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Irish Daily Mirror
29-06-2025
- Politics
- Irish Daily Mirror
Natasha O'Brien says her attacker is victim of Ireland's justice system
Campaigner Natasha O'Brien has said her attacker is a victim of Ireland's justice system. In 2022, the Limerick native was viciously attacked by Cathal Crotty, who was then a member of the Irish Defence Forces. He was given a three-year suspended sentence in June 2024. An appeal was lodged the following month, and the sentence was overturned by the Court of Appeal in January this year, and he was sentenced to two years in jail. But Natasha admitted Crotty was also a victim. "It's not his fault that the system is broken. If that judge last year had insured justice, my attacker would always have received justice. 'Like I am the primary victim but Crotty is the secondary victim now of the justice system because there was a media manhunt against him. That could all have been prevented by that judge and nobody would know his name if the judge hadn't made that decision and made that mistake. 'He has now been impacted by all of this as well. People can make really really serious mistakes and there should be accountability and punishment, but that doesn't mean that their entire life should be destroyed.' In her RTE One documentary, Natasha, which aired last Wednesday, she told viewers that the night she was attacked, she had been defended a passer by on the street who was being subjected to homophobic comments by Crotty and his pals. And despite the horrific assault that happened to her, Natasha said she would defend the person again. 'I would do it again to be honest. I don't see the point in not caring about other people. It's our job as human beings to support other human beings and if we can't do that, why are we even here? We are living our lives and if we can't stand up for others then what is the point.' Natasha said she feels like her own 'personal fight for justice' is now over and she hopes to make more documentaries. 'It has been an emotional rollercoaster but I'm slowly starting to heal now and I'm finally on a new chapter and journey. 'I feel like my own personal fights for justice are now over so now it's trying to go onto bigger things and trying to use this case as a great example of what shouldn't happen again. 'I'm really passionate about trying to continue along to make sure this doesn't happen again for others. I wanted to bare my soul. I'm really happy with how it turned out. 'There is massive potential to do more and work on another project exploring restorative justice and going down that route and how do we really achieve a sense of justice for anyone in the system. I'd love to potentially explore that too.' The Irish Mirror's Crime Writers Michael O'Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up and get it delivered to your inbox every week
Irish Daily Mirror
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
Natasha O'Brien says online trolls called her 'professional victim' after attack
Campaigner Natasha O'Brien has told how social media trolls described her as a "professional victim" after she was attacked by a former Irish soldier. In 2022, the Limerick native was viciously attacked by Cathal Crotty, who was then a member of the Irish Defence Forces. He was given a three-year suspended sentence in June 2024. An appeal was lodged the following month, and the sentence was overturned by the Court of Appeal in January this year, and he was sentenced to two years in jail. Speaking ahead of her documentary, Natasha, which airs tonight on RTE One, she opened up about the horrendous online hate she received after Crotty was sentenced, with one troll labelling her "a professional victim". She told The Irish Mirror: "I've been relentlessly trolled in everything I do in every post I post, every video or media interview. Anything and everything, there's just always so much negativity. "There was a really interesting comment – 'she is a professional victim'. I don't even know what that means but apparently, I'm a professional victim. "Or I hope she's going to donate all the money she makes from the documentary? What money? This has been out of my time. I've been doing this for the cause." She also saw posts discussing her LinkedIn credentials with Natasha saying it wasn't even her page. "That's not even my LinkedIn. We don't even look similar," she said. Natasha also wants to make it clear that she was paid a "minor fee" for helping make her documentary, which airs tonight at 9.35pm. "There was a minor fee, and