LONDON (ENGLAND)
Irish Post
November 8, 2020
By Jack Beresford
https://www.irishpost.com/news/for-so-long-i-blamed-myself-gabriel-byrne-speaks-out-about-his-experience-of-being-abused-by-priest-197246
Gabriel Byrne has spoken of how he felt “ashamed and guilty” for many years after he was abused by a priest at the age of just 11.
The Usual Suspects star has opened up about the abuse in his new memoir, Walking With Ghosts, in which he recounts how he first moved from his family home in Dublin to St Richard’s College in Worcestershire to train for the priesthood.
In an abridged extract published by the Mail on Sunday, Byrne recalled how he was initially taken under the wing of a kind priest at the college.
Their relationship turned sinister, however, when that same priest molested him.
Recalling the night the clergyman first revealed his true intentions, Byrne wrote: “The priest’s breath was sour and hot as he moved toward me. Then there was blackness.
“Even years later it feels like the night has been concreted over. I’ve been picking at it with a pin ever since, afraid to use a jack-hammer, afraid of what’s buried in there.”
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