A young woman, who wishes not to be named, wrote this letter to RTÉ on the back of their controversial interview with Michaella McCollum on Sunday night.
The writer of the letter sent it to our colleagues over at
Her.ie; as the daughter of a drug user, she felt that the line of questioning in the interview was far too soft on someone convicted of trying to export drugs.
"I am a daughter of a drug-addicted parent and I wanted an apology," she writes.
"Obviously, I will never receive my apology directly from the drug dealers who supply my parent and obviously Michaela is not my parent’s supplier. The problem is she could have been. She could have been anyone’s supplier."
This is the letter in full...
Dear RTÉ,
Last night I watched the interview with Michaela McCollum Connolly on RTÉ One. I thought about not watching it. Then, I thought about myself. I thought of how I am a usually very forgiving person. I decided I wanted to see what she had to say for herself. I wanted to judge her personally on her own words and account of the situation.
I decided I wanted to watch it because I am a daughter of a drug-addicted parent and I wanted an apology. Obviously, I will never receive my apology directly from the drug dealers who supply my parent and obviously Michaela is not my parent’s supplier.
The problem is she could have been. She could have been anyone’s supplier. So, I set the sky recorder, sat down later on and watched. I waited for your interviewer to ask the hard questions on everyone’s minds since the incident in 2013. Unfortunately, I was left waiting.
What I watched was an interview that allowed a drug-smuggler victimise herself. What I watched was a girl perfectly done up talk about how she grew from her experience and she was thankful of attempting to fill Europe with drugs because her personality had developed because of it.
I listened to the girl, who not once shed a tear over her situation, say that she was grateful for the love and support from her mother and that she hoped one day she would be in a similar situation so that she could give the same love and support to her daughter. Not the exact words but to that effect.
In my opinion, she deserved a grilling. She deserved hard questions thrown at her.
She deserved to be given a hard time for the crime because here was a girl who tried to fill Europe with drugs sat in what looked like a lovely apartment, with long freshly dyed blonde hair, nails professionally done and a clean white blazer on her, looking quite professional, in my opinion. RTÉ, here was the perfect opportunity to show the world that if you commit a serious crime you will not be forgiven so quickly by society; here was the perfect opportunity to show drug dealers all over Ireland that if you get involved in a situation such as this expect people to turn on you. RTÉ, here are the questions I hoped you would have asked her but unfortunately, did not.
The author of this letter requested to remain anonymous for personal reasons.
