Victim Sean Faloon angry over demolition announcement

A man who said he was sexually abused by a priest in a parochial house in County Down wants to revisit the building before it is demolished to face his “demons from the past”.

Sean Faloon is one of several people who were abused as children by the late priest, Fr Malachy Finegan.

Finegan, who also taught at St Colman’s College in Newry, has been accused of a litany of sexual and physical abuse against young boys.

A proposal to knock down Finegan’s former parochial house in Hilltown was announced during weekend Masses.

But lawyers for Mr Faloon and other victims have complained about the way the announcement was managed, saying they found out through the media.

Victims also complained that the venue where the public will be consulted about the plan is attached to the building where Mr Faloon was abused “on an industrial scale”.

“I can easily visualise and feel what I went through in that building, without even going into the country,” said Mr Faloon, who now lives in Scotland.

He is not personally opposed to the demolition – in fact he believes if he got the chance to take part in the process it would help him to deal with his trauma.

But he told the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme that victims felt the way the parish had managed the announcement had “basically written us out of history”.

He had asked the parish of Clonduff to “keep me updated” on the plans for the parochial house, but said this had not happened.

Members of the public have been invited to view the plans and give their views at an event in Hilltown parish offices on Wednesday night.

But Mr Faloon said it was called at “very short notice” without giving victims enough time to prepare for such a meeting.

Mr Faloon was not able to arrange travel from Scotland in time to attend.

He also said the meeting venue – close to the parochial house and the church where Finegan abused children – was also unacceptable to some victims.

However, Mr Faloon has said he had personally requested to visit the parochial house on the Castlewellan Road for a final time in order to help him process the trauma of his abuse.

“It’s like someone revisiting the scene of a bad car crash. It’s difficult at the time, but it helps the person get back into the car and drive again,” he explained.

“I know that my emotions will be difficult to fight with, but it’s something that I have to manage myself to go through – to face my trauma, to face parts of my demons from the past.”

Mr Faloon said in the six years since he went public with his allegations about Finegan, he has discussed the building with Clonduff’s parish priest Fr Charlie Byrne.

He acknowledged that Fr Byrne has been “very accommodating” in considering his requests to visit the parochial house.

“But I’m sure he can recognise that I’ve put that opportunity off, because it’s so difficult to do.”

He explained that the public announcement of the demolition proposals had made him feel rushed as he was not yet “mentally prepared” to enter the building.

Mr Faloon added that if the building is to be eventually knocked down, he would like to participate in the initial demolition.

“That would be, as a metaphor, knocking that area of my trauma out of my minute-to-minute daily life.”

The law firm KRW Law released as statement on behalf of Mr Faloon and two other victims.

“They are all angry and disappointed that no one saw fit to contact them about this news,” the statement said.

“It was retraumatising for our clients to learn about the development in the media.”

The statement claimed Mr Faloon has been “abused on an industrial scale in that building”.

“Hilltown parochial house was a hell hole for Sean Faloon and others,” the statement said.

It added: “Sean Faloon’s terrible ordeal ought to have been front and centre of any discussion on plans but it hasn’t.”

The firm said it had been “instructed to write to the committee to take steps to remedy this obvious communication deficit”.

It added that the way the demolition proposals were announced “served to reinforce suspicions that some people would just prefer to erase all memories of the parishes’ very challenging historical links to one of Ireland’s most prolific child abusers”.

The parochial house is currently vacant and has been partially boarded up since it was damaged in an arson attack in 2023.

During Masses on Saturday night and Sunday morning, Fr Byrne read a notice from the parish finance committee outlining plans for the future of the building.

It was proposed that the house would be demolished and the land it sits on used as a car park drop off area for the neighbouring St Patrick’s Primary School.

Depending on planning permission, a new purpose-built parish centre would then be constructed closer to the adjacent St John the Evangelist Church Ballymaghery.

“We all have had a difficult journey deciding what is best here but we feel that this vision opens an exciting new chapter for the gardens of our school community and for our own parish community,” Fr Byrne told Mass goers.

Finegan was also accused of sexually abusing boys at St Colman’s College in Newry, where he worked as a teacher and later its headmaster.

However, he was never prosecuted or questioned by police about claims made against him before his death in 2002.

The BBC has asked the Diocese of Dromore and Clonduff’s’ parish priest for a response to the issues raised.