Joe, you are way, way of beam.

In hte UK, and as far as I know in Ireland, there is no statute of limiatation in criminal cases. And you are missing the point that there is still a complete failure by senior clerics (not just in Irealnd) to grasp the enormity of all this. Have a look at how the new archbishop of Westminster responded. Even his fellow archbishop in Dublin was askance at such an attitude. And Nicholls is not in any sense an innocent abroad. He is highly media-savvy.

The only lay people footing the bill in Ireland, Joe, are taxpayers, fewer and fewer of whom want anything to do with the church. More than half of what the Christian Brothers have coughed up to date has been in the form of land and buildings which they have handed over to the state and for which the state, in some cases, has no use.

I incline to your viewpoint in only one respect: I can see little point in further humiliating people who are very old or otherwise in obviously very poor health. But for very many of the creeps, that defence will not run. Also, Joe, when you talk about the passage of time, remember - as I have repeated two or three times - many of the crimes have been admitted. The question of proof and preparing defences simply does not arise in those cases.