Mourners at controversial bishop's funeral told one moment cannot define a life
Bishop Brendan Comiskey, who died this week at the age of 89, quit as bishop of the Ferns diocese in the southeast in 2002 after acknowledging failings in his handling of complaints against notorious priest Fr Sean Fortune.
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The diocese's much-criticised response to allegations against Fr Fortune, who took his own life in 1999 while on bail awaiting trial on a litany of child abuse charges, and other clerics in its parishes prompted the government's landmark Ferns Inquiry.
Former bishop of Ferns Brendan Comiskey died aged 89 (PA)
The subsequent Ferns Report, published in 2005, was damning of the diocese's handling of clerical abuse allegations across a four-decade period.
Requiem mass for Bishop Comiskey, who was originally from Co Monaghan, was held in the Church of the Sacred Heart in Clondalkin in west Dublin on Thursday.
Fr Jim Fegan, a priest in the Ferns diocese, told hundreds of mourners who gathered for the service that failure in one aspect of a person's life does not define them entirely.
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He said the bishop was in some respects a 'product of the church culture of his time'.
Fr Fegan said the bishop 'believed deeply in the power of kindness and that every person deserved to be treated with dignity and respect'.
'And he embraced this belief wholeheartedly,' he added.
'He had a huge, huge heart, and he always spoke of the value of compassion and the power of a kind word or a helping hand.'
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The coffin of Bishop Brendan Comiskey arrives at the Church of the Sacred Heart, in Clondalkin (Arthur Carron/PA)
Reflecting on his resignation as Bishop of Ferns, Fr Fegan said: 'Leadership is never easy, and Brendan experienced his own unique mix of gifts, challenges and life lessons, and there were times when he felt he did not meet the expectations that had been set before him, but yet it is very important to recognise that failure in one aspect does not define the entirety of a person's life or their great legacy.'
The cleric went on to quote part of the statement Bishop Comiskey made upon his resignation. It was a statement in which the bishop asked for forgiveness and acknowledged while he had tried to do his best, his best was 'not good enough'.
The priest then told mourners: 'My friends, we can see more clearly now that Brendan Comiskey was in some ways a product of the church culture of his time, and that was a culture that focused on organisation rather than people.
'At all times, Brendan stated very clearly that all those who have suffered abuse must never be forgotten, and they must be assured of how much God truly loves them and how abuse is handled must be constantly under review.
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'No one moment is the measure of a person's life. All the moments must be in the scales, and we leave the final reckoning to God, who alone knows our innermost thoughts.
'The overall story of Brendan Comiskey's life and the church that he led, I believe, helps to shape our approach to leadership and accountability today so we too can admit when we have gone astray and correct our course, so that we can better appreciate that leadership is, above all, a shared endeavour filled with good decisions and bad, and that life is not just about how we handle our failures or our successes, but rather about the love we give to our companions on the road.'
After the service, the bishop's remains were taken for burial in Annyalla Cemetery in Co Monaghan.
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Edinburgh Reporter
3 days ago
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Fringe 2025 – Our Brothers in Cloth ⭐⭐⭐⭐
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In recent years we have seen how women have suffered at the hands of the Catholic church (Small Things Like These, The Magdalene Sisters, The Woman in the Wall); Colfer looks instead at the abuse of young children and the ways in which the perpetrators were protected, as much by lay people's reluctance to face facts as by the authorities' unwillingness to tarnish the reputation of the most powerful organisation in 20th century Ireland. The Kinsella family is mourning its younger son, Christopher, who has taken his own life. His brother Alan (Jake Douglas) burns with grief and guilt; when Chris first attempted suicide a horrified Alan just gave him a good telling off. Since Chris died, the much loved parish priest Fr Mulvaney has moved away, replaced by Fr Seamus O'Donovan (Ronan Colfer); when Alan's friend Mark (Michael Lavin) comes home from London for a visit, we find out why. 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See it at Assembly George Square, Studio 5 (Venue 20) at 12.15pm every day until 25 August. Tickets here. Please note: there is no show on Tuesday 19 August. For this production, Poke the Bear are partnering with survivors' charities Nexus NI and The Survivors Trust, and activist survivors Colm O'Gorman (who campaigned to have the Ferns Inquiry set up) and Sean Faloon. Like this: Like Related
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Bishop Brendan Comiskey obituary: discredited Irish cleric
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‘We'll be forever grateful for their compassion': Lynskeys pay tribute to Comiskey family following death of controversial bishop
Maria Lynskey was speaking following the funeral of Bishop Comiskey, who died on April 28, aged 89. Ms Lynskey, the niece of Joe Lynskey, who was abducted, murdered and secretly buried by the IRA in 1972, said she and the wider Lynskey family will be 'forever grateful for the compassion shown by Bishop Dr Brendan Comiskey and his family' for all their assistance in the search for her uncle's remains in Annyalla Cemetery, Co Monaghan, in November last year. Remains from the Comiskey family grave were exhumed by the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains (ICLVR), the body set up to locate and recover the remains of the Disappeared, when it was believed that Mr Lynskey's body may have been buried in the grave following his murder. DNA testing revealed that although there were remains in the grave that did not belong to the Comiskey family, they were not those of Joe Lynskey or any other Disappeared. Maria Lynskey said: 'Previous searches for Joe's remains were in a field and on a bog. 'Going into a family grave was very different and it must have come as a shock to the family to think that one of the Disappeared might be there. I can only imagine how distressing it must have been for them. 'Bishop Comiskey, who was very ill at the time, and his family supported the ICLVR's efforts to find Joe despite the very difficult personal circumstances, and that showed great compassion,' she added. 'I will never forget it and I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart.' A former Cistercian monk from the Beechmount area of west Belfast, Mr Lynskey later joined the IRA and went missing in 1972. Republicans have claimed he was 'executed and buried' by the IRA. The latest search in November last year was the first since 2018. Before that, a search for the remains of Mr Lynskey recovered the remains of Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee. The remains of four of the original 19 Disappeared — Captain Robert Nairac, Seamus Maguire, Columba McVeigh and Joe Lynskey — have yet to be recovered. Maria Lynskey interview As last November's search got underway, Ms Lynskey said her father, who had been dead for 30 years, would have loved to have known where his brother was. 'When people give information, they don't realise how humble and how grateful we are that they have given information,' she said, speaking of her hopes that the details provided would finally lead to her uncle's remains being discovered. 'Whoever owns this grave, I thank them from the bottom of my heart… Hopefully it's Joe. I hope to God it's Joe and that we can bring him home. 'But we still have four more bodies — three men and one young woman — that we need to bring home, too.' Describing her uncle, Ms Lynskey said: 'He was quiet. He was quite gentle and shy in a way. He was the only uncle we had.' Bishop Brendan Comiskey had resigned from Ferns diocese in the south-east of Ireland in 2002 after acknowledging failings in his handling of complaints against notorious priest Fr Sean Fortune. Requiem Mass for Bishop Comiskey was held in the Church of the Sacred Heart in Clondalkin in west Dublin on Thursday.
