The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
If it wasn’t for The Rape Crisis Centre Arlene Hayes says with certainty, she wouldn’t be here today. To mark the impact they have had on her life she has organised an 80s disco to raise much needed funds for the service. ENNIS based retail manager Arlene Hayes has been carrying a heavy weight on her shoulders for almost 30 years now. The happy, bubbly person who lights up when you invite her for a chat, is a survivor of historical sexual abuse. Those closest to her didn’t know she was carrying this burden with her through life, and even she herself didn’t really know until it all came flooding back. Arlene’s earliest memories are of her regular happy childhood in Ruan, trying on her communion dress and going to neighbours to collect communion money. She recalls picking hazelnuts in the fields and collecting mushrooms. “I remember my mother on a Friday night making popcorn. She would get the Quinsworth …
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