No, Johntm, I don't think this can be blamed at the door of Ireland, and the scandals are not confined to the US. Italy, France and Austria have their fair share, to mention ones I know about - and so too has the UK, which has a tradition of catholicism that is discrete from the Irish variety.

My personal impression, no more than that, is that there is a lower incidence of abuse in latin America. If this is so, I don't know whether it would be connected to the fact that the celibacy tradition has often been flouted there (in full knowledge of the Vatican, which has had to turn a blind eye).