Horan ‘will disrupt more events,’ family warn

THE Irish priest who caused havoc at the Olympic Games is determined to disrupt more international events, according to his family in Kerry.

“I think we will see him in the news again. The more publicity he gets, the more he will be inclined to do these things,” Fr Neil Horan’s younger brother, Dan, warned yesterday.

Mr Horan was speaking after a judge in Athens handed down a 12-month suspended jail sentence to his brother for disrupting the men’s Olympic marathon.

Fr Horan, aged 57, assaulted the race leader, Brazil’s Vanderlei de Lima, dragging him off the road and into a crowd of supporters just three miles from the finish line on Sunday.

After a scuffle, the runner managed to get away, but he was clearly ruffled and finished third.

Fr Horan was jailed for two months last year when he ran in front of Formula One cars travelling at almost 200mph during the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Fr Horan, originally from Scartaglin, Co Kerry and now living in London, told Greek police he staged the disruption in Athens to “prepare for the Second Coming.”

“He has got mental problems,” a police spokesman said. “He is not very well.”

His family vowed to try to apologise personally to the man whom he may have deprived of the gold medal.

Dan Horan said they were upset by his brother’s actions and wanted to say sorry to the Brazilian people.

“We are looking to see if we might be able to contact Brazilian television at some stage to apologise to the people over there and to this man personally, if possible, because if the role was reversed and it was a Brazilian cost Ireland we’d say we want total recourse.”

He added: “I keep saying to him: ‘Everybody would respect anyone to have their views on anything. Nobody can deprive you of that, but you don’t force it down people’s throats.’”

Dan Horan said he did not know his brother had gone to Athens and had no idea he was planning to do something there.

“He is a very, very difficult man to understand. We’re all trying to do our best for him but, unfortunately, we get it thrown back in our face.”

Scartaglin people yesterday spoke of the hurt and embarrassment caused to the Horan family. “The Horans have been here for generations and are a popular and highly respected family. All this is hugely upsetting and everyone feels for them,” said one resident.

Leslie Broad of Deunant Books, which publishes Fr Horan’s books on its website, said: “We publish two of his books on biblical prophecies and he seems to be fairly convinced that the Second Coming is due fairly shortly.

“He comes across as a shy and compassionate man but as is often the way with people who are very intelligent, it sometimes manifests itself in very strange ways.”

The Brazilian Olympic Committee has submitted an official complaint and at one point the final medal presentations at the closing ceremony was in doubt.

Fr Horan’s older brother, Michael, yesterday offered Brazilian Ambassador Stelio Marcos Amarante an apology on behalf of the Horan family.

Speaking on the Joe Duffy radio show, Mr Horan said: “I would like to unreservedly apologise to you, the Brazilian runner and the Brazilian people.”

Accepting the apology, the envoy said Fr Horan was not a bad man but clearly suffered “psychological problems.”