Newstalk presenter Dr Ciara Kelly has shared a number of tweets, with her story of someone she refers to as ‘the Irish Weisntein.’
As more and more women in the US are coming forward about sexual assault and harassment by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, Ciara has now urged Irish people to come forward about their own experiences.
“A woman I don’t know approached me recently about a prominent man in the Irish media.” Ciara wrote on twitter.
‘He raped me 40 yrs ago. I can still smell him on me’ she said visibly distressed.
“I don’t know this man well – I’ve met him twice though both times in a group setting… #IrishWeinstein.
“He messaged me immediately after the first meeting by Twitter DM, he was very complimentary ‘you are v talented we must meet for coffee’ he said,” she continued.
“I declined something about him made me uneasy. I was polite though I was friendly. Many many messages came I declined other invitations.
“I met him again – we were at same event I spoke to him briefly but didn’t engage – I was with friends. More messages came ‘who do you think you are? You’re becoming a national joke’ late at night followed by ‘please forgive me I don’t know what came over me’ the following morning,” she explained.
“I didn’t reply – it went on for months I spoke to friends they all had stories they’d heard ‘Be careful he’s violent – he beat his wife’, ‘he had a car back in the day he offer girls lifts home – the passenger door handle was broken – they couldn’t get out’.
“‘I have a friend he did same to – he plagued her’, ‘be careful he’s supposed to be awful’ The messages – bizarre in their over familiarity stopped eventually & I half forgot.
“Then this woman approached me ‘I can still smell him on me – there were lots of us’ she said #irishweinstein.
“And I believed her. I’ve thought a lot about this and am shaking writing these tweets but I believe that womann that this man raped her and likely others and I believe he beat his wife and had a car he gave lifts in… so I’m putting this out there…
“If you think you know who I’m talking about … and if you have been affected please contact me and let’s try to right this …#ibelieveyou #irishweinstein,”
