‘What I wanted was for Malachy Finegan to be exposed. I felt that the wee boy I had been might be stepping from the darkness, and I needed him to be heard and to be believed.’

When he was twelve and in first year at St Colman’s College in Newry, Gerard Gorman was abused by paedophile priest Father Malachy Finegan. Gerard was so traumatised that for many years he was unable to talk about what had happened to him.

So Young is Gerard’s powerful and courageous account of how he finally found a voice to tell his story. In this memoir – with the help of his brother, the poet Damian Gorman – he talks openly about the abuse he suffered and the impact it had on his life and on the lives of those around him. He describes too his role in exposing Finegan and his long and painful battle with the Catholic Church – in and out of the civil courts – to force it to acknowledge the harm done to him and the cover-up that perpetuated Finegan’s abuse.

Brave, moving and open-hearted, So Young is a powerful account of surviving abuse and a damning indictment of an institution that continues to stonewall victims.