First published in Ireland on Sunday (now the Irish Mail on Sunday) on 10/12/2006.
By: MICHAEL O’FARRELL
Investigative Correspondent
A CHURCH of Ireland bishop, secular priests, Trappist monks and a Vincentian priest have all profited from the deadly international arms trade, an exclusive Irish Mail on Sunday investigation can reveal today.
An extensive trawl through more than 80,000 pages of stock-exchange lists has revealed that, in the past year, all of the clergymen held shares in either BAE Systems or Rolls-Royce – two of the world’s top five military companies.
The investors include the Trappist monks of Waterford’s Mount Melleray Abbey who traditionally live a life of prayer and contemplation in complete silence.
Astonishingly, another investor – with in excess of e1m in arms trade shares – is a Vincentian priest, with an address at an exclusive Dublin fee-paying school.
As well as working for peace and social justice worldwide, the Vincentian Fathers take a vow of poverty.
Between them BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce account for more than e23bn in annual sales of weapons, from fighter jets to nuclear submarines.
BAE Systems is Britain’s largest arms company and the fourth largest in the world. It manufactures key elements of warplanes such as the Typhoon, Nimrod and Tornado.
The company – currently being investigated by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office for widespread allegations of corruption – also supplies tanks, artillery, naval guns and missile launchers, as well as submarines and destroyers.
Rolls-Royce, meanwhile, accounts for 45pc of its profit through military sales and boasts that it powers 25pc of the world’s navies, including Britain’s nuclear subs.
Obtained from the London Stock Exchange, the Rolls-Royce shareholder list reveals that Bishop Kenneth Clarke – the Church of Ireland Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh – holds 1,321 shares in the company.
Bishop Clarke said he thought he had sold his shares eight years ago when he decided it was unethical to hold stock in an arms company.
He said: ‘I’m amazed I’m registered as having them – unless, in some way, some of them are still there.’ He agreed it was unacceptable for clergymen to invest in the arms trade and said he would get rid of any remaining shares.
In Arva, Co. Cavan, former parish priest Fr Harry Bouchier acknowledged he held 244 Rolls-Royce shares.
‘Yes I have, as a matter of fact,’ he said.
However, when asked whether he thought it was ethically correct for a priest to hold shares in an arms company he hung up, saying:
‘Look here, I’m not interested in those things. Thank you.’
Fr Michael Madden – a parish priest in Castlelyons, Co. Cork, with 719 BAE Systems shares – gave a similar response.
‘Maybe so, maybe not. Thanks for calling,’ he said, before hanging up.
The holding company used by the Trappists to fund their Mount Melleray Abbey monastery also traded arms shares in recent months.
Mount Melleray Abbey Trust Limited – a firm listed with the Revenue Commissioners as a tax-exempt charity – sold 2,261 shares in BAE Systems on March 6.
Abbott Eamon Fitzgerald said he was not sure how the shares were acquired.
‘I don’t know for sure but we were left some shares by a benefactor from Cork and, as far as I know, we were getting rid of ones that were unethical. We are into ethical investment,’ he said.
The Abbey’s bursar, Fr Aidan McDunphy, confirmed the order had sold the shares.
‘All our investments are highly ethical and these ones were almost standing up and shouting at me,’ he said.
But the largest block of arms shares attributed to a religious figure is held by Vincentian priest Fr Anthony Clune, with an address at the exclusive fee-paying secondary school, St Paul’s College in Raheny.
Fr Clune is listed as holding a whopping 247,800 Rolls-Royce shares, worth in excess of e1.5m at current prices.
School principal Ciaran McCormack said the holding was nothing to do with the school and that he had never heard of Fr Clune.
However, the MoS has established that Fr Clune had a stroke four years ago and is now being cared for in the New Park Care Centre, the Ward, Co. Dublin, unable to move or speak.
A spokesman for the order said no one knew of, or could do anything about, the shares since no one had power of attorney.
A spokesman for the Catholic Communications Office in Maynooth College declined to respond when asked what position the Church took on ethical investment.
Other prominent Irish shareholders included Cork’s Victoria Hospital and scores of medical doctors, some of whom conceded it was contradictory of them to invest in the arms trade while being involved in saving lives.
Dr Joseph Yazbek, a medical officer at the Leopardstown Park Hospital in Dublin, said he and his wife would be selling their BAE Systems shares. Other doctors said they saw no ethical problem.
‘As far as I’m concerned, I regard BAE as a defence company as well as an attacking one,’ said Dr Patrick Nugent, a GP in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.
But campaigners were appalled that Church leaders, charities and doctors would invest in arms. Jim Loughran, an expert with Amnesty International in Dublin, urged investors to ensure companies complied with UN standards.
