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EQUALITY ACTIVIST AND entertainer Rory O’Neill, aka Panti Bliss, has been honoured at this year’s Rehab People of the Year Awards, along with two Garda whistleblowers.
Celebrating its 40th anniversary, the annual ceremony was presented by Gráinne Seoige and broadcast live on RTÉ One television from Dublin’s Citywest Hotel this evening.
The other winners included:
O’Neill, who performs as drag artist Panti won the award for, according to judges “his courage and defiance in fighting for freedom of expression and breaking down barriers to equality”. British actor, campaigner and broadcaster Stephen Fry – who had previously praised Panti’s Noble Call speech at the Abbey about oppression – flew in to give over the award:
Maurice McCabe and John Wilson were awarded for “their bravery in speaking out to ensure the law was upheld and that the public receive the police service that it requires”.
“McCabe and Wilson’s desire to tell the truth was met with resistance on many levels and on many occasions, yet they pursued the issues with integrity and bravery, ultimately leading to increased scrutiny of practices within public bodies, as well as a full review of Ireland’s police force.”
Aged just 17, Owen Condon is the recipient of this year’s Everyday Hero award after he courageously saved the life of Gerry O’Connell.
Owen was washing cars at the local petrol station on a Saturday morning when Gerry suffered a massive heart attack while stopping to buy petrol. Owen, along with the help of another customer, performed life-saving CPR on Gerry for seven minutes while they waited for an ambulance. Gerry went on to have a quadruple bypass that night and made a full recovery.
Owen’s bravery was all the more remarkable for the fact that he had tried to save a young friend who got into difficulties swimming a few months earlier. Owen performed CPR on his friend but sadly, his pal died.
“To think he went through that trauma, and still did what he did for me,” said Mr O’Connell last night.
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Glad to see Mary & Tony Heffernan there. They suffer every waking moment and are devoted to making life a little bit better for sick kids. True heroes.
Donnachain , 100 per cent agree with you there , it’s fantastic and so well deserved , they are indeed , true heroes !
Owen Condon, at the age of 17 you have saved the life of another. Even if you did nothing else for the rest of your life you are entitled to be very proud of yourself. Well done lad.
I suppose RTE had to give an award to the Iona Institute for a balance.
I hooe you win an award for that comment!!!
@Pilib. Dammit man nearly choked laughing at your comment! No doubt some Dilbert is complaining to the Broadcasting Authority as we speak.
So many good decent people. That man who set up suicide prevention lovely man. SVP amazing. Those two young men saving people amazing. That couple who lost both.their babies heart breaking.Delighted proper people getting awards and being seen. God bless them all and all who are going through bad situations in life past and present wish them peace and a happy Christmas and brighter happier new year.
In 1996 Jerry MaCabe was murdered by the I.R.A at his funeral mass it was stated from the alter that Jerry always had a pocket full of summons for speeding offences that he would try to get squashed for these respected people, nothing wrong with that , these so called whistle blowers took that facility away from the guards is the country a better place now I think not , give me an honourable man like Jerry MaCabe any day over these so called whistle blowers
Well said-Kevin Daly
I’m confused at your point… You mean… People who speed (and thus endanger the lives of others), but who are good decent people who help others, deserve to get these life fines for life threatening speeding quashed… Allowing them to continue speeding with no lesson learned…?
But which also means… People who are “just ordinary people” who get caught speeding… Should have to pay their fees… Because they don’t really do any good (that people know of)?
A person who is a living saint shouldn’t get their speeding fines quashed because they’re such a good person. Tell that to a parent mourning the loss of a child from a dangerous driver and they’d probably agree.
As I say, I’m confused by your point.
Political correctness gone stupid. These “awards” might as well have been decided by The Irish Times.
What might once have been a worthy concept (People of the Year Awards), has now turned into an indulgent waste of hard-pressed taxpayers’ money by RTE and the liberal media.
So you think should have given awards to who exactly? Could have sworn all the ones I saw deserved awards. Who do you think didn’t?
Isn’t the world of celebrity a strange place. RTE invites, at great expense, I assume, an anti free speech English homosexual to present an anti free speech Irish homosexual with an award, partly for campaigning for free speech. Are we living in a parallel universe, where up is down and in is out and black is white?
FMan, kinda starting to sound like you have an agenda…
Commenting on Rory O Neill’s award which is one small part of this article simply to detract from the man…
Oh and attacking Stephen Fry with your “assumption”, which of course is completely baseless, as well as referring to the respected author, personality, advocate, whit and humanitarian as simply “homosexual” sorta seems like you’re using that as the defining factor of the man.
No you are living in a world where you choose to interpret things in the most twisted, bs fashion. Enjoy your own little world Fman, hope it’s nice there.
Fman, why is their sexuality relevant to you???
Because Ailbhe, the fact that Fry is probably the most notable homosexual in the UK as Panti is in Ireland and the award is partly for “equality campaigning,” as mentioned in the article, the coincidences are a bit too much to ignore. I can just imaging the meeting of RTE award committee discussing who they could get.
FMan – you have questioned Stephen Fry.
You fail.
Great to see Maurice and John getting this award the best thank you to them so far we have seen in this country. Its great to see that there is people who appreciate honesty like Maurice and John and the people who nominated them
Go whistleblowers. I’m very sure ye only scratched the surface of the BIG FORCE.
The Guards shouldn’t be getting Awards for doing their jobs…but the rest was rightfully deserved.
They are gardai not guards. But they are paid to do their job. I do agree though Irish people need to commend and thank our gardai and fire services and ambulance coast guard services. They are truly under resourced and under appreciated.
This is about people going above and beyond. These people have – all of them. When they could have just done their jobs they saw something wrong and did something about it.
Roy Keane
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