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GERARD MURRAY WAS just four years old when he says he was sexually abused by former surgeon Michael Shine.
Ten years later, he was sexually assaulted again, this time by a Christian Brother at a local school.
By his late teens, Gerard attempted to take his own life before struggling with alcoholism, substance abuse and homelessness in early adulthood.
Now aged 53, he has been sober for more than 25 years and insists that a public inquiry is “the only way I can ever get justice”.
“I don’t think I can ever come to terms with what’s happened,” Gerard, who still lives in Drogheda, tells The Journal, as part of in-depth interviews by a group campaigning for a public inquiry. It is the first time he has spoken publicly, waiving anonymity.
“To this day, I don’t have peace. I don’t have a sense of ease, a sense of justice. Until I get that, I don’t think I’ll ever stop.”
He describes the sexual assault he allegedly suffered at Shine’s hands as “really, really painful”, recalling how the warped medic whispered from behind him during the attack: “It won’t be long.”
When asked how he felt about being part of a public campaign for a Commission of Investigation, he said: “Waiving my anonymity and going forward…when I am determined to do something, I will do it.
“To me an open, public Commission of Investigation is the only way I can ever get justice. There are too many secrets being buried, blocked and hidden.
“People have questions to answer. They can’t hide forever.
“My abuse by Michael Shine is with me every single day, it affects who I am to this day. It’s made me who I am to this day.
“He should never, ever have been released from prison. He should have spent the rest of his life in prison.”
Gerard claims he was sexually assaulted by Shine when he attended his private surgery on Peter Street, Drogheda, in relation to a hernia issue. He says that while he was only four years of age, he knew at the time that something was wrong and this was not part of a standard medical examination.
He insists that Shine’s sex crimes were widely known and there had been a cover-up by the Catholic Church and State.
“Everybody knew. Growing up, I played football and they used to say ‘don’t hurt your leg, or you’ll be going up to Shine’. It was a well known, open secret.”
Giving a raw account of how being sexually abused impacted him, he said: “Growing up, I felt useless. I tried to mix with other kids, but I never did feel as if I was mixing, because I knew that there was something wrong inside of me. I felt useless. I felt like a piece of shit.
“I felt depressed from a young age and then I got into alcohol. Then I felt suicidal. I tried suicide when I was 18. I ended up in a psychiatric hospital in a locked ward with what I deemed grown men, because I still felt like a child.
“When I made it out, I got into drink and drugs for a few years. I drank to block out my life. I hated my life. I hated myself. I felt useless. I felt no hope. I just couldn’t function as a normal person in society. When I drank, I drank to black out, to comatose.”
In his mid-20s, he realised that he needed to stop abusing alcohol and drugs. He met a man through a support network who offered him a bed for the night because he was still homeless. That single act of kindness, Gerard said, was the catalyst for change.
“He was really kind to me. I was determined then to get off drink and drugs and I haven’t taken a drink or drug since.”
But while he has overcome substance abuse, he still feels that he has “no voice” and that the Irish state “has to be shamed into being proactive”.
He needs to campaign for a public inquiry, he says, adding: “I can’t not do something. I can’t live, I can’t look my son in the eye, and not do anything… I can’t sit by and do nothing. I have to push (for an inquiry).”
***
This year marks 60 years since the first alleged sexual assault by the disgraced doctor.
Hundreds of men claim that they were subsequently abused by Shine, now 93, over decades, but in 2024, he is a free man after serving just three years in prison.
Today, a leading human rights law firm has announced that it is acting for the victims and calling for a public inquiry to probe claims that health and religious authorities failed to stop the abuse.
“The victims are seeking a Commission of Investigation into, not just the actions of Michael Shine, but the failings of the public authorities and how that was allowed to go on, for such a period of time as it was,” Diarmuid Brecknell from Phoenix Law said.
Shine’s name has long been associated with legal battles about the many allegations against him. He was first accused of abuse by a whistleblower in 1995 and charged with indecent assault in 1996. His legal tactics delayed any trial relating to those charges from starting until 2003. He was then acquitted.
Two more trials, in 2017 and 2019, saw him found guilty of assaults against nine boys. More charges led to another protracted legal saga, culminating in the Court of Appeal ruling that “cumulative factors” – including Shine’s age and health, and a ‘misstep’ by the Director of Public Prosecutions – meant the case was in a “wholly exceptional category where it would be unjust to put the appellant on trial”.
Even after being convicted of sexual offences in 2017 and 2019, there was more legal plays used by Shine. He was granted bail in 2017 pending an appeal of that initial conviction. His legal team argued for a delay to the start of his next trial which was granted to allow for a fade factor after publicity from the first trial. Instead of starting in June 2018, the trial was pushed back to January 2019.
In February 2020, he was found guilty of assaulting seven boys who were in his care between 1971 and 1992. He ran out of legal road and was taken to Midlands Prison to start his four-year sentence.
His appeal against his initial conviction and 20-month sentence was then dismissed on 3 July 2019. He withdrew a separate appeal against his 2019 sentence in 2021.
He served three years’ in Midlands Prison and was released in 2022. He now resides in Dublin 4.
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Coveney is turning into a great man for telling everybody what Ireland’s views are on everything, but the gap between official Ireland which coveney represents and the real people has never been wider.
@Adrian: His own family backround has questions that were never fully explained…
@Adrian: Sorry Adrian you are not the real people and you speak for nobody but yourself.
@Sean Conway: like what?
@Adrian: No True Scotsman eh…
BTW the entire purpose of a foreign minister is to tell people what the opinion of the Irish people is on various topics. I think that the world in general understands that he does not speak with 100% coverage of all individual opinions on the island.
