'Let Our Voices Emerge' an Irish Charity formed by ex Irish Industrial School Inmates commited to exposing false allegations of abuse in the Industrial schools have for the past year campaigning against the book 'Kathy's Story', declaring it to be a hoax publication.

We are now demanding that Mainstream publishers produce their proof of the allegations in the book, or defend it in court. Neither the O'Beirne family nor the religious congregation involved can take legal action as no living person was named.

States Florence Horsman Hogan, 'false allegations of abuse hurt those of us who know what abuse is, and we will not tolorate our stories being used for finiantial gain.
Mr Sherridan the co author of the book has made the outragous claim that the congregation involved would have distroyed the records, and in reference to the alleged child 'Kelly Anne', has even more bizarrely claimed she would not have had a birth cert as a child born in such circumstances (rape in the laundry), would not have been registered. If such were true how then did he and Mainstream verify Kathy O'Beirnes allegations?'.

Mr Sherridan has directly contradicted his previous statement on RTE radio:

Sheridan said: “I’ll tell you the evidence we have. There are no documents. Those documents are either falsified or destroyed. There is no evidence or records of Kathy in the two Magdalen laundries. There never was.”

This statement contradicts what Sheridan told RTE Radio’s Liveline programme last Monday when asked if he'd seen documation that Kathy was in a laundry:“I saw mounds of documentation that Kathy has. She’s a punctilious keeper of documentation.”

In an interview for todays Sunday Times Sheridan said: “I’ll tell you the evidence we have. There are no documents. Those documents are either falsified or destroyed. There is no evidence or records of Kathy in the two Magdalen laundries. There never was.”

Our charity have spearheaded this campaign against the book for the past year, we supported the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity and Kathy's family, including the organising of last tuesdays press conference.This campaign will not stop until the book is pulled from sales and Mainstream admit they did not obtain the necessary proof.

We now demand that Mainstream publishers produce even one shred of evidence that catagorically proves, beyond reasonable doubt, that Kathy O'Beirne was in a magdalene laundry.We know they won't take this to court as no such evidence exists.

One of the O'Beirne family came up with the excellent idea that a public protest be organised against the book 'Kathy's Story'.

Although events unfolding in the media seem to be going in our favour, I think, unless Mainstream back down, this is a brilliant plan.

We in Ireland will write to Easons (Irelands largest book sellers), asking them to withdraw the book from their shelves, failing compliance, we will stage a protest outside their shop in Dublin.

As this book involves all concerned with false allegations, I am now calling on all relevant groups in this move. The most likely day will be Friday afternoon,29th September.

If we can co ordinate our protest, with a protest outside Mainstream offices in Edinburgh, this would have huge media appeal. I also now call on members of the Scottish and English groups to consider organising this.

The Times September 19, 2006

Author's family say abuse memoir is cruel hoax
By David Sharrock

Doubt has been cast on the 'childhood hell' in a Catholic institution recalled by an Irish writer

IT IS a harrowing story of a young woman’s life destroyed by nuns and priests, and it has raced to the top of the bestseller list. But now a chorus of voices, including those of the author’s own family, claim that the ordeal described by Kathy O’Beirne simply does not ring true and is nothing more than a cruel hoax.

Kathy’s Story: a Childhood Hell in the Magdalene Laundries has sold more than 350,000 copies in Ireland and Britain, securing a place in the top five bestselling non-fiction titles in Britain, where it sells under the title Don’t Ever Tell.

Published last year, the story of O’Beirne seemed to encap-sulate the anguish of a generation of Irish people whose experiences at the hands of religious orders left them scarred. And it could not have been better timed, with the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland apologising for the conduct of some of its priests and nuns.

But as the sales continued to rise, so too did the questions. In the book she says that she was beaten by her father and sexually abused by two boys from the age of 5 before being sent away to an institution. She claims that at the age of 10 she was repeatedly raped by a priest and whipped by nuns. Later she was forced to take drugs in a mental institution.

“I was consigned to a hell of beatings and abuse,” she wrote. “It was one long scream of suffering which has haunted all of my adult life”

The first organisation to challenge the account was the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, one of four religious orders which ran the Magdalene laundries — institutions for young women who were seen to be in moral danger.

The sisters said that they invited an independent archivist to study their files after nobody could remember Kathy O’Beirne. No record has turned up of her attendance. She has said, in radio interviews since the book’s publication, that she could not name the institution in which she was abused for legal reasons.

Now her own family is about to dispute her story. Five of her brothers and sisters plan to hold a press conference in Dublin today. O’Beirne’s older brother, Oliver, 52, has told an Irish newspaper: “I read the book and I can’t figure out where she is 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.” Adding that she did not have a good relationship with her family, he said: “I think she needs help.”

The publishers said that they would continue to support the book. Bill Campbell, director of Mainstream Publishing, said in a statement: “We have used every possible effort to establish the truth of Kathy’s memoir. We invited comments and corrections from the Church and we received no substantive response.”

But an Irish charity called Let Our Voices Emerge, established by people who spent time in religious institutions and who are now dedicated to defending their carers, has its doubts. Florence Horsman Hogan told The Times: “By her own admission Kathy has had psychological problems from an early age. Some members of her family have now come forward to state that their father emphatically was not an abuser and that, on the contrary, he worked extremely hard to support all of his children.” She said that the only record of O’Beirne having been in a Catholic institution was when she spent six weeks in St Anne’s Industrial School in Dublin in 1967.

The author has been refusing to speak to newspapers, but in a radio interview last week she insisted that she had proof of everything in the book.