I remember it well. I went on Morning Ireland and had the temerity to suggest the Taoiseach should intervene and ensure the inquiry was properly responded etc. I later got a call suggesting I stop being critical. I declined. Within a week, One in Four’s funding was cut. #Redress
We went public. We’re being forced to close. We put every document and all correspondence re funding into the public domain. And disclosed the phone call which suggested I pipe down. Lots of denials etc. But ultimately funding was initially restored. We could continue.
We had faced the threats down & persevered. There as a price to pay though. Lots of media briefings against me, anonymous concerns documented in files and journos encouraged to FOI. Lots of negative media briefings, and stories via one or two journalists. Very personalised stuff.
It was mucky stuff. One story that was threatened was that my partner and I were “travelling the world looking for a child to adopt”, while I was being paid to run One in Four. They didn’t run it like that ultimately - instead ran a piece ‘Victims Chief in Gay Adoption Bid’.
They were entirely wrong. Our son had already come to live with us months earlier. No one knew that. But the officials in Dept of Health did know that we had been planning for him to come here. I’d asked their advice much earlier that year.
A few journalists told me that they had been encouraged to FOI files on One in Four, and that they had been briefed re the supposed adoption. It was payback time apparently. I was to have manners put on me.
Whatever. It wasn’t fun - but it was nothing compared to the threats against survivors who went through redress. Built into that process was extreme secrecy. If they accepted redress, they were silenced under threat of criminal sanction. That had a devastating impact. #Redress
Properly *resourced*
I should have given detail about the ‘warning’. I got a call from a contact, who I knew had family connections with Knights of Columbanus, a credible contact. They had been asked to pass along a message.
I was told that my “constant sabre rattling against church & state was creating a sense of pissedoffness”. The view was “who is this guy, biting the hand that feeds”. That my organisation had been well funded,I had a nice office.I was in. I’d proven I could play with the big boys
That I should settle down now and everything would be grand. I was in. I thanked this person for passing along and the message, and made it clear that I would continue to make what I saw as fair and reasonable comment and critique.
I then reported the call to a senior advisor in Dept of An Taoiseach. Made it clear that yes, we had been funded to establish a service, but that I had zero interest in having a ‘nice office’ for the sake it it. That I saw no point in having an office if I wasn’t doing the work.
That if anything I had said or done was unfair or untrue, if anything I’d done was unreasonable, I was more than happy to be publicly challenged on that and that I would happily apologise or correct the record if that was the case. But that I would not be silent.
