Lynch to be honoured

ENNIS’ Bernárd Lynch is to be honoured with a civic reception by Clare County Council, writes Páraic McMahon at all.”

Monday’s meeting of the local authority saw a recommendation passed to award Bernárd with a civic reception. It was proposed by Cllr Paul Murphy (FG) and seconded by Cllr Mary Howard (FG).

Born in St Michael’s Villas, Ennis in 1947, Bernárd became the first Catholic priest in the world to have a civil partnership in 2006.

Det Garda Flaherty said that Larkin's decades of abuse was exposed when a mother of a third victim confronted him at a funeral in Kilkee in the summer of 2019.

At the funeral, Larkin confessed to the mother of the abuse and after a number of people became aware of this locally, Larkin's first two victims came forward to make a statement to Gardaí.

Counsel, Patrick Whyms BL for Mr Larkin said that his client has been called a ‘paedophile’ on the street in his home place.

Mr Whyms said that Mr Larkin had agreed with TUSLA not to have any more contact with any children. Mr Whyms said that Mr Larkin’s own children have abandoned him while he is separated from his wife.

In sentencing, Judge Comerford said that Mr Larkin is in poor health “and is deeply depressed because of his personal circumstances”. He said, “He does say that he knows that he is wiped out - that is a reality and he says that he hopes the victims can get on with their lives and manage their lives. He knows what he did was wrong”. Judge Comerford said, "He knows that if he does return to freedom he will live out his days alone”.

Eleven years later, he married his partner Billy Desmond at The Armada Hotel in Spanish Point.

Described as a human rights champion, while working he founded the first AIDS ministry in New York City. He publicly testified in favour of New York City’s lesbian and gay rights bill that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation in jobs and public accommodations, seeing it through to passage by the New York City Council in 1986.

Lynch was honoured with the Magnus Hirschfeld Award 1988 for outstanding service to the cause of Irish LGBT civil rights. In 2017, Bernárd received a proclamation from the New York City Council honouring his more than 40 years of service to the LGBT and AIDS communities in the city. He received Presidential Distinguished Service Awards for the Irish Abroad for 2019, in the Charitable Works category.

No official date has been set for the civic reception but it is the highest honour that the Council can bestow on an individual.