IRELAND
The Journal
March 3, 2020
Michael O’Brien created one of the most powerful moments in Irish television, when he passionately told his story on RTÉ in 2009.
ABUSE SURVIVOR MICHAEL O’Brien explained why he felt he had to speak about his experience on a 2009 RTÉ programme that discussed redress for victims of institutional abuse.
Michael O’Brien was a member of a live studio audience for RTÉ’s Questions and Answers programme in 2009. As a child he had spent eight years in St Joseph’s Industrial School, also known as Ferryhouse, in Co Tipperary where he was raped and severely beaten.
Among the panelists on the RTÉ programme were Leo Varadkar, who was in opposition at the time, and the then Minister for Transport, Fianna Fáil’s Noel Dempsey.
O’Brien asked Dempsey if the government would freeze the assets of religious institutions if they didn’t pay more into the Redress Board Fund, which had been a topical issue at the time.
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