Warbler said:
Where pedophilia scandals being discovered back when she tore up the picture? I don’t remember the pedophilia scandal being all that big at that point in time.
Very like due to members of the establishment keeping a lid on it - also at a time where such things were considered taboo to talk about (here in the UK and especially in Ireland). The average person in the street wouldn’t dream that their priest (or priests in general) may have received orders from higher-ups at the Vatican to not report abuse, many may have turned a blind eye, and that many of those who were involved were merely moved away to an new area, or that the authorities/establishment would turn a blind eye - or not investigate fully accusations made by those who were abused…
…and so there would also be less media coverage and attention to it.
What Sinead (and others) did was help shine a light on the whole thing - investigative journalists would do a little more digging around as her actions were a story in itself, and slowly over time more information would surface, more people coming forward, more evidence (whether circumstantial or actual) being pieced together, and it snowballs, and so on.
