Pregnant O’Neill prayed over at 16
SINN Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill has recalled being “prayed over” at the Catholic school she was at when she got pregnant at 16.
While she paid tribute to her form teacher at the time, she said not everyone at St Patrick’s Girls’ Academy in Dungannon, Co Tyrone, had been as supportive.
Ms O’Neill also spoke about having had negative experiences with police growing up as the daughter of an ex-republican prisoner. The Mid-Ulster representative is currently in line to become the North’s first non-unionist First Minister.
Ms O’Neill told the BBC that some in the school prayed over her.
“It was actually when I’d just got pregnant,” she said.
“It was nearly like, you know, that I had sinned and therefore I must be prayed upon which obviously was not the right approach.
“My parents made that clear also to the school leadership at the time.”
But she paid tribute to her form teacher who was “absolutely amazing to me and very understanding of that you’re not like every other 16-yearold, you’re doing your GCSEs maybe having been up all night the night before with a child with a sore ear ... I’ll always be grateful to her for that.
“But unfortunately my reality was that not everybody in the school was as supportive, particularly the leadership of the school.
“It was a Catholic grammar. A 16-year-old girl being pregnant was frowned upon and they wouldn’t have been the kindest in terms of their approach to supporting me at that time.
“All these things have helped shape the woman I am today.”