Niall O'Brien (priest)

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
Born2 August 1939
Dublin, Ireland
Died28 April 2004(2004-04-28) (aged 64)
Pisa, Italy
OccupationMissionary priest

Niall O'Brien (2 August 1939 in Dublin, Ireland – 28 April 2004 in 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 murders. He was ordained a priest in 1963.

Hiligaynon bible

O'Brien was fluent in Hiligaynon. Bishop Antonio Fortich invited him to a Liturgical Commission that translated the Bible and the liturgy of the mass into Hiligaynon. He became a member and helped to translate these texts.[1]

Revolutionary activities

In the 1970s, while posted in the mountain village of Tabugon[2], Kabankalan, Negros Occidental, he bought a farm and setup a workers' co-operative, which he called a kibbutz.[3][4][5]

During O'Brien's time in Negros Occidental, the province experienced poverty, resistance to a feudal system that has been around for centuries, and militarization. These factors created hostility between church leaders and landowning families.[4] Filomeno V Aguilar Jr., writing for the Philippine Sociological Review, described the sugar workers of Negros Occidental in the mid-1970s as having the reputation for "wallowing in hunger and severe malnutrition, [and being] victims of acute poverty and injustice".[6]

O'Brien believed that "small Christian communities and nonviolence are the means to transform oppressive societies", including the one on Negros Occidental. He encouraged the poor to "take up small issues which enabled them to find themselves", through writing letters to military headquarters in response to loud gunfire at all hours, organizing marches where the army had killed people, and holding prayer rallies for the dead. He believed the people running the local sugar industry in Negros Occidental were "irritated ... by Church-inspired demands for greater justice through the creation of labor unions, protest marches, sermons and articles in the international press", and that his eventual arrest alongside the rest of the Negros Nine was caused by the government, the sugar industry, and local landowners.[7]

Arrest for multiple murders

On 6 May 1983, O'Brien was arrested along with two other missionary priests, Fr. Brian Gore, an Australian, Fr. Vicente Dangan, a Filipino, alongside six lay workers.[8][9] Together, they were known as the "Negros Nine", charged for the murders of Mayor Pablo Sola of Kabankalan and four of his aides two years prior.[10] The priests were held under house arrest at military guest quarters until 26 January 1984, when they voluntarily surrendered to the warden,[11] asking to go to jail with the 6 accused lay workers in Bacolod, the provincial capital.[10][12]

The case received widespread publicity in Ireland and Australia, the home of one of the co-accused priests, Fr. Brian Gore.[10] Charlie Bird interviewed Fr. O'Brien at a Philippine prison on RTÉ News.[13] He was defended together with the rest of the Negros Nine by human rights lawyer and senator Jose W. Diokno of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG).[14][12] During a march in Dublin on 26 May 1984, Olivia O'Brien, the mother of Niall O'Brien, demanded that Reagan should get Marcos to free her son from prison.[15][16] On 28 May 1984, U.S. president Ronald Reagan was interviewed by Brian Farrell of RTÉ Television in the White House Library.[17] Farrell told him how people in Ireland are asking him to "make an intervention in regard to the trial of priests there in Manila."[18] Reagan responded that he had "only recently heard about that",[19] and that "if there is anyway in which we could be of help in that, we'd be pleased to do it".[20]

Exile and return

On 3 July 1984, O'Brien and Gore's case, along with the 6 lay workers, were dismissed citing a lack of evidence. Both priests agreed to leave Negros Occidental within a month. After the Marcos regime fell in the People Power Revolution in 1986, they both returned to Negros Occidental to continue their missionary work.[8][21]

Personal life

Father Niall O'Brien was born in the suburb of Blackrock, in Dublin, Ireland on 2 August 1963. He began studying for the priesthood in 1957.[5] He was ordained a priest in 1963.[4]

Death

He died in Pisa, Italy on 28 April 2004,[4] aged 64, from an accidental fall from his wheelchair. He had been receiving treatment for a chronic blood disorder.[22] His remains are in Kabankalan, Negros Occidental.[4]

