Christy Dignam has revealed that he was sexually abused as child in a new documentary for RTÉ One.
In This Is Christy, which will air tonight, the Aslan frontman opens up about his regrets on fatherhood, and the ongoing impact of the sexual abuse he suffered at just six-years-old.
“I’ve made a lot of dodgy decisions. I try not to regret things because I think it is a bit of a waste of time having regrets but I knew that I wasn’t the best father I could have been.
“With Kiera, I just felt so bad that I wasn’t there for her as a father. I caught her one day, I said ‘look Kiera, I am really so sorry I wasn’t there for you’. I’ve tried to show her over the years that I was sorry and tried to be the grandfather that I wasn’t as a father,” he says.
Difficult past: Christy Dignam reveals that he was sexually abused as a child in new documentary | RTE
Speaking about the impact of being sexually abused by a neighbour when he was six-years-old, Christy says, “People don’t realise the amount of damage sexual abuse can cause to a person.”
“So that one orgasm for him has reverberated right through history. Right through my history and everybody that it has affected. It has affected my wife, it has affected my family, it affected all my brothers and sisters, it affected all the band and all their families. It is like a ripple effect.”
Christy reveals that he had suppressed the trauma of the abuse, but the memories came back to him after seeking treatment for drug addiction in the Rutland Centre.
“I was looking at all these people in there who were talking about childhood and things that happened to them in their childhood and I was sitting there thinking: ‘Jesus, I had a perfect childood’. That made me feel worse because I was leaving the Rutland thinking: ‘I must be a drug addict because I’m am evil bastard or something’.
Candid: This is Christy is an intimate documentary about the incredible life story of Christy Dignam | VIPIRELAND.COM
“And for some reason the whole thing just came back to me then, this incident that happened to me when I was six and it came back to me like a video reel. I remember it vividly now but for some reason I had just blocked it then for years. Just because you knew about it, you knew the abuse, it didn’t mean that that was the end of it, that you weren’t a drug addict anymore. By then the damage was done,” he explains.
This is Christy, produced for RTÉ by Power Pictures, follows Dignam in the run up to Aslan’s sell out gig at Dublin’s Iveagh Gardens at the weekend.
With unprecedented access, the documentary gives viewers a unique insight into the life of one of Ireland’s most beloved singers. Following Dignam as he prepares for the gig and undergoes tests related to his amyloidosis, This is Christy is an intimate portrait of an artist who has battled back from some of life’s deepest traumas including sexual abuse, drug addiction and cancer.
This is Christy airs Tuesday, July 11th, RTÉ One at 9.35pm.
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