In a 2019 interview with The Independent, Liam Neeson recounted that a woman he knew (their relationship is unclear) was raped by a Black assailant when he was growing up in Northern Ireland. While the victim was able to contend with the traumatic incident, Neeson decided he wanted to take revenge – if not on her assailant, then on those who looked like him. “There’s something primal – God forbid you’ve ever had a member of your family hurt under criminal conditions,” he told the outlet.
Neeson said he spent approximately two weeks wandering the streets at night, hoping a black man would try picking a fight with him so he could beat him up or even kill him in revenge. The victim, who appears to have been quite close to him, would inquire about these late-night misadventures, as Neeson described, “‘Where are you going?’ [she asked] and I would say, ‘I’m just going out for a walk.’ You know? ‘What’s wrong?’ ‘No no, nothing’s wrong.'”
Neeson said he eventually realized that although his reaction was normal and understandable from a psychological perspective, it was not productive and morally very, very wrong. Attacking an innocent person was not going to undo the victim’s trauma, nor was it going to improve her situation – a lesson he learned not just from that particular experience, but also from watching the cycle of killings and counter-killings between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. After the interview, the actor was roundly criticized as a racist, while The Queen’s University in Belfast even airbrushed him out of their brochure.
