As he says in his Foreword to the book: ‘This book was written to try and put together some of the mysteries of the Irish Catholic church’s recent past … Real questions have seldom been asked about acts in which we participated willingly. We allowed a system to diminish others without ever shouting stop … This book is a very small attempt to set the record straight. It is my effort in saying sorry, not just for all those of my age group who were in positions of authority, but for quietly acquiescing in what every right thinking person must have known was wrong.’