This Tuesday will mark a year since the RTÉ documentary, in conjunction with the Daily Mail and presented by reporter Anne Sheridan, featured revelations about child sexual abuse allegations against former Bishop Eamonn Casey.
It also revealed that Dr Casey was formally removed from public ministry in 2007 by the Vatican, following allegations, which included his niece Patricia Donovan's complaint of child sexual abuse.
The Vatican restriction was never disclosed during Bishop Casey's lifetime.
Casey consistently denied all allegations against him, and he was never convicted of any sexual crimes.
He remained a bishop until his death in March 2017.
Although it was not widely known at the time, the funeral, which was attended by 1,600 people, was scaled back for a bishop whose greatest indiscretion publicly known at that point, was an affair with Annie Murphy who had a child by him.
The Papal Nuncio, the Vatican’s representative in Ireland, did not attend.
Again, the presumption was that the man had sinned in the eyes of the church by fathering a child.
What emerged through the work of Ms Sheridan and the RTÉ team was that there were four allegations of child sexual abuse made against Casey, including by his niece Patricia Donovan, who claimed in the programme that she was groomed by her uncle and sexually abused by him from the age of five.
Read more: Galway Diocese confirms removal of Bishop Eamonn Casey's remains from cathedral crypt
Another safeguarding allegation noted in the documentary did not meet Tusla’s threshold of abuse.
The programme ended with footage of the former bishop’s funeral and his burial in the crypt under Galway Cathedral.
The decision to place his remains in the crypt was one made by the Galway Diocese.
The documentary confirmed that it had records of child sexual abuse allegations against the former bishop.
Considering the Vatican requested that Bishop Casey was not to exercise public ministry for the last ten years of his life, the view of some contributors to the programme was that this was a significant sanction for a bishop.
The Vatican would have viewed the burial of Bishop Casey as a decision for the diocese, as would the Catholic hierarchy in Ireland at the time. Such a siloed approach is not unusual in the Catholic Church.
Therefore, consideration over Bishop Casey’s remains in the wake of the allegations entering the public domain fell to the current Bishop of Galway Michael Duignan.
The Irish Daily Mail carried out a poll around a month following the documentary which showed that 60% of people aged 55 years and older felt that Bishop Casey’s remains should be removed.
Patricia Donovan expressed her disbelief in the documentary over his burial in the crypt.
These kinds of burials are a symbol of the deceased's ongoing spiritual presence and connection to their diocese, even in death.
This practice is rooted in the Catholic tradition, where cathedrals are the principal churches of a diocese and the bishop's seat of authority.
Inundated with queries as to what he would do, Bishop Michael Duignan expressed his commitment in July last year to "working with anybody affected, to help bring truth, healing and peace to such terribly painful situations".
In this context, he said the interment of the remains of Bishop Casey in the crypt beneath Galway Cathedral was "a very sensitive issue that deeply affects people in different ways, and which has different facets".
He said it required a period of "careful consideration and consultation" and he requested "time and space" to "adequately and appropriately bring this undertaking to completion".
A year on, the Galway Diocese has confirmed that the remains have been removed.
It is not known when this occurred; however, the statement says that there were prayers for the dead, and his mortal remains were removed.
This was with the "assent and cooperation" of members of the late bishop’s family who have requested privacy at this time. The remains have been entrusted to their care.
It is questionable how the Galway Diocese could have kept Bishop Casey’s mortal remains at the cathedral indefinitely, considering the public disquiet over their presence.
The statement said: "Significant consensus emerged around the unique role of a Cathedral as a place of unity rather than division, healing rather than hurt and peace rather than disquiet."
The current Bishop of Galway Michael Duignan, who was born the year after Eamon Casey became Bishop of Kerry in 1969, is not speaking publicly about the decision.