Books by Fr. O'Brien

  • Revolution from the Heart
  • Seeds of Injustice
  • Island of Tears

References

  1. ^ SJ, Fr James Reuter. "Peaceful warrior". Philstar.com. Retrieved 17 February 2026. He was invited by Bishop Fortich to become a member of the Liturgical Commission which translated the Bible and the liturgy of the Mass into Hiligaynon.
  2. ^ Sarah (10 July 2024). "40 Years Later - Columban Missionaries". columbans.ie. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  3. ^ McKibben, Bill (30 December 1985). "Notes and Comment". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Dioceses Prepare Memorial For Father Niall O'Brien". UCANews. Retrieved 30 August 2025.
  5. ^ a b "Fr Niall O'Brien". Irish Independent. 1 May 2004. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  6. ^ Aguilar, Filomeno V. (2013). "The Fulcrum of Structure-Agency: History and Sociology of Sugar Haciendas in Colonial Negros". Philippine Sociological Review. 61 (1): 87–122. ISSN 0031-7810.
  7. ^ O'Grady, Desmond (30 June 1985). "The priest who was charged with murder". Our Sunday Visitor. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
  8. ^ a b Gomez, Carla (5 July 2014). "'Negros 9': Work for poor continues". INQUIRER.net. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  9. ^ "Philippines: Remembering the Negros Nine". Independent Catholic News. 14 July 2014. Archived from the original on 24 October 2021. Retrieved 2 February 2026.
  10. ^ a b c Trumbull, Robert (21 February 1984). "2 FOREIGN PRIESTS FACE TRIAL WITH 7 FILIPINOS IN KILLING OF 5". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  11. ^ "A judge today indefinitely postponed the murder trial of... - UPI Archives". UPI. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
  12. ^ a b "Authorities refused bail today for two Roman Catholic missionaries". United Press International. 24 January 1984. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
  13. ^ "Prisoner Priest Niall O'Brien". RTÉ Archives. Retrieved 30 August 2025.
  14. ^ Garcia, Ed (27 February 2018). "Jose W. Diokno and principled politics". INQUIRER.net. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  15. ^ Jayko, Margaret (8 June 1984). "Ireland protests hit Reagan war policies" (PDF). The Militant. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
  16. ^ "Anti-Reagan Protest in Dublin". RTÉ Archives. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  17. ^ Irish Journalist Interview. Interview of President Ronald Reagan by Brian Farrell of RTE Television in the Library (incomplete) (Video). 28 May 1984. Event occurs at 00:02:18. Good evening. Welcome to, today tonight, the Library, White House, Washington, D.C.
  18. ^ Irish Journalist Interview. Interview of President Ronald Reagan by Brian Farrell of RTE Television in the Library (incomplete) (Video). 28 May 1984. Event occurs at 00:28:11. You are being asked, for instance, in Ireland to make an intervention in regard to the trial of priests there in Manila.
  19. ^ Irish Journalist Interview. Interview of President Ronald Reagan by Brian Farrell of RTE Television in the Library (incomplete) (Video). 28 May 1984. Event occurs at 00:28:37. You mentioned the Irish priest in the Philippines. I do not know the details of that. I have only recently heard about that.
  20. ^ Irish Journalist Interview. Interview of President Ronald Reagan by Brian Farrell of RTE Television in the Library (incomplete) (Video). 28 May 1984. Event occurs at 00:28:57. And if there is anyway in which we could be of help in that, we'd be pleased to do it.
  21. ^ Father Niall O'Brien's "Revolution from the Heart." (Radio broadcast). 20 October 1987. Event occurs at 00:29:59. He was expelled under Marcos but returned when Corazon Aquino became president.
  22. ^ Tyrrell, Fiona. "Missionary in Philippines, Father Niall O'Brien, dies". The Irish Times. Retrieved 30 August 2025.
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