{"id":443227,"date":"2026-05-11T12:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T12:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/443227\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T12:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T12:39:09","slug":"shock-in-wicklow-after-former-rector-accused-of-abusing-girls-in-uk-before-move-to-ireland-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/443227\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Shock\u2019 in Wicklow after former rector accused of abusing girls in UK before move to Ireland \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a beautiful Sunday morning, the Church of Ireland<\/a> community of the Blessington<\/a> Union of Parishes gathered on farmland by the shore of the Blessington Lakes.<\/p>\n

They were there to celebrate Rogation Sunday, a day in which Anglicans ask for God\u2019s blessing for crops, agriculture and fishing.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s service took place following the revelation last week<\/a> that a previous rector of the parishes, Kesh Govan, who was originally from Bolton in England, was alleged to have groomed and sexually abused girls in a UK<\/a> parish youth group before he moved to Ireland 22 years ago.<\/p>\n

News of his alleged abuse emerged following an investigation in Australia, where Govan lived from 2014 until his death last year.<\/p>\n

Govan, whose father was from India, served as rector of Blessington in Co Wicklow, serving Kilbride, Ballymore Eustace and Hollywood from 2004 to 2007, before he returned to the UK and later moved to Australia.<\/p>\n

The Church of Ireland joint dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough said last week it was aware an independent investigation commissioned by the Anglican Church in South Queensland had shared \u201cserious safeguarding disclosures\u201d about Govan. <\/p>\n

The dioceses said the news was \u201cdeeply distressing\u201d and shared details of support resources that affected people could contact.<\/p>\n

Govan and his wife moved to Co Wicklow from Salford in Greater Manchester with their young children in 2004.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in shock,\u201d said the man in a couple from Blessington who did not wish to be named when The Irish Times approached them on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d have known of him, but we never knew that,\u201d said the woman of Govan\u2019s alleged abuse.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe late Anglican rector Kesh Govan <\/p>\n

They said much of the community was unwilling to discuss the period in which Govan was based there.<\/p>\n

That proved to be true as members of the Blessington parishes declined to share their thoughts about the former rector when approached after the Rogation Sunday service. <\/p>\n

The Rev Niall Stratford said any queries should be directed at the diocese.<\/p>\n

Those in the area who did speak to The Irish Times said the first they had heard of the allegations was when reading news about the statement issued by the dioceses.<\/p>\n

With Govan having last served in the area nearly two decades ago, many in the parish said they did not remember him or had moved into the area after he left.<\/p>\n

Archival copies of news reports from the time give a different perspective of Govan\u2019s time in Co Wicklow. <\/p>\n

He told the Leinster Leader in 2006 that he found the church \u201ctoo stuffy\u201d and \u201ctoo strict\u201d and had sought to meet his parishioners at community and music events. His congregation was said to have tripled during his time there, according to that report.<\/p>\n

He was also remembered for his \u201cunconventionality\u201d and \u201cgood humour\u201d by locals when he left to return to the UK, according to another report.<\/p>\n

Other news stories from the time said he was a judge in a women\u2019s festival pageant, was the guest speaker at a local GAA dinner dance and wrote a religious column in the Ballymore Bugle, a local media outlet.<\/p>\n

When he died, by suicide in November 2025, the Wicklow People newspaper ran an obituary describing him as \u201cvery popular in the locality\u201d.<\/p>\n

In Australia, Govan became known as the \u201csinging vicar\u201d while serving in New South Wales in the Diocese of Newcastle and in Southern Queensland. He also worked as a DJ. <\/p>\n

On Sunday at Blessington Lakes, there was no reference to Govan in the reverend\u2019s homily.<\/p>\n

He paid tribute to the work of David Attenborough \u2013 \u201cundoubtedly the greatest conservationist in our time\u201d \u2013 who celebrated his 100th birthday last week.<\/p>\n

He quoted the words of former president Mary Robinson: \u201cThere are very few people in the world who have that global trust as [David Attenborough] has<\/a> and as he deserves to have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a beautiful Sunday morning, the Church of Ireland community of the Blessington Union of Parishes gathered on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5784,56810,61,60,43,7469],"class_list":["post-443227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-church-of-ireland","tag-david-attenborough","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-wicklow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}