Irish Scholar and Senator Mr. David Norris wrote.. This is a very remarkable book by a courageous honest and decent man who has tragically been the victim of appalling sexual abuse at the hands of the notorious Father Sean Fortune when he was a child and teenager. The story is written passionately and with integrity. It also contains some of the most harshly realistic and uncompromising descriptions of the physical horror, the agony, smells and the tastes of the anal and oral rape to which he was subjected. However even worse than that was the psychological terror and the abuse of the church first by Father Fortune himself and then by the cold and legalistic response from the church authorities. It takes a very brave man indeed to be able to confront these demons and write them down, sharing his shattered privacy not only with other victims but with those of us who have been lucky enough to have had no such experiences. The threat of hell fire, the refusal of his mother to believe him and the emotional and physical destruction of his close friend and cousin Peter Fitzpatrick are very harrowing to read about. The constant excuses for the condition in which these boys were found "I fell off me bike" remind one of the classic excuse of the battered wife that she walked into a door. All of this induced a kind of self-blame and guilt of the victim. The automatic respect for the clergy has now very largely been tempered throughout the country and this is a good thing. However Mr. Bennett acknowledges the presence not only of evil but of good people in the world including Father Jack Power, the splendid founder of One in Four Colm O'Gorman and the taxi driver in Dublin who recognised a fellow victim and refused to take a fare providing instead words of comfort. And comfort he would certainly need when the monstrous Farther Fortune told him that the obscene abuse to which he was being subjected was part of spiritual "healing." Throughout this his brother in law Robbie stood by him manfully and provided a degree of refuge from the horror. The net result of all this abuse was a series of broken relationships, a shattered marriage but through this survived his love of his children. Very sadly the thought was implanted in his mind that because he had been abused himself he might abuse his own children as he felt that he had become a monster. This of course was not true. But it must have been a terrible psychological ordeal to bear. After a period of great emotional turmoil during which Mr. Bennett anaesthetised himself against the psychological pain by the use of drugs and alcohol he eventually found the courage to make a formal complaint against the church with the help of George Birmingham SC. The ruthless honesty of Mr. Bennett means that this is not a story with a sentimental and unambiguously happy ending. He is still on a journey that is sometimes difficult and painful but he has shown remarkable courage, integrity and honesty and done the community a service by writing this extraordinary and valuable book. TAKING BACK MY SOUL THE FERNS REPORT dealing with the issue of clerical abuse. Ireland was rocked by that report and for days afterwards newspapers headlined with stories that sickened us. I gave evidence to that same enquiry, a victim of Father Sean Fortune who was one of the main "abusers" highlighted in the report and this is my story. It is a story from my heart of years of sadistic savagery at his hands. It is a story that I sometimes wonder can be published at all, due to the details I have included in it but it is a story that has to be told in order to protect our children's futures. Raped in every way possible, drug and alcohol abuse, suicide attempts, legal battles, empty apologies, love, happiness and even more heartbreak. I lay it all here before you with nothing held back for fear you might be offended. This is the story of how my soul was taken from me and drained of its life by a priest, a so called man of God