Reading between the lines on violence against women

IN this country it is estimated that one in five women experience domestic violence.

 

This year, to mark the 16 days of Action and Awareness on Violence against Women, which runs from November 25 to December 10, the Mid-West Local Area Networks (Clare, Limerick and North Tipperary) are actively targeting libraries and book clubs to promote literature with the theme of violence against women.

Readers and book clubs across the region are being invited to read Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes, with a view to raising awareness of domestic abuse and holding open discussions on the topic.

Denise Dunne, services manager with Clare Haven, explained the initiative. “Clare Haven sits on a network called the Clare Local Area Network on Violence Against Women. A number of agencies sit on this, statutory, community and voluntary organistaions. There are also local area networks in Limerick and North Tipperary and this initiative was set up by the three areas. Every year we come together for the 16 days of action and awareness on violence against women. This year what we were trying to do was look and see if we could get people talking about it, so that they realise how prevalent it is in our society and to make people aware of how many people use refuges, what services are available for women and children, and so on.

“We do a number of things every year and this year we decided to do displays in the libraries in County Clare and to also target book clubs. We met with Frances O’Gorman who is the head librarian in Clare and she was absolutely brilliant and thought this was a great idea.”

She said Into the Darkest Corner gives a powerful and very authentic view of domestic violence and its ferocious impact.

“I had read this book, Into the Darkest Corner, which was written by Elizabeth Haynes, who’s an ex police officer in the UK. It’s fiction, and obviously there are bits of it that are exaggerated but I thought it really showed how a young girl, who was a real party goer, became afraid to leave her own home and has OCD and can barely hold down a job; all of this happens as a result of an abusive relationship.”

She feels getting book clubs to read Into the Darkest Corner will open up a dialogue.

“I thought it would be great if we could get book clubs to read this, because they meet after they read a book and discuss it. We came up with an idea that if we got book clubs to read this, it’d get them talking about domestic violence and violence against women. We said that we’d go to them when they were discussing it, tell them how close to real life it is, that it’s what we see every day in Clare Haven services. The facts are often stranger than fiction.”

Later this month, they will start meeting with book clubs. “Frances got three book clubs that are affiliated to the library and they all agreed to read the book for the month of November. The 16 days starts on November 25 and from that date onwards, myself and two other people from Clare Haven are going out and meeting with book clubs and having a discussion about it.”

There will be discussion groups on the book at Shannon Library on November 27, at Kilrush Library the following day and at De Valera Library on December 4.

The Guardian’s review of Into the Darkest Corner said, “From its uncompromising prologue – a young woman being bludgeoned to death in a ditch – Haynes’s powerful account of domestic violence is disquieting, yet unsensationalist.”

Clare Haven House have some other plans for the 16 Days of Action and Awareness on Violence Against Women, including a remembrance service for the women who have been murdered in Ireland since 1996. It will be held in Friary in Ennis on December 6.