Fr Paul Murphy was stabbed multiple times by the teenager outside Renmore Barracks in Galway on August 15, 2024.
Earlier this week, the boy, who is now aged 17, was sentenced to 10 years detention with the final two years suspended before the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.
Reflecting on the attack, Fr Murphy told RTÉ’s Sunday with Miriam he “vividly” remembers what took place that day. He said that when he opened the window of his car, it “for some reason” only opened two-thirds of the way.
“If it had opened the full way, I would be dead,” he said.
“I had a certain protection in my car. I was able to take my foot off the brake and the car started up. It was an automatic car, and it started moving towards the gate and then it became an option for me to drive through the gate to try to get away from this person who was stabbing me.
“I was able to crash through the gates of the barracks, but he kept coming with me all the way into the barracks and kept trying to stab me with the knife.”
Fr Murphy said there were “20 deliberate attempts” on his life in the 90 seconds of CCTV footage of the attack.
“I remember all the details of it. While I didn’t remember his face, I do remember the determination on his face and the real intent to put an end to my life.”
Asked if he thought he was going to die, Fr Murphy said he did not have much time “to think at all” but he was focused on how “serious” the attack was.
“The idea was to get my head into the centre of the car, away from him so my two arms were facing him, and that’s how I got stabbed on both arms.
“It was an eight-inch blade, a serrated bayonet, hunting-type knife and I knew not to grab that because it would take my fingers off, but I was able to grab his wrists in the hope of holding on to him, but he had the advantage of being outside standing up and being able to pull away from the window of the car. “
Fr Murphy pushed back against the idea he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and said it was better that he was the one attacked at the gate and not someone else, particularly one of the young soldiers living at the barracks.
“I would dispute that, and I would say that that wasn’t the case at all. In my view, I was the right person, in the right place, at the right time.
“The fact is that boy had come to kill a soldier, and that’s a matter of record now. He’d come to kill a soldier, and I thank God every day that it was me that he got to rather than one of the others.”
At the Central Criminal Court on Tuesday, Fr Murphy hugged his attacker and told him he forgave him, something he said he had planned to do.
“He showed remorse. He said, ‘Look, I’m sorry. I’m really sorry’ and did that in movement as well as in voice.
“There’s always a risk in forgiveness, but forgiveness has to be accepted as well. It’s one thing saying I can forgive you, but if somebody isn’t sorry, then what does it mean?
“To me, the fact that he was able to say ‘I’m sorry. I’m really sorry’, meant that that risk of forgiveness paid off.”
He said he offered forgiveness to the teenager in the hope it would “change something”.
“You can fight hate with hate and then we become entrenched in our hatred, and we continue to hate one another, and I think there’s enough of that going on in the world.
“Love is stronger than hate, so I just believe that if I can fight hatred with love, well then there’s an opportunity for something different to happen.”
Fr Murphy said his “hope and prayer” for the teenager, who was radicalised by online Islamist extremist content, can “benefit from the opportunity of being de-radicalised and be able to return to society”.
“As I said to him, he’s 17 now. He could have another 80 years on this Earth and that if he can do this for himself, it means that he can make a good positive contribution to society for the rest of his life, rather than just being full of hatred.
“It will benefit him. It will benefit the rest of the world too.”
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