Niall O'Brien (Columban missionary priest)

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This article is about the Catholic priest. For other uses, see Niall O'Brien (disambiguation).

Niall O'Brien
Father Niall O'Brien on the cover of Misyon Magazine
Born	August 2, 1939 Dublin, Ireland
Died	April 28, 2004 Pisa, Italy
Occupation	Missionary priest

Niall O'Brien (August 2, 1939; Dublin, Ireland – April 28, 2004; Pisa, Italy) was an Irish Columban missionary priest, notable for being falsely accused of and detained in the Philippines in the 1980s on charges of multiple murder. He was ordained a priest in December 1963.

1 Ilonggo bible
2 Revolutionary activities
3 Arrest for multiple murders
4 Exile and return
5 Death
6 Books by Fr. O'Brien
7 External links
8 References

[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, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, 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 support of the military, this action led to him being branded a communist by the authorities.

[edit] Arrest for multiple murders

In May 6, 1983, he was arrested along with two other priests, Fr. Brian Gore, an Australian, Fr. Vicente Dangan, a Filipino and six lay workers – the so-called "Negros Nine", 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, the provincial capital, 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.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Exile and return

Rather than accept a pardon, which would imply guilt, the priests had the charges dropped against them in return for agreeing to leave the country. They were released on July 3, 1984. In 1986, the Marcos regime fell in the People Power revolution and Fr. O'Brien returned to the country he considered home shortly afterwards.