{"id":550551,"date":"2026-07-15T07:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T07:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/550551\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T07:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T07:20:11","slug":"garda-commissioner-apologises-for-significant-failures-investigating-bill-kenneally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/550551\/","title":{"rendered":"Garda Commissioner apologises for ‘significant failures’ investigating Bill Kenneally"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Garda Commissioner has apologised for \u201csignificant failures\u201d in investigating paedophile Bill Kenneally.<\/p>\n

The apology comes more than a month after a major report found a \u201cclear and serious dereliction of duty\u201d on behalf of garda\u00ed investigating the paedophile.<\/p>\n

Kenneally, in his early 70s and formerly of Summerville Avenue, Waterford city, died in prison last month after pleading guilty to 10 sample counts of indecently assaulting 10 boys at various locations in Waterford in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

The predator gave evidence to a Commission of Investigation into his abuse, where he said he had told two senior garda\u00ed in the boardroom of a Garda station on December 30th, 1987 \u201cwhat I was doing\u201d.<\/p>\n

It found the failure on behalf of acting Chief Superintendent Sean Cashman, and to a \u201clesser extent\u201d acting Superintendent PJ Hayes after December 1987, to conduct a proper investigation into the activities of Kenneally, was a \u201cclear and serious dereliction of duty even by the standards of the time\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"CanadianTaoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin (Conor O Mearain\/PA)<\/p>\n

The Commission\u2019s report said that garda\u00ed had enough evidence to arrest Kenneally on suspicion of false imprisonment and indecent assault by the time this interview took place, and to search his house and car.<\/p>\n

At the time, he was in possession of Polaroid images of naked boys in his home and car, the report said.<\/p>\n

At the meeting on December 30th, 1987, Kenneally was not cautioned, proper notes were not taken, the investigation was not properly established and no file was created.<\/p>\n

One of the officers also had a conflict of interest as he was \u201ca close friend\u201d of Kenneally\u2019s uncle, Monsignor John Shine, and should have recused himself from the investigation.<\/p>\n

On the day the report was published in June, An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na said its thoughts were with the \u201cvictims of this terrible abuse\u201d and that it had since \u201cinvested significantly in the investigation of domestic and sexual abuse\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"BillJason Clancy, Colin Power, Paul Walsh, Gerry Mullane, Kevin Keating and Barry Murphy, survivors of convicted paedophile Bill Kenneally outside Leinster House (Cillian Sherlock\/PA)<\/p>\n

However, it said it would \u201cneed time to review\u201d the report \u201cbefore commenting on it\u201d.<\/p>\n

It repeatedly declined to comment on the report in the following week.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, more than a month after the report\u2019s publication, Commissioner Justin Kelly said An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na \u201cfully accepts\u201d the findings of the South East Commission of Investigation.<\/p>\n

It came shortly after Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin offered a State apology to the victims in the D\u00e1il.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Bill<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

Bill Kenneally victims to receive compensation after State apology<\/p>\n

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

Mr Kelly noted the commission said the quality of the second investigation, which resulted in guilty pleas, was \u201csuperb\u201d and did not contain any mala fides or cover-up on the part of An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na \u2013 although it had not proceeded with expedition.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cAn Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na acknowledges and regrets that victims Jason Clancy and A7 were not communicated with properly in the initial stages of this second investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

“As Garda commissioner, I wish to offer my personal apology to the victims of Bill Kenneally for the significant failures of An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na, we fell far short of what is expected of us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Garda Commissioner has apologised for \u201csignificant failures\u201d in investigating paedophile Bill Kenneally. The apology comes more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-550551","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\/550551","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=550551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}