{"id":508668,"date":"2026-06-19T22:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T22:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/508668\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T22:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T22:53:11","slug":"former-td-brendan-kenneally-no-longer-a-member-of-fianna-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/508668\/","title":{"rendered":"Former TD Brendan Kenneally \u2018no longer a member of Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former TD Brendan Kenneally resigned from Fianna F\u00e1il after an inquiry into the way allegations of abuse against his cousin, paedophile basketball coach Bill Kenneally, were handled.<\/p>\n

Government Chief Whip Mary Butler, Fianna F\u00e1il TD for Waterford, said she never met Bill Kenneally, but his cousin Brendan had canvassed on her behalf.<\/p>\n

She stopped short of saying Fianna F\u00e1il should apologise, but did apologise herself \u201cif there\u2019s anything I have ever done that caused trauma, distress, or hurt\u201d to his victims.<\/p>\n

Bill Kenneally, who died on Thursday aged 75, was sentenced to 19 years in prison for the sexual assault of 15 boys between 1979 and 1990.<\/p>\n

One of Ireland\u2019s most notorious sex offenders, Kenneally used his position as a basketball coach to abuse teenagers in Waterford.<\/p>\n

The report was published on Tuesday. Brendan Kenneally was no longer a member of the Fianna F\u00e1il party by Tuesday evening<\/p>\n

Government Chief Whip Mary Butler<\/p>\n

A Commission of Investigation report published last week found that there was a \u201cclear and serious dereliction of duty\u201d by Garda\u00ed, who became aware of abuse by Bill Kenneally at a meeting in December 1987.<\/p>\n

The report found knowledge of his activities became known to two senior Garda officers in Waterford, as well as Bill Kenneally\u2019s uncles \u2013 retired TD Billy Kenneally Snr and Monsignor John Shine \u2013 in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n

A state apology will be made to his victims next month, but Taoiseach and Fianna F\u00e1il leader Miche\u00e1l Martin said the report \u201cdoesn\u2019t implicate the Fianna F\u00e1il party at all\u201d.<\/p>\n

The report says that Bill Kenneally\u2019s uncle, Billy Kenneally Snr, knew in late 1987 that his nephew had sexually abused at least one child.<\/p>\n

It said that Brendan Kenneally, the son of Billy Kenneally Snr, knew in 2001 that Kenneally had seriously sexually abused two boys in the 80s and 90s.<\/p>\n

Both had been TDs and senators for Fianna F\u00e1il, and the Kenneally family were a political dynasty in Waterford.<\/p>\n

The public inquiry report said of Brendan Kenneally that his actions in 2001 \u201cat the very least fell substantially below the standards the Commission would expect from a TD of Mr Kenneally\u2019s experience\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe should have spoken to Bill Kenneally and advised him to resign from Waterford Viking basketball club, and he should never have allowed him to continue to canvas and act as tallyman for him or the Fianna F\u00e1il party.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite the strong denial of Brendan Kenneally in evidence, the one constant in the actions of all three, Billy Kenneally Snr, Monsignor Shine and Brendan Kenneally was a failure to bring the matter into the public domain at least to the extent of reporting the matter to the statutory agencies responsible for child protection.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview on WLRFM\u2019s D\u00e9ise Today programme, Mary Butler said that Brendan Kenneally voluntarily resigned as a member of the party \u201cearlier this week\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe report states very, very clearly that he fell far below the standards that you would expect. The report was published on Tuesday. Brendan Kenneally was no longer a member of the Fianna F\u00e1il party by Tuesday evening,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe I should have asked Brendan Kenneally to step away from Fianna F\u00e1il, because Brendan plays a very, very small role in Fianna F\u00e1il.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if Fianna F\u00e1il would issue an apology, she said the party \u201cis not implicated as an organisation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour obsession with Fianna F\u00e1il in the last two weeks has been unbelievable,\u201d she said to the presenter on WLRFM.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am heartbroken, as Mary Butler TD from Waterford, as to how those victims were treated over many, many years.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Dublin<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

Dublin riots looter (20) was a ‘follower’, court hears<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe saddest part of it is that if actions had been taken in \u201987 and if action had been taken in 2001, not as many of the victims would have been abused by the most prolific paedophile that we probably will ever have heard of.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the Minister for Mental Health, but first and foremost, I\u2019m a mother, and I\u2019m a Fianna F\u00e1il TD in Waterford, and I apologise on my own behalf if there\u2019s anything I have ever done that caused trauma, distress, or hurt for any of the victims of Bill Kenneally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fianna F\u00e1il have been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former TD Brendan Kenneally resigned from Fianna F\u00e1il after an inquiry into the way allegations of abuse against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-508668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508668","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=508668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}