Michael Shine shows no remorse and claims accusers are motivated by money
- Dignity 4Patients
- May 2
- 8 min read
Updated: May 6
By Saoirse McGarrigle - The Journal - 02.05.2025 - [IRELAND] - [Michael Shine]
IN HIS FIRST-EVER public interview about hundreds of child sex abuse allegations against him, former surgeon Michael Shine showed no remorse and took no responsibility for his crimes.
The 92-year-old also accused his victims of being motivated by money, a charge which was described as “absolutely despicable” and denied by the CEO of Dignity4Patients Adrienne Reilly.
The convicted sex offender insisted on his innocence despite the claims of more than 370 men that he had abused them as boys.
“They’re all hoping for money,” he told The Journal during an exclusive interview yesterday in his Dublin home, insisting none of the accusations were true.
“It is lies.”
Shine claimed to only recall one of the victims involved in the criminal proceedings, insisting: “I cured him.”
The interview took place after The Journal approached Shine at his Dublin home.
Speaking today, Dignity4Patients chief Reilly said, “Victims never ever talk to me about financial redress. They talk about finding out the truth about what happened to them. Who knew? Who did nothing? Why did they do nothing? That is what the victims are motivated by – not money.”
Shine, who was based at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda and operated a private practice in the Co Louth town, has been propelled back into the spotlight amid demands for a public inquiry into how his decades of abuse went unchecked by authorities.
He continued to categorically deny the stream of claims against him during The Journal‘s questioning yesterday evening. He preferred to speak about his missionary work in Nigeria and his deep Christian faith.
“What did I do? What did I do?” he repeatedly asked during the 25-minute interview conducted at his kitchen table, where he was eating a hot meal from a tin foil container and dressed in a plain white t-shirt and dark pants.
His Dublin 4 apartment was adorned with religious memorabilia, including a small book with the Sacred Heart image on the front cover in a fruit bowl on his table.
“They’re all hoping for money,” he said of the 371 men who have come forward with their experiences at the hands of the ex-doctor.
Since a number of those men spoke publicly to The Journal last August, the Taoiseach, Minister of Health, and other high profile politicians have condemned the prolific and abhorrent abuse.
“I’m not aware of it,” he said of the recent coverage of his offending, which started in the 1960s and continued through to the 1990s.
“Any of the letters I got, I don’t know these people. When I was working, there was always a nurse with me.”
After being asked how he feels about the allegations against him, he noted that it has been three decades since he last practised as a doctor
“I feel it’s wrong. I’m retired 30 years, 30 years, 30 years! And these people are aged 50s and 40s and whatever. Survivors feel like justice has not been served, given he was convicted for crimes against just nine boys. They are now looking for a Commission of Investigation to be established to inquire into how his alleged abuse was allowed to go unfettered for so long – and why it took decades to secure a conviction.
In November 2017, guilty verdicts on three counts of assaulting two teenage patients on dates between 1974 and 1976 were handed down by a jury. However, he was granted bail pending an appeal against the conviction.
He was eventually jailed for four years in 2019 following a separate case for abusing seven boys in his care over a period of three decades. He served three of a four-year sentence in the Midlands Prison.
In the last court proceedings involving Shine, the Court of Appeal ruled that another trial should not be held, meaning the likelihood of any further trial happening is nil.
The court ruled that “cumulative factors” – including his age and health, as well as a “misstep” by the Director of Public Prosecutions between 2017 and 2019 – meant the case was in a “wholly exceptional category where it would be unjust to put the appellant on trial”.
It was a theme that Shine himself returned to again and again yesterday evening as he became increasingly frustrated with the questions posed:
“I’m an old man, 92 years old. I’m 92 years old, I’m retired 30 years. It’s 30 years since I saw a patient.
Despite the 2017 and 2019 jury verdicts, Shine insists he did not commit the crimes for which he was sent to the Midlands Prison.
“What I was convicted of did not happen,” he said. When asked to clarify if he was talking about all of the allegations, he reiterated that they “did not happen”.
Referencing Shine’s denials, Reilly of Dignity4Patients said, “This is just not true, the victims are not making it up, why would they? It’s been proven in court.”
“It is not long ago for the victims. It is not in the past for them. They are living with the repercussions of being sexually abused and being denied proper investigation into not alone the sexual abuse, but by the failures of all those that were supposed to protect them from the likes of Shine.”
Shine’s answers were often short but coherent. He had clarity in some of his memories but suggested he didn’t recall a number of key aspects of the events of the 1990s, when his abuse was exposed. He said he did not remember Bernadette Sullivan, the whistleblower nurse credited with exposing the scandal and helping hundreds of patients.