@Dennis Laffey: when he was minister for housing, it was pointless expensive housing launches every second week, and the figures ended up getting worse. Now its, there was a crime committed in the UK, we support the British gov in catching the criminals. He’s Ireland’s most pointless politician!
@Adrian: Another useless and partisan post from our Adrian. Our much respected Tanaiste will never get a fair review from this clown.
@Donal Hanley: See good news just released from Michael Barnier and Simon Coveney that our open border will remain following agreement with May.
Coveney should be sent to Coventry. Failure in every ministerial portfolio he has held. He certainly doesn’t speak for me.
@Paul Fahey: Questions about his father…
@Adrian: what gives you the knowledge to say that ?
@Donal Hanley: that’s not actually true
I’m sure the perpetrators are petrified by this announcement.
@Ben Guy: Yet, you’d be on here complaining of the Irish Government didn’t take a position in the issue
@Tweety McTweeter:
I only complain when our government repeatedly comments on issues that have zero relevance to us.
It’s becoming quite embarrassing how we seem to think we are an important country when in fact we have zero influence to anyone.
@Ben Guy: So when a foreign power in this case Russia uses WMD on a neighbours public streets it has no relevance to us? And if they do it again and an Irish Citizen is contaminated by it would it be relevant to us? They have done so twice, who’s to say there won’t be a third?
@Ben Guy:
You’d be claiming Ireland was supporting the Russians to hurt poor old Brexit Britain if the Irish government said nothing.
Grow up Benny, not our fault Britain is powerless.
@Ben Guy: it has a lot of relevance to us. Stop talking bull
Hope he is also concerned about the British handing over the files on their Dublin Monaghan bombing activities. Sorry, forgot that this is a FG minister.
I’m sure Putin is quaking in his boots to know that Coveney is keeping his eye on him.
Speak for your self.
@Declan Carr: minister for terrorism coveney speaks for everyone!
@jon-boy55: why is he Minister for terrorism ? What sort of bull statement is that ? What planet ore you on ?
The EU’s favourite nodding donkey.
And so Ireland should, Russia has this weird notion that they’re a super power, you can’t come into someone’s country and poison someone along with hurting police officers etc in the process, they’re dead right to do what they’re doing and if Russia expelles some of their ambassadors etc then so be it..
@George O Neill: one day you may figure it out that’s how they operate. They aren”t called an intelligence agency for being dim.
@George O Neill: one day u may figure out that’s how they operate. They aren’t called an intelligence agency for being dim.
@George O Neill: How do you know that
@: what hard evidence is there that Russia did it can’t believe that they could be so sloppy
@George O Neill: wow, must of missed the release of all of the critical evidence. Where and how did you see what the intelligence services and police had?
@Martin Critten: one day you may figure out how to operate two accounts with intelligence
@JimmyMc: haha
England has this weird notion that it still has an empire. An alleged Russian attack on a Russian who was caught Spying for the British now becomes center stage. If the British were so concerned about attacks on innocent people, they should stop supplying arms to Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Yes , Russia, U.S. also supply arms , but the British outrage is comical, especially when one considers their colonial past.
@Donal Desmond: And their arms industry sales have got what to do with a WMD being used in Salisbury?
Do they sell Nerve Agent or Radioactive Polonium? When they do you may have a point. But until they do your rant has no connection to the above act.
@George O Neill: even trump believes that they are behind it
@Mick Jordan: A bullet manufacturerd in England, U.S., Russia and sold to keep their proxy wars alive will kill you just as fast as a chemical..again the main story on most media, the attack on a Russian spy… he was not a Russian spy .. He betrayed his country… He was cought spying for the British.
Britain should just hit Putin’s cronies with property in the UK with Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs). If they can’t come up with a plausible explanation then the property should be seized and their Visas should be cancelled.
Speaks for itself that Ireland supports the UK investigation, with the govt smart enough not to lay direct blame on the Kremlin at this point.
What’s more interesting is the words ‘no backsliding’ w.r.t. the December deal about the Irish border. That’s London’s own post-referendum Brexit slogan being used against itself. Keep the pressure on, Simon.
Clever enough. Doesn’t blame the Russians.
@Etherman: yeah I spotted that too. Seems a lot of commenters just want to be mad at him but all he said really is “attempted murder is bad, we support Britain’s right to take action against attempted murderers” which I would assume most people agree with
@Dave O Keeffe: That concept is too controversial for some, it would seem! Maybe the commenters above believe that the perpetrators shouldn’t be held responsible…
If the spies are caught they’ll be looking to be tried in Ireland that why they’ll be home for xmas
Well there’s neutrality for ya! Why hasn’t the UK given the evidence to the Russians as requested? It’s very similar to the US blaming Bin Laden (may Allah forgive him) for 9/11 and insisting the Taliban hand him over. They requested evidence and said they would even send him to trial, they just needed the evidence. It NEVER came, instead they were met with war and destruction for their insistence on a fair and just trial.
So Russia had this guy in prison for 10 years for been a spy, then they released him, and poisoned him with a nerve agent invented by Russia, drawing condemnation from all world leaders. No hard evidence that it’s Russia, just a gut feeling, a war with Russia would be the war that finishes civilization, Putin said, if there’s no Russia, there’s no world.
✔️George O Neill ex Russian spy probably caused deaths of other spy’s give him an aspro on concentrate on the health of the copper
@Patrick Coffey: And what of his daughter? And all the people of Salisbury who’s lives have been disrupted?
@Mick Jordan: what of the Dublin / Monaghan bombings. The British government still refuse to release the files. The Irish government still refuse to take them to task. Yet the Irish government jump on to support an alleged attack by Russia on a British spy on the word of a British prime minister.
Haha…what happens if it was the UK responsible….Simon would look rather silly then.
have your say