Bishop Martin Drennan must wonder whether he would not have been better to join the Provos rather than the priesthood.

Drennan was among 24 Irish bishops airlifted to Rome on February 13th for a PR meeting with the pope on child sex abuse by clergy. On the previous evening, the Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams had been asked on The Late Late Show about his handling of sex abuse allegations against his brother.
The Galway bishop returned to a renewed clamour for his resignation. Abuse survivor Andrew Madden said that Church claims to have learnt lessons from the Murphy Report would sound “very hollow” if Drennan didn’t step down.
There is no accusation that Drennan colluded in child abuse or personally helped to shield perpetrators. What’s suggested is that, during his tenure as an auxiliary bishop in Dublin – September 1997 to July 2005 – allegations emerged which he ought to have known of, but about which he did nothing.
One notorious abuser served at the National Rehabilitation Institute in Dún Laoghaire – within Drennan’s area of responsibility – up to July 1998. Either he was culpably ignorant or shamefully unconcerned, say survivors. Either way, he should go.
Gerry Adams, on the other hand, doesn’t deny that he was told by his niece, Áine, in 1987 that as a child she’d repeatedly been raped by her father, Liam, the brother of Gerry Adams. The SF leader says that he believed her. But his story from that point conflicts both with Áine’s account and with facts subsequently unearthed by Suzanne Breen of the Sunday Tribune. For example, Mr. Adams says that he offered to accompany Áine to report the abuse to the RUC. She says he didn’t. He says he immediately disowned his brother and then had him “dumped” from Sinn Féin. The Tribune published photographs of the brothers seemingly at ease together at Liam’s second wedding and canvassing together for Sinn Féin during the period when the SF president says they were estranged.
There is no comparable accusation against Dr. Drennan, nor has any statement by him been undermined by subsequent revelations.
Thus, a Roman Catholic bishop has been given a much harder time on a matter of child sex abuse than a political leader who would appear to have more serious and specific questions to answer. Strange times.
The Football Association’s announcement that it has had to cancel a video intended to combat homophobia came on February 11th – the 20th anniversary of the release of Nelson Mandela.
The FA couldn’t find a single Premiership player willing to appear. Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Gordon Taylor explained that the refusal “has nothing to do with homophobia... Remember, there was a time when even black players did not feel they could talk about race.”
We remember too, though, that the reason for reluctance to speak out then had to do precisely with the intensity of racism in the game, just as the reason in this instance has to do with the extent of homophobia.
News that the initiative had been cancelled figured in the bulletins which recalled Mandela’s walk to freedom in February 1990. I thought, yeah, there’s why I love David Beckham.
Beckham was captain of the England team which visited South Africa for a friendly in 2003. The team was invited to meet Mandela. Some were too knackered to leave their hotel and stayed at the poolside rather than undertake the ordeal of a 30-minute bus ride.
Those who couldn’t bother their backsides included Gareth Southgate, Paul Scholes, Phil Neville, Steven Gerrard, Danny Mills, Paul Robinson, Gareth Barry and Joe Cole. Southgate wrote in his newspaper column: “It was a difficult decision not to go and meet him. Unfortunately, though, the early start to visit Mr. Mandela and the additional travelling involved would not have been right for me as an individual in order to prepare for the match.”
Beckham led in those who did deign to meet Mandela, and, beatific smile spread across his face, introduced them one by one. He said afterwards: “This was a great moment for me. It was the highlight of my career. To meet such a great man and a strong man and such a passionate man about sport and life will always stay with me.”
He responded with the same grace and decency three years ago when asked by GQ how he reacted to being voted a gay icon. “To have that sort of effect on so many people around the world, I think of it as a great honour.”
Told that Sir Ian McKellen fancied him, Beckham said: “Well, it’s always nice to be liked by someone like that.”
The abandonment of the video project suggests there isn’t a single Premiership player today who would respond to the issue of homophobia in such an exquisitely appropriate way.
There’s no macho posturing about Beckham. If England win the World Cup on their return to South Africa – as they well might – I will find compensation in the sight of Beckham holding the trophy aloft. Bet Mandela will smile, too.
As an influence within the game and as a role model for young people, Beckham is worth more than Scholes, Gerrard, Cole, Terry and the rest put together. It is time he was given due credit.
Another thing Dunphy and other members of the gnarled community have against Beckham is that he’s a bit gorgeous.