Let Our Voices Emerge charity (L.O.V.E.) have launshed an international campaign to get the book 'Kathy's Story' removed from sales until the publishers Mainstream can verify how they've authenticated the serious allegations of abuse made against the Irish medical profession, the authors father and a religious congregation. A Press statement by L.O.V.E. says:
An International campaign has been launched by the Let Our Voices Emerge charity (L.O.V.E.) to get the book 'Kathy's Story' removed from sales until the publishers Mainstream can verify how they've authenticated the serious allegations of abuse made against the Irish medical profession, the authors father and a religious congregation.
Most of us who run this charity were in the Irish industrial schools, we will not allow money to be made from our experiences, Ms O’Beirne is not one of us, and Mainstream publishing will not get away unscratched from this fight. Some of Ms O’Beirnes family will also interview to state they were not approached by the publishers – even tho’ she claims their father abused all of them.
The L.O.V.E. charity maintain it was impossible for them to do so - as Kathy empathically was not in a Magdalene laundry. She was however in a childrens home in Kilmacud, Dublin for 6 weeks only. She was also an inpatient in a psychiatric unit, and spent some time in Mountjoy prison. These are the only institutions she can possibly have documentary proof of. She also seems strangely reluctant to either be able to describe any of the sisters who abused her so horrifically, or indeed, provide a death or birth cert for her daughter 'Annie'.
This book has caused irreparable damage to the reputation of Ms O'Beirne's father (who has passed away and so can't defend his good name), the Irish psychiatric services, and the religious congregation she claims abused her so horrifically. Kathy's siblings, who defend their father, state they were not approached by the publishers on the allegations of abuse against him.
In the name of all genuinely abused children, both from Irish society as well as the institutions, and all who have suffered false allegations of child abuse, we are asking that the book be withdrawn from sales pending a full investigation.
Ms O'Beirne has issued threats to the founder of the L.O.V.E. charity to picket outside the family home unless this campaign is stopped. This has caused considerable distress to the children, this is highly inappropriate, but will not succeed as a bullying tactic.
If Ms O'Beirne would just provide the documentation she continually states she has to prove she was in a Magdalene laundry to the many journalists who ask her for it, the matter would be solved.
See the following link for the letter to the publishers and list of support groups and individuals (will be updated on an ongoing basis).
Florence Horsman Hogan
Further information