UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail
‘I was abused – now I’m tackling it on TV’: Gabriel Byrne’s had painful personal experience of the murky world at the heart of his new drama
Gabriel Byrne can’t stand being described as brooding and intense.
‘I’m actually quite the opposite,’ insists the quietly spoken Irishman, best known for roles in movies The Usual Suspects and Defence Of The Realm.
‘Maybe it’s because I play those kinds of parts. People are always looking for labels to stick on others, so maybe those descriptions have been extended from the characters I play to me. Whatever the reason, I don’t like it. In Ireland, brooding is a term we use for hens. A brooding hen is supposed to lay eggs. Every time somebody says, “He’s dark and brooding” I think, “He’s about to lay an egg.”‘ …
One suspects it’s Quirke’s zealous determination to uncover the truth that appealed to Gabriel.
This, after all, is a man who went through hell because nobody was prepared to take on the Catholic Church and challenge its absolute power in the 50s Ireland in which he grew up.
Gabriel revealed on an Irish TV chatshow in 2010 how, between the ages of eight and 11, he had been sexually abused by Brothers in the Roman Catholic seminary where he was studying to be a priest.
He’s since described the Church as ‘a tyrannical, evil institution: anti-woman, anti-homosexual, anti-love, anti-condom, totally elitist.’
He went on to say, ‘Because of this culture of secrecy, priests – and nuns – could commit crimes against children and realise they didn’t have to pay for it. The Church would never hand them over to the authorities. To take advantage of a child’s innocence in that way is a crime against the soul of that child. I’m only thankful that now, all the rocks have been lifted and all the maggots have finally crawled out.’
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