Our CEO Ellen O’Malley Dunlop speaking on RTE News in relation to the suspended sentence of man convicted of raping his wife’s sister when she was just 14 years old.   Please see link to video and audio clip.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0610/455640-dpp-rape/

Article in the Journal.ie.  

The chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, Ellen O’Malley Dunlop, said this morning that she wanted the Director of Public Prosecutions to appeal the sentence handed down at the Central Criminal Court last Friday.  In his sentencing, Justice Garret Sheehan alluded to the exceptional circumstances of the man in question who has two autistic children requiring 24 hour care.

The victim had contacted Ellen to express her devastation at the sentencing.  She told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland: “She wanted me to know and she wanted me to comment – if I was invited to comment publicly – that she was devastated by the judgement.”

http://www.thejournal.ie/victim-devastated-as-man-who-raped-her-when-she-was-14-walks-free-944400-Jun2013/

Article in the Irish Times.  Ellen O’Malley Dunlop, chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, said the sentence showed the need for training of judiciary on sexual crimes. The man’s family circumstances were sad she said but added that it was “a very strange decision”.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/rape-victim-devastated-at-suspended-sentence-1.1423353

For further information please contact the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre on 01 6614911.

If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual violence please call our 24 Hour Helpline 1800 77 8888.

Thank You

Cost will be approx €150 per head.  The final details for this event have yet to be finalised.

To book a table please contact the fundraising department on 01 66 14 911 or email fundraising@rcc.ie.

• Always look out for each other and be part of a group
• Try not to get separated from your group
• Keep your drink in your hand at all times
• Do not accept a drink from someone you have just met even if he/she is a friend of a friend
• Ask someone you know and trust, to mind your drink if you have to leave it down for some reason
• Trust your instincts; if you feel uncomfortable in a place or with someone, leave as soon as possible
• If you begin to feel really drunk after only a drink or two, seek help from a person you trust
• Nominate a Designated Minder for each group of 6
• Share Taxis with friends and plan your journey to and from home
• Make sure your mobile is charged at all times and keep the helpline free phone number
1800 77 88 88 stored in it
• If you have to travel alone, make sure you phone ahead to where you are going and give your estimated time of arrival. Make sure your driver hears you phoning ahead
• Remember 8 out of 10 victims are raped by someone known to them

Some facts to keep in mind 

• The legal age of consent for having sex is 17
• Under current Irish Law a person is guilty of raping another person, if they are reckless in their decision to pursue sexual contact without that person’s consent
• If a person has sex with another person without their consent it is a crime
• A person may not give their consent freely if they are asleep, are unconscious or severely impaired due to alcohol, are mentally impaired , are under 17 or have been coerced in any other way that is deemed to be reckless
• When a person is taken advantage of in any of these circumstances whereby they have not given their consent freely, they suffer the huge trauma of the effects of being raped
Steps to be taken in the event of a rape or sexual assault:
• Call the National 24 hour Helpline 1800 77 8888 if you need the help of a Rape Crisis Centre for a recent rape or childhood sexual abuse,
• If you are a family member or a friend and don’t know what to do when someone close to you has disclosed that they have been raped or sexually assaulted call this number and you will get the help you need
• Contact your parents or Guardian or a friend
• You may choose to report the incident to the Gardai
• Get the medical support you need

Our aim is to offer a safe and confidential space where women and men of all ages can be listened to and supported without shame or self-blame.

So take care of each other this summer.  * Please remember our 24 Hour National Helpline Number 1800 77 8888.  There is always someone at the end of the line.

The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre’s (DRCC) new “YOUR” campaign calling for support for the victims of sexual crimes, has quadrupled the number of runners for the Centre in this year’s Flora Women’s Mini Marathon.

Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop, CEO of DRCC said “In the first four months of this year the trained Volunteers of the DRCC, accompanied 74 victims of recent rape and sexual assault to the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit in the Rotunda Hospital.  Funding for the work of the centre has been cut and fundraising is more difficult in the current economic climate. To address the fall in income in order to be able to continue to deliver the much needed services, the centre has invested in developing a new brand campaign. The ‘YOUR’ campaign focuses on the personal connection with the thousands of silent voices of the victims of these heinous crimes  in Ireland.

The foundation of the campaign is focused on the power of support FROM men and women TO men and women.

Those who use our services are people we all know but we may not be aware of the pain they carry; someone’s sister, brother or work colleague. The campaign drives home the point that we should support those who may be unable to speak about their experience. The centre is here to support and we would like to invite others to join us in that support today.

The DRCC is very grateful for the increase in the support we have received for this year’s Mini Marathon in 0particular. We must attribute the increase, in no small measure, to the generousity of the family of Jill Meagher, to Fiona Doyle and to the Kavanagh Sisters, who are running for the centre this year. By declaring their support for the centre they have spurred on so many to run for us this year.  A very big thank you to everyone.”

ENDS

For further information please contact:

Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop, Chief Executive, DRCC                01 6614911 / 086 809 9618

Jen & Jane DRCC’s T-Shirts

10 days out from the Flora Women’s Mini Marathon and things are getting busy here in Team DRCC on Leeson Street.  Our lovely new T-shirts for the Your Campaign have just arrived which you can pick up on the day.  You can see a medium and small here on Jen and Jane respectively.  My charity.ie donations are going well; we advise you all to set up a page if you can, but also quite happy if your sponsorship cards are working well for you.  We are happy to collect on the day.  This year we have an ambitious target for sponsorship and are certainly on the way.  All your donations will go toward our invaluable counseling services and maintaining our 24 Hour National Helpline.   

