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Story of rape and brutal childhood is 'truthful'

Added on September 23, 2006


Author accused of literary fraud says: 'I am not a liar. And I am not running any more'

� Story of rape and brutal childhood is 'truthful'
� Dispute with siblings follows property battle

Esther Addley
Saturday September 23, 2006
The Guardian


It is a tale of almost unbelievable horror - rather too unbelievable, say her critics. Don't Ever Tell, Kathy O'Beirne's memoir of childhood rape, physical abuse and incarceration in Ireland's notorious Magdalene laundries, has sold 350,000 copies around the world and reached number three in the British non-fiction charts. But this week the book attracted charges of fraud, when five of her eight siblings apologised to her readers, saying large chunks of the book were fantasy.
In her most revealing interview since the story broke, Kathy O'Beirne insisted to the Guardian that her story was true, and produced documents that, she said, would back up parts of it. She says her family are trying to discredit her because of a property dispute. Her publishers, who say they went to great lengths to verify her story, are also standing by the book.
Meanwhile, one of her other brothers has spoken out in support of her story, insisting that the other siblings are lying. Joseph O'Beirne told a Dublin newspaper that Kathy's account of a brutal home life was accurate and that he, too, had been raped as a child by an older boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Don't Ever Tell details a cruel childhood; savagely beaten by her father, raped and sexually abused by two older boys from the age of five, Kathy was placed in a succession of brutal, Catholic-run children's homes and psychiatric institutions. After years of further appalling cruelty she was finally incarcerated with other fallen women in a Magdalene laundry where, after being raped again, she had a baby girl at the age of 13.

Her family says it is all lies: "Our sister has a self-admitted psychiatric and criminal history, and her perception of reality has always been flawed," said Mary O'Beirne, the author's younger sister. "We can understand that many people will now feel hurt and conned."

But the author defended her book this week, saying: "I'm not a liar. I'm a truthful person. And I need to speak out because I owe it to my readers. People can say what they like about me. I don't care any more. Like my brother doesn't care. We're not running any more."

Kathy's story is so bewilderingly complex that it would be impossible, without many hours and a detailed knowledge of the case, to verify every detail. But while she is clearly a very damaged woman, physically shattered by the stories she recounts and frequently close to tears, she insists she is not a liar or a fantasist. She is also, perhaps surprisingly, funny and immensely charming.

"[Some people] have said, 'Sure, who will believe you?'", she says in her scattergun Dublin accent. "'You were classed as mad years ago.' Well I'm not mad. I know that. Never was. Never was."

Stories like Kathy's are not unknown in Ireland: about 150,000 children were interned in church-run industrial schools between the 1920s and 1980s. But while the country is transfixed by an apparent literary scandal, at the heart of this public spat may be a much uglier private grievance. The siblings have been in dispute for five years over the house in which they grew up, which was left equally to all nine after their parents' death. Kathy, who had been living there caring for their mother, argued that she should be allowed to stay on as recompense for her appalling childhood. Her siblings wanted to sell.

The case ended up in court this year; according to Kathy, the details of her abuse were discussed as part of her argument. The judge ruled in her favour. "He said it seemed to him that I had always had to fight my corner, and so I deserved it," she said. It was then the other siblings began to claim Kathy's story was a lie.

Among the documents seen by the Guardian are police statements she made about her childhood rapes by an older boy and legal documents relating to a recent out-of-court settlement the man made with her.

The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, one of the orders that ran Magdalene laundries, has issued a statement saying that no records exist of a Kathy O'Beirne in any such institution. However, Kathy played the Guardian a taped conversation that she believes supports her claim that she was there. She also pointed to well-publicised cases in which religious orders have been exposed as having destroyed or failed to keep proper records.

The O'Beirne siblings' appeal against the court ruling will be heard in the next few months in Ireland's high court. Kathy says she hopes the case will allow a further examination of the truth, which she insists will vindicate her. "I'm just sick and tired of it," she said. "All I want to do is finish [the case] and get on with my life. Get a bit of happiness."

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