On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police on her step. They have arrived to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist.
Ireland is falling apart, caught in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny. As the life she knows and the ones she loves disappear before her eyes, Eilish must contend with the dystopian logic of her new, unraveling country. How far will she go to save her family? And what–or who–is she willing to leave behind?
The winner of the Booker Prize 2023 and a critically acclaimed national bestseller, Prophet Song presents a terrifying and shocking vision of a country sliding into authoritarianism and a deeply human portrait of a mother’s fight to hold her family together.
In the depths of the Great Recession, a cancer nurse, a car dealership worker, and an insurance fraud specialist helped uncover the largest consumer crime in American history―a scandal that implicated dozens of major executives on Wall Street. They called it foreclosure fraud: millions of families were kicked out of their homes based on false evidence by mortgage companies that had no legal right to foreclose.
Lisa Epstein, Michael Redman, and Lynn Szymoniak did not work in government or law enforcement. They had no history of anticorporate activism. Instead they were all foreclosure victims, and while struggling with their shame and isolation they committed a revolutionary act: closely reading their mortgage documents, discovering the deceit behind them, and building a movement to expose it.
Fiscal Times columnist David Dayen recounts how these ordinary Floridians challenged the most powerful institutions in America armed only with the truth―and for a brief moment they brought the corrupt financial industry to its knees.
“Violence remains preventable, not inevitable.” So says Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, the WHO Regional Director for Europe. Dr. Kluge has called for more action to be taken in every country that has seen a surge in domestic violence during the coronavirus pandemic. If steps are not taken, the world could see 31 million cases of gender-based violence, he warned. This stark warning is an indictment of our failure, in Europe and elsewhere, to reduce the level of male intimate abuse, in spite of the extraordinary energy and dedication of thousands of practitioners and academics.
In this challenging book, Don Hennessy examines our practices and procedures, our attitudes and our beliefs. He demonstrates how we have made few inroads in this area – either into the prevalence of male intimate abuse, or in relation to the tactics that support the ability of the male intimate abuser to establish and maintain his control.
It is vital that all agencies, both statutory and non-governmental, recognize that we need to change our position from one of support to one of protection. The protection that Hennessy promotes is not that of the physical refuge alone, but the mental safeguard which will allow each target woman to follow her own intuition.
How He Wins is essential reading for any woman who has been the target of such abuse and has found herself abandoned by the community.
Presenting some ground-breaking ideas, this book prompts a radical reappraisal of how we think about and understand male intimate abuse and violence. Over the last fifty years an array of resources and interventions have been brought to bear on domestic violence and abuse between intimate partners. Yet intimate abuse continues to be endemic in our society. One of the principal reasons for this lack of effective intervention is that we have ignored a critical ingredient which is the foundation of long-term intimate abuse and violence. This book uncovers the layers of covert tactics which men employ to establish and maintain control over their intimate partner. By deepening our understanding of what is going on the author suggests that we can develop a more efficient and consistent response to the issue. Working with both the perpetrators and victims of intimate partner abuse has given the author a unique insight into the tactics employed by the male abuser. He suggests that male intimate abuse and violence are driven by an entitlement to sexual priority and that the other tactics of control and violence are motivated by this entitlement. It is this motivation that distinguishes male intimate violence from other forms of ‘domestic violence’ such as female to male violence and elder abuse. The author details the similarities in tactics and motivation between the paedophile and the male intimate abuser. He has found that by explaining these tactics to victims he has released many of them from the mind-control that they have experienced.
The Weinstein affair in Hollywood has grabbed the headlines for months. Controlling behavior, particularly of men towards women, is far more common in all walks of life than we have been led to believe.
In this easy-to-read guide, best-selling author Don Hennessy offers advice to all those dealing with violent or controlling behavior in their own lives, based on his experience of dealing with hundreds of such people in a therapeutic setting. Most important, he explains to the reader how they can throw off the shackles and live lives free from fear and intimidation.
Through centuries of oppression, we were tenants in our own land.
Today, despite our independence and new-found affluence, we are in the midst of a crisis.
The question of who owns Ireland is once again taking on a sense of urgency. Is the land of Ireland still for the people of Ireland?
