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Gabriel Byrne says image of Ireland destroyed by church sex scandals

By
JANE WALSHE
,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Published Monday, December 28, 2009, 6:40 AM
Updated Monday, December 28, 2009, 8:31 AM
Read more: Ireland, Gabriel Byrne, The New York Times Company, United States


Irish Hollywood actor Gabriel Byrne said Americans are shocked by the depth and nature of the abuse.
Irish Hollywood actor Gabriel Byrne said Americans are shocked by the depth and nature of the abuse.

Irish Hollywood star Gabriel Byrne says Ireland's friendly image in America has been blown away by the church sex scandal.

The actor told Irish radio that Americans were deeply shocked by the depth and nature of the abuse. "The day the Ryan report (about church pedophiles ) was published, I was in a cafe reading the paper. It was on the front page of The New York Times.

"That means that everybody who read the New York Times was confronted for the first time, more or less, with that information. They were shocked," said Byrne.

"A lot of people who live in America, and it's not their fault, have a stereotypical view of Ireland. You get a movie like 'The Quiet Man' and people arrive at Shannon airport and expect to be met by Barry FitzGerald.

"Like everybody else, I felt words that now seem inadequate to describe the horror of it. I felt this tremendous pain and hurt for my own country. A man in the cafe with me said to me: 'I didn't know they had concentration camps in Ireland.'

"I felt I am a product of that culture and that country. The man questioned me as to how I could live in a place like that.

"He said the Taliban are a horrific group of people and it sounded like I was raised like that. I said to him that it wasn't really like that. I said I knew it looked really bad here, but it's a very complex picture."

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Gabriel Byrne says image of Ireland destroyed by church sex scandals | Irish News | IrishCentral


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Posted by Madeleine on Dec 29, 2009, 12:52 AM EST
I'm in America and we have gone through the same thing, I don't know where they all came from, there was no end to it. I certainly don't judge Ireland by a story in the NY Times, and that man who said those awful things to Gabriel Byrne should be ashamed of himself, how rude! This is not what people think of Ireland, its terrible, of course, but it is no reflection on the Irish people, it doesn't speak well of the Catholic church though, why is so much of this going on? They should be in jail like any other sex offender.
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Posted by IrishAndProud on Dec 28, 2009, 09:17 PM EST
Nonsense. This scandal has NOT ruined Ireland's image. These were the actions of a perverted few, and do NOT reflect on Ireland's populace, as a whole. If anything, the populace are seen as the victims here (which they were) and it only increases sympathy.
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Posted by Irishlassred on Dec 28, 2009, 09:13 PM EST
Well, Gabriel was a child - born and raised - in Ireland. Surely he can't be held responsible for the actions of elders. I maintain that no one - NO ONE! - ever said "no" to a nun or priest and lived to talk about it. Not here in America, in Ireland or any other predominantly Catholic country. It was what it was: I'm a bit younger then he, born and raised in America, and after the initial reports were made of American priests - years ago - nothing surprises me. What does surprise me is that people like Mr. Byrne, Liam Neeson, Frank McCourt, Richard Harris and others survived that existence as well as they did. And that it took as long as it did to come to the surface. No wonder the Church is loosing people hand over fist... read the Ryan report
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Posted by odonnell521 on Dec 28, 2009, 09:11 PM EST
Irish-American Catholics think no less of Ireland as a result of the church sex scandal. We've experienced the same tragedy in our own country's church, so most of us feel sorrow and sympathy for fellow Catholics, and hope and pray for healing for the victims.
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Posted by barneyjo on Dec 28, 2009, 08:49 PM EST
kickstar, are you by any chance calling me a "Redneck"? Just how would a "S**tkicker" know what a redneck is exactly?
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Posted by kickstar on Dec 28, 2009, 08:10 PM EST
Holy Shit all the Red necks are posting today


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