Why the Current Reckoning in an Irish Courtroom Should Be So Much More Than the Latest Abuse Trial of the Century
June 23, 2026More from the Trial: ‘Woman alleges sports coach (79) attempted to rape her during a summer camp’
June 25, 2026TRIAL COVERAGE TO DATE
“Ireland’s, and the Sports World’s, Latest Abuse Trial of the Century Has Started. Here’s Everything You Need to Know (Part 1),” June 23, https://concussioninc.net/?p=16648
“Why the Current Reckoning in an Irish Courtroom Should Be So Much More Than the Latest Abuse Trial of the Century,” June 23, https://concussioninc.net/?p=16653
by Irvin Muchnick
Those readers interested in reading the account of the second day of the trial are directed to this new link in the Irish Independent coverage (behind a paywall): https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/woman-who-says-she-was-abused-by-a-former-sports-coach-has-said-she-was-in-a-state-of-panic-and-shame-after-an-alleged-incident/a/157750028.html.
Here, I’ll be dispensing with detailed recapitulations of the complainants’ testimony and their inevitable salaciousness. Not because I disrespect the victims or trivialize what they went through, but because the record of their accusations is both available and redundant to a fare-the-well.
My focus is on tidbits that reveal and reinforce the big picture of continuing cover-up. The important nugget today is that the defendant’s chief barrister is, as anticipated, Patrick Gageby. He is the son of Douglas Gageby, a legendary long-time editor of the Irish Times. Patrick Gageby, additionally, is the brother of Susan Denham, the former chief justice of Ireland.
In 1994, Gageby successfully argued before Denham and a Supreme Court panel the case involving the coach. The upshot: his original prosecution got thrown out on statute-of-limitation grounds. This was a precedent that applied to a large body of parallel historical abuse cases. It took years for new Irish case law to chip away at the precedent.
The Gageby-Denham connection – a blatant and intuitive conflict – has never been reported in Ireland, except by the now defunct alternative news site Broadsheet and in articles I’ve written in recent years for Village magazine.
Ireland’s code of judicial ethics has been amended to discourage jurists from taking part in cases that include the involvement of close relatives.
But Patrick Gageby, big shot of the Irish establishment, remains in firm control of the defense of the 79-year-old et cetera.