it wouldn't even cover 30 hours of work, and I put in 10 months of this. It's not even a week's wages and I've put months into this. "It's not about the money and these film projects and their subjects, they do it because it's an important story and message that needs to be heard and seen. It was important for me to do it because I suppose I've been judged in so many ways, and I thought it was time to tell people this is who I am. "Of course it's a personal journey. I invited the cameras into very vulnerable moments." Natasha said she hopes when people watch her documentary, they will stop judging victims on how they look. "I just think that it is 2025 and the time for judging a victim on how they looked is absolutely insane. "If you actually think that how someone looks is going to give you any indication of what they are going through, you're away with the fairies. "You haven't a clue if you're seriously going to judge someone's appearance over the bucket load of trauma and all the struggles they've gone through and you're going to look at their appearance and judge them by that. "I totally couldn't care less about that. It's time we stop judging books by their covers." Natasha also spoke about the hurt her own family went through as they tried to help her heal from the heinous crime. She said: "I really lost a part of myself, and my mam was just always so desperate to support me and help me to find myself again but there were lots of pieces of me that were just destroyed. They weren't coming back and when I was filming, I got an insight into what it was like for my mam to have a daughter going through this and how it really affected her and impacted her. "It wasn't just me suffering, there were others around me suffering too. We forget that." Speaking about her documentary, she said it was important that the programme explored the leniency of the justice system and not just her own story. "It was really important to me at the start, that when we got my director on board… I said that I had told my story so many times, I'm sick of telling my story and I'm sure lots of people are sick of hearing my story so I don't want to waste an hour of prime-time television telling the same thing over again. "I don't want to waste this opportunity to talk about the past. It's not me. "We wanted to show that while something that happened to us can affect us, it doesn't define us and that was really important when we were filming this documentary." Natasha added that she finally feels like she is embarking on a "new chapter and journey." "It has been an emotional rollercoaster but I'm slowly starting to heal now and I'm finally on a new chapter and journey. "I feel like my own personal fights for justice are now over so now it's trying to go onto bigger things and trying to use this case as a great example of what shouldn't happen again. "I'm really passionate about trying to continue along to make sure this doesn't happen again for others. "I wanted to bare my soul. I'm really happy with how it turned out. "There is massive potential to do more and work on another project exploring restorative justice and going down that route and how do we really achieve a sense of justice for anyone in the system. I'd love to potentially explore that too," she added. Natasha airs tonight on RTE One at 9.35pm
The Irish Sun
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Major TV shakeup as RTE axes prime time show following 3 seasons on air as presenter issues ‘disappointed' statement'
RTE has confirmed that it has axed one of it's top prime time TV shows. Upfront with Katie Hannon, which airs on Monday night, will not be returning in September following three seasons on air. 1 Upfront with Katie Hannon will end after three seasons Credit: Reuters The series, hosted by Katie Hannon, was first launched on RTE One in January 2023. The audience-centred weekly live current affairs show featured a panel of four guests and of up to 40 spectator contributors. In a statement, Katie Hannon said: "I'm very proud of what we achieved on Upfront. We managed to buck the international trend and actually grew our audience on linear television and our digital footprint. "It was a privilege to work with our small team of talented and hardworking colleagues led by our editor Janet Traynor. I also want to thank all of those who came into our studio and trusted us with their stories and contributed to the national conversation on the issues that matter to all of us. read more on rte "I'm disappointed that we won't be able to keep that conversation going."
