Michael Shine refusing to cooperate with gardai over new allegations
- Dignity 4Patients
- May 5
- 4 min read
By John Kierans - Irish Mirror - 05.05.2025 - {IRELAND] - [Michael Shine]
Paedophile monster Michael Shine is refusing to cooperate with the gardai over new allegations made against him, we can reveal. The 93-year-old daily mass goer has refused to be interviewed citing medical grounds yet he was able to do a 25 minute interview with a journalist a few days ago.
A staggering 370 people have now come forward and claim they were abused by the disgraced surgeon as children - several in the past few weeks. The Government is also seriously considering a request from the victims to set up a Commission of Inquiry into how he got away with sexually assaulting children over a period of 40 years.
The CEO of the Dignity4Patients group, Adrienne O'Reilly, which represents his abused patients and their families said: "Micheal Shine is a convicted paedophile. He did three years in jail. The vast majority of his victims have never received justice or seen a day in court.He was never punished for what he did to them.
"He could find the time to do an interview and claim all the allegations against him are lies and that the victims are just in it for the money. Yet the same individual is refusing to cooperate with the Gardai on the basis that he is not medically fit to be interviewed. It is an insult to all his victims and for all the suffering and hurt they have endured. Files are being sent by the Gardai to the DPP half finished.
"The victims want answers. They want to know how the North Eastern Health Board, some Gardai, the nuns at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital covered up for him for decades. Shine says all these allegations are too old and are going back years.Yet we have one victim who is now 40 and was abused when he was ten years old in 1995. The horrific memory of what happened is not too old for him. Remember many of his victims were four, six, eight years of age when it happened, they were all only children."
Ms O' Reilly said Shine's actions, denials,and attitude is an insult and extremely traumatic for his victims. All of the abuse occurred at the Lourdes Hospital or his private rooms in Drogheda, Co Louth. Yet both his lawyers and those representing the Medical Missionaries of Mary, the nuns who owned the hospital at the time, along with their insurers are trying to make life as difficult for his patients as possible.
Adrienne O'Reilly added: "When victims contact us they never ever mention money or compensation. The first thing they want is counselling and explanations as to why the abuse happened to them. Why did the people in authority in the healthcare system allow it to go on for so long when the dogs in the street knew the abuse was happening. They want answers, they want justice.
"They want to know why the Gardaí and the DPP have not issued new proceedings against him? We even had a case of a Garda who literally forced one victim to write a letter to Shine, apologising for making an allegation against him. Why was this allowed to happen?
"We have raised all these issues with the Taoiseach Micheal Martin and we met the new Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeil during the week. She met some of the victims and heard their stories. We are hopeful the Government will find some sort of a pathway so a proper inquiry can be facilitated to get the answers we need."
Shine was jailed for four years in 2019 for groping seven boys in his care during medical examinations. The offenses happened at different times between 1971 to 1992 at the Lourdes Hospital and his private rooms. It took the jury six hours to find him guilty after he denied the charges. He later served three years in custody.
He fled abroad to the Far East after his release, but he is now back living in his apartment in central Dublin. A court of appeal also ruled that Michael Shine should not stand trial again because of his old age and his ailing health.
Shine's lawyers have informed both the Gardai and the DPP over the past several years that he is not medically fit enough to be interviewed. Adrienne O'Reilly added: "We believe Michael Shine is fit enough to be interviewed by the Gardai today." If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article and were abused in state run medical and health facilities, you can contact Dignity4Patients, whose helpline is open Monday to Thursday 10am to 4pm.
Dignity4Patients Commentary:- Convicted paedophile Michael Shine refuses to speak to Gardaí over new abuse claims, citing ill health, yet can give a 25 minute media interview.
370+ victims want justice, not money. Calls grow for a full inquiry into decades of cover-ups.