Does he have any regrets? “I did my best for everybody. I was a very good surgeon. I never abused anybody,” he said in response to the line of questioning.
Did he know how many boys he is said to have abused? “I couldn’t tell you,” he responded.
When it was put to him that the figure now stood at 371, he replied: “Oh my God. That shocks me.”
There have been about 200 civil suits settled by his former employer, the Medical Missionaries of Mary, with fresh cases filed recently in the High Court.
“I was aware of something,” he said when asked if he was aware of the payments made to victims by the nuns.
He said he worked for the Medical Missionaries for 30 years, pointing to a mounted, black-and-white photograph on a tea stand adjacent to the kitchen table.
Professionally taken, it shows a young doctor fully suited with a stern expression posing beside Mother Mary Martin of the Medical Missionaries of Mary. It was positioned beside another old photograph of him as a schoolboy lined up outside his former primary school in County Tipperary.
Shine declined to allow The Journal to take a photograph inside his apartment.
When asked if he still had a close relationship with the Medical Missionaries of Mary, he confirmed that he did and elaborated: “I worked for them in Nigeria.”
He described how he worked during the Biafran War between 1967 and 1970.
“I was a surgeon there,” he said.
When asked if he still has contact with his former colleagues, he said: “I have contact with all of them.”
He also said that “the nuns and the nurses who worked with me” supported him when the revelations first emerged publicly in the 1990s.
When asked if any nuns attended court with him, he said: “That’s in the past.”
Once again, he stressed: “I never examined somebody unless there was a nurse with me.”
Speaking of his career in medicine, he said, ”I got on very well. Coming to the end of my time, I was entitled to a full pension.”
He confirmed he does not have money concerns, and did not need to work again after retirement. He said he would not have been useful as a doctor outside of hospital facilities. However, he did study for a Masters in Philosophy from Trinity College Dublin.
Although Shine denies committing any of the abuses for which he was convicted, he did serve three years of a four-year sentence from 2019 to 2022.
Of his time in the Midlands, he said he had made friends who he is still in contact with.
“Yes, I’m in contact… I’m good friends with everybody.”
He also confirmed he employs another convicted sex offender – John Daly, now in his 60s – as a home help. Daly pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual assault of two teenage girls who were en route to a Rihanna concert in 2011. He also has an offending record going back to the 1980s.
“He works for me. He works for me three days a week,” he said, explaining that he cooks and cleans for him.
During our interview, a different home help was present. Referring to a recent return from a hospital admission, Shine nodded to the man who appeared to be in his 20s and working for an agency, to say: “I’ve got all these friends. This is somebody who came to help me. He is going to take off my clothes and put on night clothes.”
He said that at the end of his recent hospital admission, the staff wanted him to remain for treatment but he wished to be at home where he is more comfortable.
Reflecting on the Court of Appeal ruling and Shine’s own focus on his age, The Journal asked Whether he felt he had long to live?
“What? Have I long left to live? No I don’t. I’m not in good health. I’m in very bad health.” Will he go to his deathbed insisting that he has done nothing wrong?
“I [went] to Mass yesterday. I’m going to Mass tomorrow. “I’ll be in Mass tomorrow morning,” he replied.
Does that involve going to Confession?
“Every time you go to Mass, you go to Confession. [The] first prayer you give, you ask for forgiveness for your sins.”
Is he is angry with any of the men who have made allegations against him?
“I’m not angry with anybody,” he said. “I forgive everybody. It’s part of my religion to forgive people.”
Towards the end of the interview, he became frustrated and raised his voice: What did I do? What did I do? During his sentencing hearing in February 2019, Judge Martin Nolan said one of the aggravating factors in the case was that there was no expression of remorse. Six years on, three of which Shine spent in prison, there has been no change.
Reacting to the interview, Diarmuid Brecknell of Phoenix Law, which is representing many of the survivors, said Shine’s ability to talk to a journalist for 25 minutes shows how he is capable of being interviewed by authorities.
“His denials mean nothing – whether he likes it or not, he is a convicted paedophile. That fact is irrefutable,” he added.
“Our thoughts are with his victims – especially those who have shown extraordinary bravery in coming forward and waiving their anonymity, only to be publicly branded as liars by their abuser. It is cruel and retraumatising, and it must end.” 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 shows no remorse, denies all abuse, and accuses his 370+ victims of lying for money. Even after serving prison time, he still claims innocence. Survivors deserve truth and justice—it's time for a full public inquiry to expose the cover-ups and protect future patients. #VictimVoices #StopSexualAbuse
