ACTOR GABRIEL BLASTS RTE ‘SEX PESTS’
They tormented my ex-girlfriend says movie legend Byrne
HOLLYWOOD actor Gabriel Byrne has revealed how “sex pests” in RTE tormented his ex-girlfriend while she worked for the broadcaster.
The Dubliner, 67, said the culture of sexism at the firm was “absolutely ridiculous” in the 70s when he was starring in hit drama The Riordans.
He added: “One of those guys made her life an absolute misery through his sexual improprieties.”
ACTOR Gabriel Byrne has told of how his ex-girlfriend’s life was made a misery by “sex pests” at RTE.
The 67-year-old Usual Suspects star said a culture of inappropriate behaviour was common in the national broadcaster while he worked on The Riordans in the 1970s and the 1980s.
Byrne also told how another female friend at the broadcaster was “given instructions” on how short to wear her skirt in work.
The Hollywood star said: “I was going out with my girlfriend at the time who worked in RTE and the climate of abject sexism there, when I look back on it, was absolutely ridiculous.
“And there are still a few people walking around the place who were regarded as – I don’t know what you would call them – sex pests?
“People just kind of laughed and said there he is, doing his thing again. But one of those guys made her life an absolute misery through his sexual improprieties.
“There was another friend of mine who on her very first week there, there were two producers who had taken a bet on who could get her into bed first.
“She was given instructions about how short she should hike her skirt up … but nobody thought, ‘Oh my god, this is really appalling behaviour’.”
Speaking on Today with Sean O’rourke on RTE Radio One, the Dubliner said the shocking behaviour was laughed off because women didn’t feel complaining was an option. Byrne also revealed how a politician approached his former girlfriend.
The actor said: “It was just the climate that it was at the time and nobody questioned it.
“Your job as a woman was spent – if you were lucky enough to get in there into any position in RTE, and I’m just saying RTE because that’s the one place where I have experience of there – avoiding these people who took it as their right to say I’m entitled to you and I’m entitled to say anything and do anything I want.
“It wasn’t just people in RTE, I remember one politician who came up to a girlfriend of mine and started to proposition her in front of me.
“She told him where to go but he thought because of his power he could just walk up to people and say outrageously suggestive things to them. The climate was unquestioned, that’s the way it was if you were a woman.
“It was common knowledge and the idea that you would go to RTE and complain was never an option.
“People just knew it. ‘Oh there’s so and so, he took down his trousers at the meeting’. It was a joke.
“She treated him I think in the only way she could at the time, which was to laugh at him.”
RTE last night responded to the married dad’s claims through a statement, saying it takes its responsibilty
It was just the climate. The idea of
complaining was never an option
GABRIEL BYRNE RTE RADIO YESTERDAY