Demonstrators tried to interrupt the Easter Sunday mass at Dublin's Pro Cathedral with a shoe protest in honour of child abuse victims, state broadcaster RTE said. A small group of protesters gathered outside the cathedral and hung pairs of children's shoes on the railings to represent the victims of clerical sex abuse, RTE said.
Some attempted to place shoes on the altar but most were refused entry, the broadcaster said. Diarmuid Martin, the Archbishop of Dublin, was heckled by abuse survivors as he went inside, it said. Protesters held placards reading: "Hypocrites for Jesus. Catholic church rapes, abuses, destroys children and covers it up, covers it up, covers it up."
The Irish Examiner newspaper said the protest was organised by Kevin Flanagan whose brother Michael was abused in Dublin in the 1950s. Flanagan is calling for an independent international investigation into clerical abuse in Ireland, the daily said.