Niall O'Brien (Columban missionary priest)

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Father Niall O'Brien was an Irish Columban missionary priest, who became famous around Ireland in the 1980s following his detention on charges of multiple murder in the Philippines. Born in Dublin on August 2, 1939, he was ordained a priest in 1963.

1 Ilonggo bible
2 Revolutionary activities
3 Arrest for multiple murders
4 Exile and return
5 Death
6 Bibliography
7 External links

[edit] Ilonggo bible

Having spent some years learning the Ilonggo language on the island of Negros, Father O'Brien helped translate the first Vatican approved Ilonggo version of the bible.[1]

[edit] Revolutionary activities

In the 1970s, while posted in the mountain village of Tabugon, he formed a workers' co-operative, which he called a kibbutz. As Negros was largely a feudal society, with power concentrated in the hands of a few landowners, with the backing of the military, this action led to him being branded a communist by the authorities.

[edit] Arrest for multiple murders

In February 1983, he was arrested with two other priests and six lay workers for the murders of Mayor Pablo Sola of Kabankalan and four companions. The priests where held under house arrest for eight months but 'escaped' to prison in Bacolod city where they felt they would be safer.

The case received widespread publicity in Ireland and Australia (the home of one of the co-accused priests, Fr Brian Gore). Charlie Bird interviewed Fr O'Brien in his overcrowded prison cell on RTE TV. When Ronald Reagan visited Ireland in 1984, he was asked on Irish TV how he could help the missionary priest's situation. A phone call the next day from the Reagan administration to Ferdinand Marcos resulted in Marcos offering a pardon to Fr O'Brien and his co-accused.

[edit] Exile and return

Rather than accept a pardon, which would imply guilt, the priests had charges dropped against them in return for agreeing to leave the country. In 1986, the Marcos regime fell in the people power revolution and Fr O'Brien returned to the country he considered home shortly afterwards.