Latest news with #NatashaO'Brien
The Irish Sun
12 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
I was viciously beaten by ex-soldier in the street – but same unsettling question plagued me after he was finally jailed
ASSAULT victim Natasha O'Brien says she never intended her attacker to be so vilified, telling us: 'That wasn't fair.' The Advertisement 5 Natasha O'Brien says she never intended for her attacker to be so vilified Credit: AYESHA AHMAD/RTE 5 The Limerick woman was viciously beaten by former soldier Cathal Crotty Credit: Collect 5 Brave Natasha admits Crotty's jailing left her conflicted He was The DPP But Natasha admits Crotty's jailing left her very conflicted. She told The Irish Sun: 'A year ago I never felt listened to. My physical and mental scars were not considered by the court and handing him a suspended sentence completely compounded everything for me. Advertisement Read more in News 'Then the DPP appealed it and for the first time in an Irish court I felt listened to and the court decided to send him to jail. But I took no pleasure in seeing a young man being led away to prison. In fact, I found the experience quite unsettling. 'He made a mistake. Yes, it was a very bad mistake but he's not the only person who's done something like this and so many others don't get punished at all. 'He was so vilified and became this poster boy for gender-based violence and that wasn't fair because he's not the only one. 'And who knows what effect all of this has had Advertisement Most read in Irish News Exclusive She added: 'If the courts had done its job in the first place then maybe he wouldn't have been so vilified in its aftermath or become this poster boy for the whole movement. 'So I think in many ways he became a second victim of this very flawed justice system.' Natasha O'Brien bravely opens up on horror attack by Defence Forces soldier Cathal Crotty Natasha was attacked after finishing a shift at a Limerick pub. She had asked Crotty to stop using homophobic language. He grabbed her by the hair and pushed her to the ground, before punching her in the face until she lost consciousness. Advertisement Vile Crotty later boasted on Natasha was attacked just months after 'COULD HAVE BEEN VERY DIFFERENT' And ahead of a documentary on Natasha airing on 'And it came so soon after Ashling Murphy died so it made me very aware that things could have been very different. Advertisement 'But 'If one small thing came from my case, it's that maybe it has helped others to be able to speak out or come forward. And if that has happened then everything has been so worth it.' 5 Natasha said: 'I had to be a voice for so many others who didn't have one' Credit: Liam Burke/Press 22 5 A documentary on Natasha is airing on RTE 1 Credit: AYESHA AHMAD/RTE Advertisement
Irish Daily Mirror
13 hours ago
- 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
RTÉ News
a day ago
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
RTÉ announces new slate of homegrown documentaries
From a documentary about former President Mary Robinson to look at the lives of Buddhists in Beara and an exploration of the links between the IRA and America, RTÉ television has announced a new series of homegrown documentaries. Produced to "showcase unique Irish stories and explore Irish life," the new documentary slate also includes Pray for our Sinners about the impact of the Catholic Church on the town of Navan and The Phone Box Babies, which reveals new insights into the lives and identities of three newborn babies abandoned in the 1960s in different parts of Ireland.. Natasha, Wednesday 25 June, 9.35pm, RTÉ One/RTÉ Player Having survived a violent assault by a serving soldier - who was convicted but walked free with a suspended sentence - Natasha O'Brien, a young Limerick woman, refuses to stay silent. Her public outcry against the lenient ruling ignites national protests and forces a reckoning with how the Irish justice system treats survivors of gender-based violence. This documentary follows Natasha and is a portrayal of how the aftermath of a violent attack and the subsequent strain of the flawed justice system affects a young woman's life and how she attempts to transform her trauma into activism. The Phone Box Babies reveals 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 passersbys 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. Fifty years later, as adults, they discover their connection to each other and embark on an emotional journey to uncover their identities. A new two-part documentary that tells the astonishing story of the role played by Irish Americans during the conflict in Northern Ireland: fundraising, propagandising and gun-running. NORAID: Irish America and the IRA tells of a body of Irish Americans who acted as the Republican movement's voice in the United States of America throughout that period. Told through first-hand accounts and using exclusive archive sources, the series looks at how Irish-America went from collecting money in bars in the Bronx to pressing the Presidential Candidate, Bill Clinton, during the 1992 primaries - lobbying which led to a key turning point in the nascent Peace Process: a US Visa for the then President of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams. Listen to the Land Speak, RTÉ One/RTÉ Player 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 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. Don't Forget to Remember, RTÉ One/RTÉ Player This unconventional documentary from Ross Killeen (Love Yourself Today) is an emotive human story featuring the artist Asbestos and his journey through the slow decay of his mother's memories as they disintegrate due to her advancing Alzheimer's disease. His work represents the fragility of memory in images, which are themselves fragile and transient. Together Killeen and Asbestos consider the brittleness of memory and find that even though Alzheimer's brings elements of disintegration and destruction, the memories we have of our loved ones will endure and last, even if they've disintegrated in the mind of the sufferer. The work is at once a moving portrait of one woman's memory loss, but also a celebration of a loving family coming together in the face of this condition. The Last Irish Missionaries, RTÉ One/RTÉ Player Bryan Dobson and 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. Ireland's last missionaries are nearly all elderly - what will