By Lynne Kelleher
Monday January 18 2010
HOLLYWOOD star Gabriel Byrne has revealed how he was “deeply hurt” by sexual abuse inflicted on him as a child by the Christian Brothers.
The film star opened up about the abuse in the first show of Gay Byrne’s ‘Meaning of Life’ series on RTE television last night.
The actor talked frankly about his battles with alcoholism and depression in the past and expressed shock at the drinking culture among Ireland’s young people.
Byrne was an altar boy during his childhood in Dublin and went at the age of 11 to train as a priest in England.
“Unfortunately, I experienced some sexual abuse. 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,” he said.
“It took many years to come to terms with it and to forgive those incidents that I felt had deeply hurt me.”
Another priest sexually abused him when he was 11 at the English seminary.
“It didn’t go on over a prolonged period but it happened at a very, very vulnerable moment,” Byrne recalled.
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