In a deep and far-reaching investigation, journalist, broadcaster and No. 1 bestselling author Matt Cooper examines the power wielded by those who control the land where we live, work and play. Who are they, how did they acquire so much and what does it mean for ordinary citizens when the ownership of key resources like shopping centres, wind farms, forestry and data centres comes from outside?
This is a story about how power and money influence and control the present and the future of Ireland … sometimes for good and sometimes for bad. Filled with riveting detail, this compelling story of who really owns Ireland is an essential account of the issues that affect every single one of us living on this island.
This is the story of how a small island on the edge of Europe became one of the world’s major tax havens.
From global corporations such as Apple and Google, to investment bankers and mainstream politicians, those taking advantage of Ireland’s pro-business tax laws and shadow banking system have amassed untold riches at enormous social cost to ordinary people at home and abroad.
Tax Haven Ireland uncovers the central players in this process and exposes the coverups employed by the Irish state, with the help of accountants, lawyers and financial services companies.
From the lucrative internet porn industry to corruption in the property market, this issue distorts the economy across the state and in the wider international system, and its history runs deep, going back the country’s origins as a British colonial outpost.
Today, in the wake of Brexit and in the shadow of yet another economic crash, what can be done to prevent such dangerous behaviour and reorganise our economies to invest in the people? Can Ireland – and all of us – build an alternative economy based on fairness and democratic values?
A GARDA, A FORCED ADOPTION, A FIGHT FOR JUSTICE
In 1984, Majella Moynihan was a fresh-faced young garda recruit when she gave birth to a baby boy. Charged with breaching An Garda Síochána’s disciplinary rules – for having premarital sex with another guard, becoming pregnant, and having a child – she was pressured to give up her baby for adoption, or face dismissal. It forced her into a decision that would have devastating impacts on her life.
Majella left the force in 1998 after many difficult years and, in 2019, following an RTÉ documentary on her case, she received an apology from the Garda Commissioner and Minister for Justice for the ordeal she endured as a young garda. Here, for the first time, she tells the full story.
From an institutional childhood after the death of her mother when she was a baby, to realising her vocation of becoming a guard only to confront the reality of a police culture steeped in misogyny and prejudice, A Guarded Life is both a courageous personal account of hope and resilience in the darkest times, and a striking reflection on womanhood and autonomy in modern Ireland.
Did you know if you are accused of ‘Child Abuse’, that there are two separate investigations by different Government bodies, and that if you are not deemed guilty in the Criminal Justice System, that you can still be punished in the Family Courts under a lower burden of proof?
Did you know that on a mere accusation alone, you could lose your child forever and never have the right to see them again?
Did you know that a Government Official could decide that your child is “At Future Risk” and remove your child and adopt them against your will without you being charged with a crime?
The “Thought Police” have arrived in your neighbourhood and are operating as a Child Protection System.
Did you know that the suicide rate of children in foster or residential ‘care’ is 10 times the national average. Did you know that the State, in the form of foster parents or of ‘Residential Care’, dump children on the streets at the age of 18?
Many of these children have been systematically alienated from their families, their parents left broke and broken, and many of these children will end up on drugs, homeless, in prison or in prostitution, which presumably wasn’t the objective of taking them from their parents? Over the years I have met many ‘nice people’ working in the system, believing that they were helping a child.
Unfortunately best intentions or ‘best interests of the child’ don’t translate very well into best outcomes. ‘Best Interests Principle’ (BIP) is the basis for which laws are made and decisions about children are decided. Unfortunately Best Interest Principle is nothing more than a slogan, it has no legal, scientific or moral value.
It was said that; “Best Interests operates as an empty vessel into which adult prejudices and beliefs are poured”. There is no known method of demonstrating or measuring Best Interests of the Child Principle. When measured scientifically to the benefit of the child, it was found that 80% of “Cared For” children have very poor outcomes in life.
Would you attend a doctor if you were told that 80% of their patients got worse instead of better? Every year the Child Protection Systems of each country get bigger and bigger. Calling Social Services has now become the weapon-of-choice for vindictive people to abuse others. NGO’s posing as Children’s Charities increase their staff and budgets every year.
