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Breda O'Brien

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Breda O'Brien (born in 1962) is an Irish teacher, journalist and pro-life feminist. She founded Feminists for Life of Ireland in 1992 and is a leader in the Irish pro-life movement. She writes a column for The Irish Times.

Early life and education

Born in Dungarvan, County Waterford, O'Brien was educated at the Convent of Mercy, Dungarvan and later at the Mater Dei Institute of Education, Dublin. In 1987 she was awarded a diploma in audio visual production from the Crex Avex, Lyon, France. In 1988, she was awarded a diploma in video production from Lumen Video Production School, Dallas, Texas.

Homophobia / RTÉ Censorship Controversy

On January 11th, 2014 Irish drag performer Panti a.k.a. Rory O'Neill, appeared on The Saturday Night Show with Brendan O'Connor. Comments made by Rory on the topic of homophobia, during the interview, mentioned individuals involved in Irish journalism, including Ms. O'Brien, and the conservative lobby group The Iona Institute. Mr. O'Neill's view was that those mentioned displayed homophobic behaviour due to their opposition to homosexual equality on issues like gay marriage and gay adoption. Those mentioned, in-turn, threatened RTÉ and Mr. O'Neill with legal action. RTÉ subsequently removed that section of the interview from their online archive. The legality of Mr. Waters' display of support for censorship was subsequently questioned since he was a member of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. Two weeks after the initial incident on The Saturday Night Show, John Waters resigned from his post at the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. There was further comment on the lack of coverage of the event by The Irish Times who regularly publish Waters' articles.

On the January 25th episode of the RTÉ Saturday Night Show Brendan O'Connor issued a controversial public apology to Ms. O'Brien on behalf of RTÉ for comments made by Rory O'Neill in the interview held two weeks previously. Even though RTÉ censored Mr. O'Neill's statements from their online archive, Mr. O'Connor ended his RTÉ apology with the contradictory insistence that "It is an important part of democratic debate that people must be able to hold dissenting views on controversial issues." The fact that the Irish State broadcaster (RTÉ) censored a citizens opinions, and then was rumoured to have offered compensation to those promoting the censorship, became a controversial issue, discussed by members of government.

Later life

O'Brien taught at Muckross Park College, a public Catholic girls' school, between 1983 and 1987. She later returned to this post in 1992, and has remained there since. She has worked as a video producer and communications trainer in the Catholic Communications Centre (founded by the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference), Booterstown, Dublin from 1988 to 1991. She worked as a researcher for RTE from 1991 to 1992. Her career as a columnist began with The Sunday Business Post from 1997 to 2000 and continued with The Irish Times.

O'Brien is a patron of the Iona Institute, a conservative Irish think tank, and appears regularly in the Irish media as a contributor, supporting the teachings of the Catholic Church.

O'Brien supported the right to Muslim women to wear the hijab in Ireland.

See also

References

  1. ^ Bourke, Angela, ed. (2002). The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing: Irish Women's Writing and Traditions, Volume 5. NYU Press. ISBN 9780814799079.
  2. Irish Central Irish Central retrieved January 26, 2014
  3. Byrne, Brian (16 January 2014). "RTE cuts part of show after legal complaint from Waters". Irish Independent. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  4. Broadsheet retrieved January 26, 2014
  5. Independent retrieved January 26, 2014
  6. Our Man In Stockholm retrieved January 26, 2014
  7. The Journal retrieved January 26th, 2014
  8. The Journal retrieved January 30th, 2014
  9. Youtube retrieved January 30th, 2014
  10. The Journal retrieved January 30th, 2014
  11. Clare Daly TD retrieved January 31st, 2014
  12. Personnel And Patrons, the Iona Institute, retrieved 10 April 2009
  13. O'Brien, Breda (5 May 2008). "It is better to avoid making hijab a major issue". The Irish Times. Dublin: The Irish Times. Retrieved 7 May 2009.


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