Furious abuse victims heckled Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin when he arrived to celebrate the biggest event in the Church calendar.

Those who were physically and emotionally abused by members of the clergy demanded he recognise the Catholic Church’s shame when he turned up for Easter Sunday mass at St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral in Dublin .

The protesters’ anger was not just directed at the archbishop but the Catholic hierarchy who they accused of a cover-up.

Abuse victim Eamon Reid (67) stood on the steps holding banners that read ‘Hypocrites for Jesus’ and displayed quotes from the Bible on the fate of those who harmed children.

“Hang your heads in shame,” one of the protesters shouted at the crowds leaving the church.

“My mother committed suicide due to this organisation.

“Out-and-out hypocrisy to claim to be Christian. A whole country abused and still in denial.”

William Kershaw, who said he was locked up in dark rooms for days at a time when he lived at a number of institutions, wanted to emphasise that much of the clergy were not to blame, including a nun called Sister Esther who helped him turn his life around.

Kevin Flanagan from Ballymun, whose brother was abused in an industrial school in Artane, said they may not all have abused but many “bad apples” were complicit in the “cover-up” that followed.

He called for the bishops to be charged with withholding information on crimes.