Gabriel Byrne I Was Abused As a Child Gabriel Byrne the Hollywood Actor Was Sexually Abused When He Was a Child in Ireland and Later When He Trained As a Priest in England, Telegraph, January 20, 2010

Gabriel Byrne: I Was Abused As a Child
Gabriel Byrne, the Hollywood Actor, Was Sexually Abused When He Was a Child in Ireland, and Later When He Trained As a Priest in England.

Telegraph
January 20, 2010

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/7029985/Gabriel-Byrne-I-was-abused-as-a-child.html

IRELAND -- The Irish actor said he was abused by Christian Brothers.

"Unfortunately, I experienced some sexual abuse," he told Irish television. "It was a known and admitted fact of life amongst us that there was this particular man, and you didn't want to be left in the dressing room with him.

The Irish actor moved to England aged 11 to train as a priest and was abused again.

"It took many years to come to terms with it and to forgive those incidents that I felt had deeply hurt me."

The Irish actor moved to England aged 11 to train as a priest and was again abused by a member of the clergy, he said.

"It didn't go on over a prolonged period but it happened at a very, very vulnerable moment," he said.

Byrne, who has struggled with alcoholism and depression, was speaking to Irish broadcaster Gay Bryne on a programme called The Meaning of Life on RTE television.

Bryne, who has starred in films such as The Usual Suspects and Miller's Crossing, said that his love of women took him away from a life in the priesthood.

"I went down to London during a break and we got on the bus and I walked up the stairs behind two girls in miniskirts and that was the end of it for me," he said.

He connects his depression with alcohol, and warned that it has caused a huge problem in Ireland.

He said: "There is this plague of binge drinking, where the idea is to get as out of it as you possibly can, as quick as you can. That's alcoholism: part of the disease is to remove yourself from reality as quickly as possible."