Michael Cleary (priest)

Michael Cleary (1934 – 31 December 1993) was an Irish Roman Catholic priest, who became a radio and TV personality as well. A charismatic and powerful figure in the Catholic Church, he presented a late-night radio phone-in show in Dublin in the 1980s and hosted his own television chat show. He also published a book about maintaining faith in the modern world. After he released two albums of songs, he was nicknamed "The Singing Priest". He achieved more notoriety when it was revealed after his death that he had lived with Phyllis Hamilton and fathered two children with her, while she acted as his housekeeper. They lived as a family in secret.

Born in Dublin, Ireland, Michael Cleary lived there all his life. He attended Catholic schools and became a priest.

As an adult, he lived in Rathmines Road in Dublin. He participated in some of the social changes of the 1960s and 1970s, claiming to have experimented with drugs. He was strongly devoted to care for the poor and working on poverty and community development issues.

In the 1960s, Cleary discussed the Catholic clergy's attitudes to celibacy, sex and marriage in the Irish documentary film Rocky Road to Dublin (1967). He admits to a personal preference for being married and having a family, but claimed that the role and necessary sacrifices of being a priest were a valid substitute. As part of his pushing limits, he once claimed to have tried every drug except heroin.

Cleary had one of the highest profiles of any cleric in Ireland throughout the 1970s and 1980s. During the 1979 Papal visit to Ireland, Cleary sang to the crowd of 200,000 at Ballybrit before the Pope made his appearance. He was a powerful and charismatic figure within the church. He was particularly devoted to raising the issue of poverty in Ireland, especially in Dublin, where he worked for change in inner-city communities.

Three weeks after his death in December 1993 (from throat cancer), when they were therefore no longer liable to be prosecuted for defamation, The Phoenix, a national news magazine, published an article alleging that Cleary had fathered a child, Ross Hamilton, with Phyllis Hamilton, who had worked as his longtime housekeeper. This claim was subsequently repeated and it was suggested it was confirmed by DNA analysis. The remaining Cleary family who volunteered to provide their own DNA refused to acknowledge the boy, nor has any DNA evidence been forthcoming or provided by any of the claimed children. The Cleary family have also disputed claims that he had fathered two boys ( both having the same mother Phyllis Hamilton who it is claimed also had a girl during this time by another trainee priest) and said they were in possession of blood tests and affidavits from two men who claimed to be the boys' fathers but apparently none of these were ever produced.

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