Giving Account: A Study of Irish Roman Catholic Clergy who have Sexually Abused Minors

This study is based on an in-depth analysis of 40 hours of group and in- dividual interviews with a small group of Irish Roman Catholic priests and religious brothers who had sexually abused children and who were in treatment for their sexual offending at the Granada Institute in Dublin – a community based treatment programme for sexual offenders. The aim of the study was to engage with the first-person narratives of the partici- pants as they gave account of their sexual offending, in a manner that would allow for the individual and contextual meaning of their stories to emerge. The results of the study adds depth to current understandings of the problem of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy and contributes to more informed therapeutic work in this area. The chosen methodology was so designed so as to enable the participants to discuss the meaning of the abuse for them and how it came to be, from their own perspective and in their own words. Arising from these accounts and incorporating a comprehensive review of the relevant literature the study provides a model of performance that can help conceptualise, never justify, the per- plexing phenomenon of child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy.