Another victim claims she that was molested by O’Connor when he took her to a golf tournament in the 1990s.

She told the MoS: ‘I would have been 11 years of age. I didn’t know what to do. I knew what he had done was wrong. I never told anyone afterwards.’

More than a decade later, the woman reported the alleged abuse to gardaí, but she did not make a formal statement.

‘Looking back now, I can say that O’Connor was a pro. He thinks he’s invincible,’ she added.

The father of other alleged victims described O’Connor as a ‘monster’ who has refused to acknowledge ‘his wrong, the pain, the damage that he inflicted on us and so many others’.

He said the former priest became a friend of the family during the 1970s and became ‘a regular visitor to our home’.

The father said he became aware ‘there was a poison in our midst’ when one of his daughters claimed she had been abused by O’Connor.

Recalling the moment he confronted his former friend, he said O’Connor ‘denied he had been abusing my girls’.

The father said he was stunned by the then–priest’s response.

‘He [O’Connor] said: “Sure I’ve a girlfriend now – and I kiss her and everything.”

‘He was trying to use whatever friendship he had with this woman, whom I knew, to deflect me. And saying he “kisses her and everything” – I found that a bizarre thing to say.’

The father said his family has been ‘left with many scars’ because of the abuse his girls suffered.

‘There were many bad days. One of the girls told me he used to touch her up when we were all in the sitting room on Sunday evenings watching Glenroe.

‘He’d be on the couch beside her in a way we couldn’t see his hand. We were all there and we hadn’t a clue what was happening.

‘What, if anything, can prepare a parent for this kind of eventuality? Patience, understanding, openness and above all – love.

‘We tried to heal and tried to find peace as a family. But were other families confronted with the same vile behaviour as we were? Did they find peace?

‘Sometimes a family has to suffer in silence when something dreadful and totally unexpected is perpetrated on a family. 

'So much hurt, so much pain. But to go public at the time we felt would only make that pain worse.

‘What he did happened in an Ireland of 40 or 50 years ago when the Church and the clergy were all–powerful.’

The father said that ‘the pain and the hurt’ his family suffered ‘stayed silently behind closed doors. Terrible things happened to our daughters.

‘Their pain never goes away. Time might heal, to some extent, but as parents, you never know to what extent,’ he added.

He said of O’Connor: ‘This man should now face justice. He has been pleading his innocence for nearly 50 years.

‘I didn’t listen to my daughters at first – mainly because we believed that priests never did any bad deeds.

‘Now I’m a wiser man. Openness, honesty and above all love start the healing process.

‘We may have a certain amount of peace now, but cruel and sick perpetrators should always pay a price.’

When the victims’ claims were put to O’Connor this week, he admitted he remembered specific occasions with the children when the alleged abuse took place but insisted he did not harm them in any way.

He said: ‘If they had a case, they went to the guards and they said there was no case.’

In response to queries, Bishop Cullinan said ‘safeguarding is a pastoral priority for me in my role as Bishop of the Diocese’.

He said in a statement: ‘The voice of the survivor must always be heard, supported and believed. Accountability is critical to maintaining high safeguarding standards and, in this regard, the Diocese works closely with survivors, An Garda Síochána, the Health Service Executive and with the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland, in order to keep children safe in all areas of Church life here.

‘I encourage any person with a Church–related safeguarding concern to report it without delay to the Statutory and Church authorities.’

The Vatican did not respond to queries about the case.