- Michael Cleary (priest)
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Michael Cleary (1934–1993) was an Irish Roman Catholic priest, who became a radio and TV personality as well.[1] A charismatic and powerful figure in the Catholic Church, he presented a late-night radio phone-in show in Dublin in the 1980s and hosted his own television chat show. He also published a book about maintaining faith in the modern world. After he released two albums of songs, he was nicknamed "The Singing Priest". He achieved more notoriety when it was revealed after his death that he had lived with Phyllis Hamilton and fathered two children with her, while she acted as his housekeeper. They lived as a family in secret.[1]
Contents
Life
Born in Dublin, Ireland, Michael Cleary lived there all his life. He attended Catholic schools and became a priest.
As an adult, he lived in Rathmines Road in Dublin. He participated in some of the social changes of the 1960s and 1970s, claiming to have experimented with drugs. He was strongly devoted to care for the poor and working on poverty and community development issues.
In the 1960s, Cleary discussed the Catholic clergy's attitudes to celibacy, sex and marriage in the Irish documentary film Rocky Road to Dublin (1967). He admits to a personal preference for being married and having a family, but claimed that the role and necessary sacrifices of being a priest were a valid substitute. As part of his pushing limits, he once claimed to have tried every drug except heroin.
Cleary had one of the highest profiles of any cleric in Ireland throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He was a powerful and charismatic figure within the church. He was particularly devoted to raising the issue of poverty in Ireland, especially in Dublin, where he worked for change in inner-city communities.[1]
Secret life
Three weeks after his death in 1993 (from throat cancer), The Phoenix, a national news magazine, published an article revealing that Cleary had fathered a child, Ross Hamilton, with Phyllis Hamilton, who had worked as his longtime housekeeper. This claim was subsequently confirmed by DNA analysis, but the remaining Cleary family refused to acknowledge the boy.[1]
Cleary had a 26-year relationship with Hamilton, his common-law wife, which started in the 1960s when she was 17 and he was about ten years older.[2] They had two sons. The first was given up for adoption, but they raised the second together.[3]
Cleary pretended simply to be Hamilton's employer. She said in a ghost-written memoir published in 1995 that Cleary had taken marriage vows with her in a private ceremony with no third party present.[4] She died in 2001 from ovarian cancer.[5]
Aftermath
This followed the 1992 discovery that Bishop Eamonn Casey, also a well-known cleric in Ireland, was found to have fathered a son (by then nearly 20) with American divorcée Annie Murphy.[3] Casey was a friend and colleague of Cleary's and had known about his relationship with Hamilton. Cleary and Hamilton did not know about the bishop's own affair and were shocked at the revelation about Casey.[3]
These sex scandals rocked the Catholic Church in Ireland. The Church was strongly criticized and the controversies shook many people's faith in its clergy. Murphy and Hamilton appeared on the Later With Clare McKeon chat show in January 1999 to talk about their lives and relationships, adding to publicity about the longtime affairs of the clergy.[2]
While the Church allowed Hamilton and her son to continue living in Cleary's house after his death, it took possession after she died. The Church informed Ross Hamilton he had to leave. When he refused, the Church started legal proceedings against him. It paid him ₤40,000 to move. Due to changing requirements, the Church sold the brick house in Mount Harold Terrace, which yielded ₤700,000 for diocesan operations.[5]
Documentary
On 21 April 2008, the documentary film The Holy Show was shown on BBC One. This one-hour film was based on footage shot when the director, Alison Millar, stayed with Cleary in his household as a student in 1991. At the time, his true relationship with Hamilton and their children was secret. In the film Millar also examines the changing roles of the church, social changes, the reaction of Cleary's congregation to the news of his family, and related issues.[1] The documentary was also shown on another BBC programme, entitled The Father, the Son & the Housekeeper.[6]
The film won several awards:
- 2008 Irish Film & Television Award for Best Single Documentary
- 2008 Prix Italia award for Best Documentary
- 2008 Boston Irish Film Festival award for Best Documentary
- 2008 Celtic Film Frank Copplestone First Time Director Award
- Nominated for 2009 BAFTA Break-Through Talent Award for Director Alison Millar [6]
Another program, In the Name of the Father, was produced on Scannal, RTÉ One about Father Michael Cleary and his complicated life.[3]
References
- ^ a b c d e Fiona Murray (21 April 2008). "Secret life of Ireland's singing priest". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7354013.stm. Retrieved 16 Feb 2010.
- ^ a b "Sisters of the unholy secrets". Independent. 21 Jan 1999. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/sisters-of-the-unholy-secrets-421614.html. Retrieved 16 Feb 2010.
- ^ a b c d "In the Name of the Father", Scannal, RTÉ One, 2010, accessed 16 Feb 2010
- ^ Phyllis Hamilton and Paul Williams, Secret Love: My Life with Father Michael Cleary, Dublin: Mainstream Publishing, 1995
- ^ a b "Church paid son of Fr Michael Cleary to quit childhood home". Independent. 10 August 2003. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/church-paid-son-of-fr-michael-cleary-to-quit-chidhood-home-493681.html. Retrieved 12 Feb 2010.
- ^ a b Alison Millar, "At Home with the Clearys", 67-second preview, Tern TV, accessed 16 Feb 2010
Categories:- Irish Roman Catholic priests
- Religious scandals
- 1993 deaths
- 1944 births
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