‘Quite scary’ – Huge concern as woman collapses mid-interview live on RTÉ News

TV viewers have expressed huge concern for a woman who collapsed mid-interview on RTÉ News. 

Shirley Scott of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre was speaking on Six One yesterday (July 1) about rape survivor Blaithnaid Raleigh when the incident occurred. 

Raleigh bravely waived her anonymity to publicly name Johnny Moran, who has been jailed for eight years for raping her with a bottle in a shed in Galway. 

Scott was in the middle of speaking about Raleigh’s comments outside court when her eyelids began to flutter and she collapsed. 

RTÉ News presenter, Carla O’Brien, immediately said, “We just apologise there, we’ll make sure Shirley Scott is okay, she’s after having an incident there, we will make sure she is okay in that regard.” 

Concerned viewers took to social media to express their concern, with one X user stating, “I hope Shirley Scott is doing OK having collapsed a little while ago on RTÉ News. Maybe RTÉ will give us an update soon that she’s alright.” 

Another viewer described watching her fall as “quite scary”. 

Another X user commented, “Fingers crossed it was just a fainting incident and nothing more serious; I hope she didn’t hurt herself when she fell. Scary moment indeed.” 

The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre issued a statement on X shortly after the incident, which reads, “Thanks to everyone for your messages of concern about our lovely Shirley – she is good hands being looked after now.

“Our sincere thanks to RTÉ  cameraman Gordon who came to her immediate assistance.” 

Meanwhile, a number of fringe social media users have blamed the Covid-19 vaccine for the incident despite there being no evidence for this. 

An X user wrote, “Nut job conspiracy theorists piling on with theories about why some poor woman fainted live on RTE News” while another commented, “Hopefully she is ok. Who remembers before the experimental mRNA injection roll out when people rarely ever used to collapse live on TV?”