Sarah Clarkin

I first knew her in 1968. She lived behind Hatch Street. I remember she playing “If I had a hammer” again and again and again. She wrote for Magill brilliantly. She was great fun but, at times, difficult. I remember her particularly from a press conference on the publication of the Ryan report, which revealed appalling sex abuse by many priests in the Dublin. It was covered up deligently by bishops here and by the Vatican. She stood up and delivered a tirade, which caused the bishops present to squirm. She damned their appellation “father” and afterwards ridiculed “his holiness”. I thought then she had shattered the power of the Catholic Church here. She emboldened less courageous religious correspondents, and they took off from Nell. It was quite an extraordinary episode. The most powerful institution crumbling before our eyes. She had a difficult several years, loosing her eyesight and her softness. She was revolutionary more significant than the “Republican revolutionaries”. I was privileged to know her.