Irish Daily Mirror
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
Retired RTE star Bryan Dobson set to return to national broadcaster for new show
Retired RTE radio star Bryan Dobson is set to return to our screens to host a new documentary. The former News at One host announced his retirement from RTE after 37 years in January 2024. The veteran journalist has announced he will return to our screens this summer to co-host a new documentary about the last Irish missionaries. The Last Irish Missionaries will see Dobson and his co-host Dearbhail McDonald chart the unique evolution of the Irish missionary movement, from religious colonialism to heroic acts of self-sacrifice and philanthropy; from a flourishing of Irish "soft power", to tawdry scandals of abuse and cover-up. Today, the Irish missionary chapter is drawing to a close and Dearbhail and Bryan explore why so many Irish priests, nuns, lay people and other religious people felt called to spread the Gospel to the farthest reaches of the world. They also hear first-hand about their experiences and the impact of those individuals worldwide. The documentary is among a slate of new shows RTE is set to air this summer across RTE One and RTE Player. Among those include The Phone Box Babies, which will reveal new insights into the lives and identities of three newborn babies abandoned in the 1960s in different parts of Ireland. The babies were discovered by random passersby in phone boxes, and in a car, without any identifying information or clue to their origins. David McBride, born in 1962, was left in a car in a Belfast driveway. John Dowling, born in 1965, was found in a Drogheda phone box. Helen Ward, born in 1968, was discovered in a Dundalk phone box. Each was adopted and raised in different parts of Ireland. This new documentary uncovers details about the babies' parents, where they came from, and why they were given up. 50 years later, as adults, they discover their connection to each other and embark on an emotional journey to uncover their identities. Mary Robinson also presents her own documentary, Mrs Robinson. In her own words, for the very first time she will open up on battles for justice and equality over half a century; on the streets, in the courts, at the ballot box, and in backroom corridors of power. Pray for our Sinners documents Sinéad O'Shea's return to her hometown, Navan, Co Meath to explore the impact of the Catholic Church on the community in decades past. Through first-hand testimonies, the film reveals the plight of unmarried mothers; the horrors of mother and baby homes and the prevalence of violence against children in Catholic schools. Listen to the Land Speak sees Manchán Magan reveal the profound knowledge and wisdom contained in our landscape and myths and explore how they have shaped the way we look at the world. Filmed over four seasons, the film unfolds from Winter Solstice to Bealtaine through Reek Sunday to Samhain. Along his journey, he meets respected archaeologists, mythologists, writers and shamans that offer different perspectives on how our ancestors related to the land and landscape around them. It also becomes an unexpectedly personal story - as he seeks to help heal society's relationship with nature - Manchán also realises that there is a serious illness within himself that makes him see these ancient sites and beliefs in a whole new light.
Irish Daily Mirror
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
Popular Fair City star opens up about tragic death of his father
Fair City star Tony Tormey has said losing his dad when he was a teenager "set" him back a lot as a youngster. Tony's father was tragically killed in a car crash in 1980 when the actor was just 16-years-old. The Dubliner – who plays Paul Brennan in the RTE One soap – said the accident completely changed the trajectory of his life and his outlook on life. The family, including his sister Barbara and mum Betty had spent their early years living on Dublin's Baggot Street and had moved to Finglas just before the accident happened. Having had ambitions to go to art college, Tony and his sister Barbara had to take up work after finishing school, with Tony getting a job in the pathology lab at St James's Hospital. "That was a big blow to us", he says looking back on that time. "That set me back a lot, in terms of talking to people; I really went into myself and not in a bad way but I guess back then it wasn't encouraged to talk about those things. Something like that happening takes you to a different place; you're carefree and then all of a sudden that's gone and it's always in the back of your head. 'It was a tough time, but it either makes you or breaks you. And also I found myself as the man of the house, I had to go out and start working,' he told the RTE Guide. After a few years of working at the hospital, he took what he describes as a "mad notion to give up the job and pursue acting." After seeing an advert, he enrolled in the Gaiety School of Acting, where he was encouraged by director Joe Dowling, who subsequently offered him a part in Borstal Boy. In 1989, Tony landed the role as Paul Brennan on Fair City and he said his mother Betty would pretend she didn't watch the soap. "She did but she'd pretend she didn't! But you'd hear from other people that she was proud, she just wouldn't say it to your face." His mother Betty sadly died last winter at the age of 92. He commends the team at St Francis's Hospice in Blanchardstown, where she spent the last six months of her life. "It was a tough time," he said. "We were up with her every day, but I have to say, the team there, they were absolutely brilliant, they made her feel like a queen. And they were great to us too. You find yourself as an orphan and that's hard, but what can you do, you have to get on with it,' he added.
