Irish Falun Dafa Practitioner Gerald O'Connor arrived at Dublin Airport on March 16, 2002. He was arrested after unfurling a Dafa banner on Tiananmen Square. After being detained in jail overnight he was deported.

At the airport Gerald said to reporters, "They detained me in an underground jail cell. I felt something dreadful happened there before. The walls and bed sheets all had bloodstains. The cell had terrible odor and heavy bleach smell seemly trying to disguise the strong odor. They detained me there."

24-year-old Gerald returned to his wife's side after having suffered ruthless beatings by Beijing police.

He said, "They beat me three times. They pulled me by my hair and kicked and punched me. They threw me on the ground beating me with their elbow, punching me from behind, bending my figure... they used all kinds of tactics. To my surprise they were so hypocritical. They pretended to chat with you like a friend, but as soon as I said Falun Dafa Hao (Falun Dafa is good), they at once changed. I am very worried about the situation of Chinese Falun Gong practitioners. I know as a Western practitioner what I encountered was less severe but it is sufficient to make you feel the terror."