be their legacy? And who, if anyone, will take their place? Dearbhail and Bryan explore why so many Irish priests, nuns, lay people and other religious felt called to spread the Gospel to the farthest reaches of the world. They also hear firsthand about their experiences and the impact of those individuals worldwide. The Breaking Wave - The Buddhists of Beara, RTÉ One/RTÉ Player This feature-length film tells the remarkable story of Dzogchen Beara, a spiritual haven perched amidst the stunning landscape of West Cork's Beara peninsula. Founded by Peter and Harriet Cornish in 1973, the Centre appointed an internationally renowned Buddhist teacher, Sogyal Rinpoche, as its spiritual director, in 1994. Over 20 years later, the community was rocked by revelations that Rinpoche was a serial sexual predator. With unique access over five years, Maurice O'Brien's film captures the community's efforts to come to terms with this scandal and with the death of Peter Cornish, while constructing Ireland's first Tibetan Buddhist Temple. Home: The Story of Zak Moradi tells the story of Zak, born in a camp in war-torn Iraq on the day the Gulf War began. Zak and his family share their experiences from fleeing their home to building a new life in Ireland, where he finds a community and his passion through the local GAA and playing hurling. 20 years since leaving Iraq, Zak returns to reconnect with his past on an emotional journey, in what is a poignant and inspiring story of resilience and hope, that explores the importance, meaning and feeling of a home. The documentary premiered at last year's Galway Film Fleadh. Mrs Robinson, RTÉ One/RTÉ Player Mrs Robinson tells the story of Mary Robinson - in her own words, for the very first time - illuminating 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. A reforming constitutional lawyer and Senator in her early career, Mary Robinson detonated an electoral earthquake by winning the Irish Presidential vote in 1990. Later, as a crusading UN High Commissioner, she built a lasting legacy; fearlessly challenging perpetrators of human rights abuses all over the world. To this day, she exerts leadership as the Chair of The Elders; the independent group of global leaders (founded by Nelson Mandela) who work for peace, justice and human rights. Pray for our Sinners, RTÉ One/RTÉ Player Pray for Our Sinners documents Sinéad O'Shea's return to her hometown, Navan, 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. A handful of extraordinary figures chose to resist the pervasive power of the church: a woman who refused to give her baby up for adoption, a nine-year-old boy who dared to speak out against his teachers' physical abuse; and a couple who established a family planning service and campaigned for the abolition of corporal punishment Football Families, RTÉ One/RTÉ Player Football Families is a three-part series featuring some of Ireland's best young soccer talent as they chase the dream of making it in the dog-eat-dog world of professional football, filmed behind-the-scenes with the rising stars of league of Ireland champions Shelbourne F.C's soccer academy. The series was filmed as the 2024 league reached its climax with Shelbourne being crowned champions under manager Damien Duff. Delving behind the scenes, the series highlights how this sport for the masses is a profession for the few. Hard-working and determined, these teenagers from diverse backgrounds and ethnicities train together and bond as teams who want to win. Their stories reveal the pressure and scrutiny they're under as they cope with the brutal reality of elite level football. North Circular, RTÉ One/RTÉ Player North Circular is a multiple award-winning documentary which travels the length of Dublin's North Circular Road. This is a place where local characters share their powerful and emotive stories, accompanied by traditional ballads and folk music, all adding to the narrative. Conjuring the ghosts of the past, while engaging with the conflicts and celebrations of today, North Circular also features some Dublin humour thrown in. The film includes musical performances from local artists including John Francis Flynn, Séan Ó Túama, Eoghan O'Ceannabháin, Ian Lynch and Gemma Dunleavy. Breaking Out, RTÉ One/RTÉ Player Fergus O'Farrell was the charismatic voice of Interference, one of the most compelling and influential bands to emerge from the Irish music scene in the 1990s, best-known for his timeless song Gold which featured in the soundtrack to Oscar-winning movie Once. Despite being diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at a young age, through it all, Fergus had to keep singing. His unique talent and love for life inspired a generation of songwriters. Oscar-winner Glen Hansard was one, and in one of the many incredible moments in Breaking Out, he performs the ultimate duet as Fergus' greatest gift was failing. Winner of Best Irish Documentary at the Galway Film Fleadh 2019 , this intimate journey into the heart and soul of Fergus O'Farrell was filmed over ten years by director Michael McCormack. Sightless Cinema, RTÉ One/RTÉ Player A year in the life of the Sightless Cinema audio drama network, as they embark on their biggest show to date. The Sightless Cinema network is a group of blind and visually impaired people who create audio dramas for performance in theatres and cinemas. Founded in 2015 by theatre director Ciarán Taylor, and sound artist Rachel Ní Chuinn, Sightless Cinema has grown from a tiny group to a nationwide community. Director Gareth Stack followed Sightless Cinema as they rehearsed and performed their new show across Ireland. Members of the group candidly discuss their sight loss and how their lives have been shaped by blindness. We watch their creative process in action. As Sightless Cinema turn their lived experiences of blindness into compelling audio theatre. Feature documentary on American singer songwriter John Murry who was on the cusp of greatness after the release of his album Graceless Age in 2013 when his world fell apart. He found solace in Ireland where he had washed up creatively exhausted and depressed and where, he said, the landscape and the people revived him. This film sees John retrace his steps back to Mississippi to a neglected childhood, explore his family links to the Nobel Prize winning author William Faulkner, and ultimately find understanding and redemption through his love for music.
