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Brendan Smyth leaves Limavady Courthouse in 1997 after being extradited to the Republic, after serving a three-year sentence for sexually abusing 69 children. PA Archive
Brendan Smyth
Remains of paedophile priest Smyth to be removed so that land can be sold
The sale of the Co Cavan plot of land in which Brendan Smyth is buried can’t be finalised until he is removed from it.
THE REMAINS OF paedophile priest Brendan Smyth are to be removed from their burial place in an abbey in Co Cavan, because the proposed sale of the land cannot be finalised while he remains there.
The 43 acres of land at Kilnacrott Abbey, belonging to the Norbertine Order of which Smyth was a member, has been up for sale for three years – and the Irish Daily Mail reports that while a prospective buyer has been found, they are not prepared to buy it while Smyth’s remains are there.
As a result, Ali Bracken writes, Smyth is to be exhumed and cremated.
A spokesman for the Abbey said discussions were ongoing; the Abbey is currently applying to Cavan County Council for an exhumation order.
The Council last year granted planning permission to build a nursing home at the site of the abbey.
Smyth was convicted of 69 charges of sexually assaulting children in Northern Ireland in 1994, and admitted to 74 charges of abuse in the Republic upon his release.
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