‘I wanted the priest who hurt me to be terrified and burn in hell for ever’

LONDON (ENGLAND)
Daily Mail

November 7, 2020

By Gabriel Byrne

Actor Gabriel Byrne reveals a terrible secret and how he tried to confront his tormentor

Surrounded by a moat, the Christian Brothers’ School House for Older Boys was a fine old Irish castle from the 13th Century.

The ghost of Oliver Cromwell was said to walk its stairways and corridors, and Queen Elizabeth I once slept in the stone chamber where we had our classes.

In 1961, when I was ten years old, a curate visited and announced to the class: ‘Boys, I want to talk to you about vocations to the priesthood. A vocation is a word from Latin meaning ‘to call’.’

God might be calling you, he said. ‘And if he is, you must answer.’ I thought of God trying to get through to me on the phone.

The curate continued: ‘If you listen to the voice deep inside yourself, in quiet moments, you will hear him. To be chosen is the greatest gift any family could have.’

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