RTE Prime Time viewers have praised a guest for his bravery as he spoke about his experience of abuse by the Christian Brothers.
The topic of clerical sex abuse was covered on the show on Tuesday as it was revealed that victims face a “new nightmare when they try to sue the Christian Brothers”. RTE reports that suing the Order is proving to be a nightmare because the Christian Brothers have allegedly used a technicality in the law to halt child abuse victims from successfully winning a case inj the courts.
In 2017, the Supreme Court ruled that because a religious order was not a corporate body, it could not be sued itself. So unless it put forward a defendant to represent it, victims must take a case against every brother who was a member of the Order at the time of the abuse.
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Religious orders could nominate someone to represent them, but the Christian Brothers have chosen not to. Damien O’Farrell appeared on the show to speak about his traumatic experience with the Christian Order and confirmed that thanks to his bravery he managed to get a conviction against his abuser, and a settlement after a decade-long fight.
He says he wants to speak out on behalf of those who cannot and gave his view on the Order’s use of a technicality in court. He said: “I think it is cold hard business for the order. I think that’s the way they’re lookin’ at it. All it is is double the abuse on victims. They won’t put somebody up to take the case, they won’t put a name up”.
Damien emotionally revealed that: “Abuse is enduring, it’s all the time. It’s all the time for these victims, it’s all the time.
“It doesn’t go away. It affects your family life, it affects your work life, it affects your potential. You’ll never, ever meet the person that you were going to be before it happened”.
After the segment aired, people flocked to Twitter to praise Damien for telling his story and for standing up for so many people without a voice in the same situation as him. One person commended him by saying: “That man Damien O'Farrell is very brave and sound. He’s even considering the elderly brothers in nursing homes being dragged in and the family of his abuser. Class act, far more empathetic than the church ever was”.
Another wrote: “Sobering, collected report by @RitaOReilly. Not easy for Damien, brave in pursuing justice for all those abused by the Christian Brothers”. A third said: “Damien is to be greatly admired for taking on this fight. It’s one fight you can see has had huge impact on him and in his life but still he fights on, selfless”.
Speaking after the segment aired, Damian Farrell thanked RTE for the handling of his story and said: “Rita and all the Primetime team did an amazing job tonight imho. Real public service at work. I was treated in a very sensitive way by Rita et al and they did exactly what they told me they would at the beginning ... and a whole lot more .. thank you”.
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