DR. EAMONN PATRICK O’NEILL

Eamonn O’Neill is an investigative journalist, a Lecturer in Journalism at the University of Strathelyed, Glasgow, Scotland, where he is Programme Director of the MSc in Investigative Journalism.  For over two decades, O’Neill has carried out major groundbreaking investigations for almost every broadsheet newspaper in the UK and numerous international publications, holding senior positions with Esquire International and GQ.  He has published three nonfiction books and the critically acclaimed play “God Save Ireland Cried The Hero.” O’Neill has researched, produced, directed and presented investigative productions for Scottish Television, Channel 4, BBC and international channels, including Discovery and National Geographic.  O’Neill’s articles and documentaries have focused on crime, intelligence, terrorism, and miscarriage of justice cases.  His work has been honored: The Paul Foot Award, The British Press Awards, The Scottish BT Media Awards, The British Film & Television Academy, and he was the first British journalist to be awarded an American IRE (Investigative Reporters and Editors) honor in the Special Award (Tom Renner Award) category for his lifetime’s investigative work on miscarriages of justice. He founded Scotland’s first campus-based Innocence Project, and in 2007-8 and chaired the Miscarriages of Justice Organization Conference in Glasgow City Chambers 2008, the UK’s United Against Injustice Conference 2009 and 2010.





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On his website, Eamonn O’Neill describes his experiences interviewing Ray Mouton and his view of the author as follows:







F. Ray Mouton and the RC Church Abuse Scandal by Eamonn O’Neill

F. Ray Mouton was the first lawyer in the world to truly discover the depth and scale of child abuse inside the RC church when he was asked to defend the first abusing priest, Fr Gilbert Gauthe.  The events which followed changed his life and altered the course of the Church’s history when Mouton, a professional to his fingertips – but also a human of rare intelligence and compassion – embarked upon a terrible journey into the dark heart of the Church, the issue of betrayal of trust by men who should have known better and his own religious and ethical inner-landscape.

Mouton rarely ever gives interviews.  I was lucky when he agreed to speak to me. These articles represent two (The Scotsman 2002, The Gaurdian 2010) of the few times he’s divulged the secrets he holds.

In the aftermath of the articles I published about Mouton in Scotland and the UK, I was bombarded by calls, emails and messages from journalists around the world asking for contact details for this amazing former Louisiana-based lawyer. The demand for Mouton to appear on their media and speak about his experiences was extraordinary.  

Mouton is, in my opinion, one of the most decent, courageous and possibly brilliant men I have met during my two-decades plus career in journalism.
Read these articles and begin to understand what it’s like to find yourself a pilgrim in an unholy land because I always thought that’s what Mouton was. For those of us who care about this dreadful issue, we are in a way lucky it was Mouton who was there at its beginning: he had the first word on the matter and I predict that one day he’ll also have the last word.

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