BishopAccountability.org
	Family Challenges Best Selling Author's Story of Abuse By Rafael Epstein ABC September 22, 2006 http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2006/s1746709.htm ELEANOR HALL: It's Britain's number one best selling book on the non-fiction shelves. It is a searing indictment of the Church's role in child abuse and was said to be a real life account of personal victory over a childhood scarred by drugs and sexual abuse. But the author's family say it's all made up. The brothers and sisters of Kathy O'Beirne have thrown doubt on the account of her childhood in Ireland called Don't Ever Tell. But so far Kathy O'Beirne's publisher is standing by the book. As Europe Correspondent Rafael Epstein reports. RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Kathy O'Beirne's supposed true account of her childhood, is published in Britain as Don't Ever Tell. And with Ireland still coming to terms with the abuse some suffered while in the care of the Catholic Church, her book seemed to echo the experiences of so many. In the book she says she was beaten by her father, sexually abused by two boys from the age of five, and at the age of 10 repeatedly raped by a priest and whipped by nuns. She claims she was later forced to take drugs in a mental institution. But her family, and the institutions that she was supposedly in as a child, say her book is simply not true. Her brother Oliver: OLIVER O'BEIRNE: I'm saying anything I have read in the book is not true. When I've first seen the book, twice I had to go over it, because I couldn't believe some of the things that were actually said in it. I suppose I was numbed. If you want to write a book of fiction, write a book of fiction. RAFAEL EPSTEIN: The author has refused to speak this week, and her publishers say they've checked the text and they are satisfied that it's appropriate for publication as a piece of non-fiction. That's disputed by the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, they are one of four religious orders which ran the Magdalene laundries where she says she spent her life from the age of eight until she was 21. The sisters say an independent archivist looked at their records after nobody could remember the author. They say there's no record of her attendance. The defenders of the Church say the only record of Kathy O'Beirne having been in a Catholic institution was when she spent six weeks in a Dublin school in 1967. The author herself was adamant about her experiences in an interview last year. KATHY O'BEIRNE: We would work all day long and we were abused there. There was a visiting priest that used to come that abused us as well. I was abused and raped at the age of 13. Horrible things happened, people died and they were buried and you never knew what happened to them. It was just unreal. And it was a living hell, a living hell. RAFAEL EPSTEIN: James Frey's publishers offered refunds to readers after he admitted, to a furious Oprah Winfrey, that he had made lots of it up. But it didn't stop his book from selling. And now, even though the family have also questioned Kathy O'Beirne's claim that she had a child at the age of 14, the commercial appeal of her book is undiminished. The publishers counter that the archdiocese of Dublin had opportunities to reply to allegations in the book but no major changes were requested. Her family say the real story is that she spent time in a psychiatric hospital, a prison and a hostel for the homeless. Her brother Oliver is upset that their father was portrayed as an abuser. OLIVER O'BEIRNE: If you are going to start writing stuff like this and it's lies and there's people, my father he is dead and buried, because he'd turn in his grave if he'd seen what was wrote. But we are here, and we are alive, and we are not going to allow this to continue. RAFAEL EPSTEIN: The publishers, Mainstream Press, have been here before. Five years ago the BBC questioned another Mainstream author, Tom Carew. He wrote a book called Jihad! about his supposed experiences in the SAS. The BBC confronted him after discovering he'd never served in the elite army force. BBC INTERVIEWER: Isn't the truth that a real SAS man would stand his ground and provide an answer and you don't have one. RAFAEL EPSTEIN: And that impromptu interview ended when Tom Carew assaulted the cameraman. (Noise of glass and things breaking) TOM CAREW: There's your answer. BBC INTERVIEWER: That's enough. RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Kathy O'Beirne's book, released in Ireland two years ago, is still selling well. This is Rafael Epstein for The World Today.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.