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Stunning flood of claims held in secret diocesan archive
A METICULOUSLY maintained secret archive on abuse allegations against clerics in the Diocese of Cloyne has shocked both victim representatives and church investigators.

The revelation came as the Irish Independent has learnt that the same archive will be used to support a flood of civil damages claims once a state-ordered probe into alleged clerical abuses in Dublin and Cloyne is published.

The archive contains stunning data -- recorded in meticulous detail -- on abuse allegations dating over several years, related correspondence, clerical responses and the diocesan handling of the individual complaints. Gardai were, at the time, unaware of significant data in the file.

The number of people alleging clerical abuse in the sprawling Cork diocese in the 1970s and 1980s has almost doubled since a shocking church child protection watchdog report was launched three years ago.....