Liam knows from experience what bigotry can do

Teenage Neeson lived through the Troubles

IONLY met Liam Neeson briefly once. The occasion was the 50th anniversary of the first Late Late Show on June 4, 2012. He was a guest on the show – which coincided with his own 60th birthday five days later. He gave a lacklustre interview, rambling at times – this was put down to jet lag.

At one stage he came over to where I was sitting in the audience to greet his three sisters, Elizabeth, Bernadette and Rosaleen. I spoke with his sisters afterwards and you could not meet nicer people. They told me how proud the whole family, including their mother, was of their superstar sibling.

They were heading back to Ballymena the next day where the family have lived for many decades and where their father was the caretaker in the local Catholic school.

There is currently a feverish, and at times hysterical, reaction to Neeson’s admission that he once went ‘primal’ and ‘medieval’ when seeking revenge after a close friend was raped. It seems it’s now open season on Liam Neeson. But the furore leaves out one vital aspect of his life – Northern Ireland.

Remember, Neeson knew what he was thinking of was wrong – and he eventually sought help from a Catholic priest.

Neeson grew up in a very dysfunctional society. He was in his late teens when the Troubles broke out – and tit-for-tat killings were tragically frequent.

What the actor was talking about in promoting his ‘revenge’ movie, Cold Pursuit, was reminiscent of the horror that engulfed Northern Ireland for so long.

Close to 4,000 people – most of them civilians – were killed in the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Every single day of the year, on average 10 families mark the anniversary of the violent death of a loved one in the Troubles. Every surname is on the death roll – including that of Neeson.

Many of the killings were revenge murders.

For example, on this day, February 10, 1975, three Catholics were killed by the UVF for no other reason than their religion. They were Joseph Fitzpatrick, 19, Eugene Doyle, 18, and Arthur Mulholland, 65. The following day in retaliation, the IRA shot dead Samuel Mein, a Tyrone milkman – he was a Protestant.

These revenge killings were all too common in the world where Neeson grew up in Ballymena, as a Catholic living in a predominantly Protestant town.

It was Neeson’s reaction in the same interview to his own behaviour that gave us a glimpse of what he was thinking. In condemning himself for having those ‘revenge’ thoughts, I believe he was reflecting back on his own formative years.

In an interview in 2009, Neeson spoke about the Troubles. ‘I never stop thinking about them. I’ve known guys and girls who have been perpetrators of violence, and victims. Protestants and Catholics. It’s part of my DNA,’ he said.

Neeson never avoids talking about the Troubles and always mentions the victims. It’s a great pity that those who have chosen to demonise him ignore his willingness to generate debate on primeval urges which lead to horrific violence. After all that was the real world in which he grew up.

WRITE TO JOE AT: The Irish Mail on Sunday, Embassy House, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4