Two leaders are a liability to their own institutions

Both Seán Brady and Brian Cowen perceive a happy coincidence between the wider interest and their own. By Vincent Browne.

The leaders of church and State are both liabilities to their respective institutions. Both refuse to stand aside believing their continuance in office is in the interests of the institutions they are undermining. Both are decent, well-intentioned people. Neither is suffused much with that familiar conceit that so often accompanies high office. Both are afflicted with a penchant to perceive a happy coincidence between the wider interest and their own self interest.

Seán Brady, the cardinal archbishop of Armagh, failed to ensure that a priest, Brendan Smyth, whom he knew had sexually abused two boys, would be denied further opportunity to abuse children and would be brought before the courts of the land to face charges.

He did more than that.

Having twice interviewed the two abused boys and got them to tell in some detail the story of their abuse, an ordeal that must have caused those boys further trauma, he then insisted they swear an oath of secrecy, which, in itself, must have caused even more trauma. The claim that this oath of secrecy was to ensure that the investigatory process into the allegations of abuse was not compromised aggravates the gravity of what Brady did. It aggravates the gravity of what he did, because it is palpable nonsense.

According to his own version of what happened, once Brady had concluded the second interview with the abused boys and then had administered the oath, that was the end of the process.

Afterwards, he merely submitted his report to the relevant bishop, so the justification for administering the oath was gone by the time he prevailed upon the traumatised boys to swear it. Therefore, the only point of the oath at that stage was to protect the reputation of the church by concealing the abuse that had occurred.

Seán Brady must know that his continuance in office will merely keep this issue concerning his conduct alive, thereby further damaging the institution that he purports to serve.

Not being a conceited man, he must also appreciate that his departure from his position as Primate of All Ireland would be of little consequence to the administration of the Catholic Church here – and yet he remains on! Status must have something to do with this obduracy, even on the part of a man who seems so modest. A happy coincidence of what he perceives to be in the interests of the Catholic Church and what he perceives as his own interests.

Brian Cowen also believes his continuance in office as Taoiseach is in the interests of the country and in the interests of his party, although it is evident to everyone else that he is a liability to his Government and to his party.

Cowen is perceived as the single person most responsible for the financial, economic, political and social crisis we are enduring and so perceived with good reason. Yes, of course, others are to blame as well: the regulator, the people in the Central Bank, civil servants in the Department of Finance, Cowen’s colleagues in Government, including Bertie Ahern (the only other contender for the title of “The One Most to Blame”) and also Micheál Martin, Noel Dempsey, Mary Harney and the rest who were in the cabinet during those crazy days.

And yes, others urged even more madness on the government of the day, including Fine Gael, Labour, the property-supplemented media and more.

But there is one person most responsible, one in lonely eminence as The One Most to Blame (Tomb) – come forward Brian Cowen of Clara, Co Offaly, the outright winner of the Tomb Award for the years 2004 to 2010 and counting.

It is not remotely believable he was not told at least by 2007 there was an incipient crisis evolving in Anglo Irish Bank and that that incipient crisis could spill over into the other banks. It is entirely believable that, on being told, he did nothing, for nothing was done.

Had Brian Cowen been doing his job – and yes there were regulators and central bankers and IMFers, but on him there was the responsibility – Anglo Irish Bank could have been wrestled away from the abyss and the banking crisis alleviated, thereby saving the country tens of billions.

And had he been less deferential to the money boys he could have held his nerve in the difficult hours and let the speculators get what was coming to them.

The opinion polls are screaming that Brian Cowen is a goner politically and yet he keeps talking about his job being to rescue Ireland from the economic and financial collapse. As though the person who got us into this mess is the best person to get us out of this mess.

It says something for the listlessness of the populace generally but of the Fianna Fáil populace in particular that Brian Cowen is allowed keep his job. For the certainty is that more will go down with him in 2012 than would go down were he to leave now or pretty soon.

But then of course, several of the directors of the main banks, the ones that presided over the bankrupting of these banks, are still in situ and some of them have the gall to tell us how the country might be rescued from the chaos they had such a part in causing.