Family Wash their Hands of ?laundry rape Victim?.

Richard Wood
Magdalene Laundry Survivors Website
Richard
This is from www.kathystoryscam.blogspot.com
See also www.voicesemerge.org and www.alliancesupport.org.

Rory
Kathy O'Beirnes family denounce her book as work of fiction. Sunday Mirror 20th August 2006.

Sunday Mirror. 20th. August 2006.
by Niall Donald.

The family of a woman who wrote a bestseller about her ?ordeal? in the Magdalene laundries have denounced parts of the book as fiction.

Kathy O?Beirne?s shocking autobiography tells how she was brutally raped and tortured in the notorious laundries.

The 50 year old woman said ? ??I stand by every word I have written. It is terribly sad this has caused a rift in my family but I stand by every word.??

The book Kathy's Story: A Childhood Hell in The Magdalene Laundries ? has become a smash hit in Ireland and Britain, selling thousands of copies but it has caused a massive split in her family.

This month a re-worked version of the book ?Don't Ever Tell? was the third best selling non-fiction book in Britain.

Kathy claims she was beaten by her father, raped by priests and forced to take drugs in a mental hospital.

But the Church insist the Dublin woman was NEVER a resident in the infamous laundries.

Last night, members of her family broke their silence to say the bestselling book was largely a work of fiction.

Kathy's older brother Oliver, 52, said his father did NOT savagely beat his kids.
He said ?I read the book and I can't figure out where she's coming from ? my father was a good man.

?There are nine kids in the family and she is the only one who has any stories of abuse?.

Oliver said he has never heard Kathy mention the Magdalene laundries when they were growing up.

He said: 'she was very wild ? and I remember visiting her in the children's home and in the psychiatric hospital. But I never heard anything about the Magdalene laundries ? even tho? we visited all those other places.??

Oliver said Kathy does not have a good relationship with her brothers and sisters.
He added: ??I was the last one to be talking to her ? I always listened to her and I used to meet her in Bewleys for a chat.

I wouldn't say she had an easy life and I don't like to see any harm come to anybody in the family.

I think she needs help ? and I hope some day she will have a bit of peace in her life.??

In the book, Kathy said her father used to make her sleep in the dog kennel and held her hand in a pan of hot grease.

But Kathy's younger sister Margaret, 38 insisted her father was not a violent man.
She said: ??She has blackened my father's name ? he was a good man and he never mistreated any of us.

??She said we were all mistreated by our father and that is just not true.??
And Eamonn, 48, also said he did not believe his sister had been in the notorious institutions.

He said: ?? I have no memory of her ever being in the Magdalene laundries. She hung out with a wild crowd in town and I remember my sisters visiting her in Mountjoy ? at the same time she was claiming to be in the laundries.

I don't believe my father ever abused her like she claimed in the book ? it is just lies.??

Her sister Mary, 40, said the book has been very upsetting for the family.
She added:? Kathleen has done an awful lot of wrong to our family ? but we haven't said anything over the years. But we want to set the record straight and say our father was a good man.??

Last night the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity said Kathy was never a resident in the Magdalene laundries.

A spokesman said: ??we wish to emphatically and categorically state that Kathy O'Beirne never spent any time in our laundries or related institutions.??A professional archivist has checked our records in detail and there is no reference to Kathy O'Beirne.

We know all of the women who worked in our laundries in the latter years ? and Kathy O'Beirne is not one of them.??

But Kathy claimed she has documents proving she stayed in a Magdalene home.
She said: ?? I have never lied before ? and I don't intend to start now.
These are legal documents that I have been waiting 13 years for.

They cover my stay in the industrial school and I have also received my legal documents from my stay in the children's mental institution.

I also have the signature of the psychiatrist that sent me to the Magdalene laundry.??

She added:?? I know what happened to me in my life ? and other people know what happened to me in my life.

??The reason I was moved from my home was because of the abuse I suffered. I have people who back up my story.??