Legal budgets increase every year as more and more children are removed from families. Large corporations are now taking over “Care” for governments and raking in millions. The only thing that is not increasing is child abuse or neglect, at least if the crime statistics are to be believed. We are led to believe that child abuse and neglect is at epidemic proportions, but fewer and fewer people are prosecuted in Criminal Courts every year. Through secrecy, and the fact that there is a tendency for every organisation to grow if left unchecked, the “Child Abuse Industry” is now out of control. The evidence is growing, the next time you see a homeless youth begging for money on the street, ask them if they were in “Care”.
The measure of any system is the final product it delivers, and this does not bode well for the Child Protection System in any country.The measure of our humanity, is how a society treats its most vulnerable citizens. 70 years of Sociology and Psychology has tried to prove that “Family’ is an outdated concept with its vestiges in our tribal roots, it pretends to know better than nature and eons of evolution, which designed the family to protect children.
Sociology replaced Eugenics as a form of Government control of the population but in that time has not shown any history of excellence. There are better options, and these and many other topics are covered in this book.
The full story of the single greatest scandal in Irish policing history – from the journalist who brought it into the national arena.
When, in 2008, Sergeant Maurice McCabe complained of shoddy investigations into serious crime in County Cavan, nothing could have prepared him for what was in store.
A career garda, McCabe never set out to be a whistleblower. However, over the following eight years, he exposed gross incompetence and corruption within An Garda Siochána. It ranged from a violent criminal being free to murder, to country-wide corruption in the policing of road safety.
Along the way he paid a terrible price, enduring vilification, bullying and harassment by forces who wanted to silence him and his inconvenient truths. Worse still were the rumours of an extreme nature, which had a devastating effect on his whole family.
McCabe’s actions ultimately led to some of the biggest reforms of An Garda Siochána since the foundation of the state, caused major political upheaval, and culminated in a Tribunal established in 2017, to examine whether there had been a smear campaign against him within the force.
A Force For Justice reveals the story behind the scenes, of one man struggling to survive in the most challenging of circumstances. It is a dramatic account of a garda sergeant’s journey from a rural outpost into the heart of the Irish political and legal system.
October 1971. Nineteen-year-old Una Lynskey vanishes near her home in Co. Meath. In the weeks that follow, and on flimsy grounds, gardaí identify three young local men as suspects. Within days of her body being found, one of the three is beaten to death by members of Una’s family.
The entire sequence of events is a tragedy in a quiet rural community – the wrong men jailed, no one ever facing justice – and becomes one of the most notorious failures in Irish policing and judicial history.
In Who Killed Una Lynskey?, award-winning journalist Mick Clifford has built a compelling portrait of the case from interviews with the surviving main players, as well as exclusive access to the files of a private investigator who uncovered information the gardaí missed – or ignored.
A timely, humane and compulsive read, this is a ground-breaking account of the botched investigation and its devastating consequences for not just four devastated families, but also the reputation of the gardaí.
“This book chronicles the true stories of two Irish women who dared to challenge decisions of local authority officials.”
“One is the struggle of a former journalist and poet who was accused of anti-social behaviour. Even though she was never in trouble with the law in her lifetime and vehemently proclaimed her innocent against these accusations, her eviction was ordered by the courts at the request of the council. This articulate and respectful 48-year old former public servant, who was living alone and fighting pain and disability, was found dead by council officials on the evening they visited her home to take back the keys.”
“The other story recounts the experiences of a former employee of the same local authority. She was dispensed with in mid-career after years of dedicated public service, from a job that she loved. She went all the way to the High Court to have her good name and integrity reaffirmed.
Strong social justice narratives run through this book. They expose the imbalances and inequities of how the limitless public purse may be operated to silence the citizen in Ireland. ”
As lawyer and judge for half a century, John Fitzgerald Molloy both profited from our legal system and saw how it has been altered in favor of lawyers, to the detriment of society. He shows that the legal profession has continuously re-shaped the law, in subtle but significant ways, to make legal services ever more necessary–and more lucrative for the Fraternity. The power the Fraternity now exercises, including the power to decide President Bush over Gore, has been accomplished by creating a new religion, that of worshiping the Constitution in ways the founders did not intend–with lawyers and judges the priests of that new religion. Molloy demonstrates terrible deficiencies in our legal system and presents practical solutions.