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	Support for Author Accused of Lying • Laundry Survivors to Make Statement • Brother Backs Writer's Allegations By Henry McDonald The Observer [Ireland] September 24, 2006 http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1879888,00.html The author accused of making up her best-selling memoir of abuse in a Magdalene laundry is hoping to silence critics this week when two survivors make legal statements confirming she was in one of the church-run institutions with them. The order of nuns that ran the notorious laundries denies O'Beirne was ever held in their care. O'Beirne's book Don't Ever Tell details a life of child rape, abuse and violence that implicates nuns in the Catholic clergy as well as her late father. Her story has torn her family apart, with most of her siblings dismissing it as a fraud. However, one brother, Joseph, is standing by her, in defiance of five other family members. In a brief statement to The Observer last night, O'Beirne said: 'In the last couple of days a number of Magdalene laundry survivors who were outraged at the false accusations against me were in contact. They said during this coming week they will give sworn affidavits to my legal team that they were in a Magdalene laundry with Kathy O'Beirne.' She also said that her case would be included in a widespread inquiry by the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin into clerical abuse. O'Beirne is currently waiting to be called to give evidence at this inquiry. The author added that she was 'extremely encouraged' by the large number of text messages and emails of support for her stance, passed on by her publishers . Earlier yesterday in another interview, she said: '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.' Last night Joseph O'Beirne told The Observer he stood by his sister's claims '100 per cent'. 'What Kathy has said is true and I know it is because I went through something similar myself. For my family to say our dad wasn't a violent man is wrong. He was a hard man and you got hit and hit hard. I saw it with my own eyes because if you did something wrong in our house you got a hiding.' Joseph said he and his sister had both made statements to the Garda Siochana and were prepared to co-operate in any investigation. Michael McDowell, Ireland's Justice Minister, met with Kathy O'Beirne last year. She passed over a large dossier of material on her case to the minister, which was in turn handed it over to Garda headquarters. The controversy has also prompted groups representing victims of Catholic clerical abuse this weekend to call for a judicial inquiry that they say will ultimately rule on the veracity of O'Beirne's claims. The memoir, published by Edinburgh- based company Mainstream, has sold some 350,000 copies around the world. It is described as the book that will shame Ireland. In Don't Ever Tell she gives a frank, often brutal account of allegedly being beaten by her father, raped and sexually abused by two older brothers and then finally incarcerated in what the Church and society regarded as a haven for 'fallen women' - the Magdalene laundry in Dublin. Here, O'Beirne, says is where she was raped again at the age of 13 and made pregnant with a baby girl. Her younger sister Mary O'Beirne last week claimed her sister's 'perception of reality always has been flawed'. She said: 'We can understand that many people will now feel hurt and conned' by Kathy's story. Our sister has a self- admitted psychiatric and criminal history.' The Irish Survivors of Child Abuse said the only way to end the controversy over the book was the establishment of an independent inquiry into O'Beirne's claims. The organisation represents hundreds of men and women who claim they were physically and sexually abused in Catholic church-run industrial schools and orphanages. 'The inordinate publicity and attendant furore created is such that many who suffered abuse in institutions over many years and are currently accessing statutory bodies [such as the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, The Redress Board] set up by the state to address the lasting effects of that abuse are left wondering whether it is proper that such serious matters are allowed to fester in an atmosphere of general uncertainty. 'In the interests of Kathy O'Beirne, her family and the wider community, including abuse victims, it is imperative to establish the true facts and all the circumstances surrounding these matters. In view of this we are asking the Minister for Justice to urgently examine all legal options available to open a judicial inquiry into the O'Beirne controversy and clear all these matters once and for all,' Irish Soca said. They added that a single judge in a matter of weeks could rule on the book's claims. Since the start of this century the Irish state has paid nearly one billion euros in compensation to thousands of victims of clerical abuse, particularly those in church-run institutions. The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, one of the orders that ran the Magdalene laundries, has said no records exist of a Kathy O'Beirne in any of their institutions. She has countered that Irish religious orders have been exposed in the recent past for destroying or failing to keep proper records of children and young people in their care.
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