Don’t forget to pick up your race number from the RDS over the Bank Holiday weekend, check your email for a letter from Flora, if not get in touch with them directly using your password supplied at registration. http://www.florawomensminimarathon.ie/

On the day we hope to welcome you to the RCC on 70 Lwr Leeson Street, we will be there from 12:00 to 6:00 and you are very welcome to leave your personal belongings with us.  We are just around the corner from the Starting Line so please feel free to drop in.  Please click on the link below for directions.

http://www.drcc.ie/contact-us/map-and-directions/

Any last minute queries please do not hesitate to call us on 1800 77 77 88 or email us at fundraising@rcc.ie. 

We hope all the training is going well and are looking forward to seeing you on the day.

Thank You,

The DRCC Team

Angela McCarthy (Drcc), Marese (Scc), Rafif Jouejati (Free Syria), Ellen O’Malley Dunlop (Drcc), Ronan Tynan (Scc)

I would like to thank the organizers for inviting me to Chair this evening’s meeting. Before I hand over to Rafif Jouejati who is going to talk to us about Rape as a Weapon of War in the conflict in Syria, I will give you a short background to Sexual Violence in Ireland and will make reference to how we at the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, (DRCC) played a small part in bearing witness to rape as a weapon of war in other conflict torn countries in the past .

35 years ago in 1978, 5,000 women marched in Dublin in the “Reclaim the Night” campaign that was sweeping through all the major cities in Europe at the time. The catalyst for the march in Dublin was the ferocious gang rape of a 16 year old girl in Sean McDermott Street. Rape and sexual abuse were topics not talked about in Irish Society at that time however these heinous crimes were being committed and committed mainly with impunity and in secret against women, men, children and vulnerable adults.

The SAVI Report, which collected and analysed information on Attitudes and Beliefs to Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland, when published in 2002, validated the stories we were hearing in the therapy rooms; that 4 in 10 girls and 1 in 4 boys were victims of sexual crimes in Ireland; that women were as vulnerable as young girls through their life cycle and that boys were less vulnerable as they became men. 1in 10 report the crime and of the 1 in 10 there is approximately a 7% conviction rate. The 1 800 77 8888 national 24 hour helpline was set up in 1979 following the march and took 78 call in the first year. In 2012 there were over 10,000 calls to this helpline.

Attitudes to sexual crimes in Ireland can still be caught up in the old myths of ‘she was asking for it’, ‘look at how she was dressed’, ‘Children forget’ etc. etc.  Attitudes have a long shelf life and the cultural myths we live by whereby women and children are perceived as secondary to men, still prevail.

There was outrage expressed, and rightly so, after the publications of the Ryan, Murphy and Cloyne reports, documenting the abuse of children in state run  institutions and by the clergy, and yet when there was a referendum to enshrine the rights of the child in our constitution, we had one of the lowest turn-out of voters in a referendum. However we now have a Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Frances Fitzgerald and a new Child and Family Support Agency dedicated to protection, prevention, welfare and the well being of our children. But we still have a long way to go.

This is a very brief snap shot of where we are today in Ireland having had 35 years of awareness raising and a slow but sure recognition and acceptance of the horrendous aftermath and cost to society as a whole, of rape and sexual abuse.

The DRCC has learned and grown in its experience of responding to and working with victims of sexual violence over this time. Following reports of mass rape in the former Yugoslavia in the 1980s, the DRCC provided badly needed training programmes for community based workers there, from 1993 to 1998 and similar programmes in Kosovo from 1999 to 2002 with the support of Irish Aid and the Department of Foreign Affairs. These programmes were devised in collaboration with the community workers on the ground and the expertise we had learned from our experience of working with the traumatic after affects of rape and sexual abuse on the individual, their families and their communities.

This evening we will hear from Rafif Jouejati of the horrors of what is happening in Syria to women, men and children who are the victims of rape and sexual abuse crimes, which are being used as weapons of war in our world of 2013.

One has to ask the question have we learned anything from our past experiences of these heinous crimes?  I believe we have learned a lot but what is really difficult to understand is why rape continues to be allowed to be used as a weapon of war in 2013?

Rafif Jouejati is the English spokeswoman for the Local Coordinating Committees in Syria, a network of activists. She is also director of FREE-Syria, a nonprofit humanitarian organization that focuses on women’s empowerment, and a member of the executive committee of The Day After Project, which is developing a transition plan for the country.

For further information please contact Ellen O’Malley Dunlop at 01 6614911.

One of the most prominent women in the broad Syrian Opposition Rafif Jouejati will speak about the systematic use of rape and sexualised torture in the worsening conflict in her country at a special meeting chaired by the CEO of Dublin’s Rape Crisis Centre Ellen O’Malley Dunlop this evening at 7pm. The meeting: ‘Rape as a Weapon of War – Why Ireland Must Act’ will be held in the National Womens Council, 2/3 Parnell Square East and all are welcome.  The meeting is organised by the Irish Syrian Solidarity Campaign.

Rafif Jouejati, as Spokeswoman for the Local Coordinating Committees in Syria and Director of Free Syria which focuses on womens’ empowerment, is in a unique position to talk about the prevalence of sexualised violence in one of the worst conflicts in the world today, and one in which women and children are paying a terrifyingly high price. Commenting in advance of her address on Wednesday next she said:  “The Assad regime’s tacit approval of its militiamen’s systematic gang rapes and torture indicates that the regime is prepared to completely break down the community, the family, the individual. Rape is so prevalent in Syria that it will take years just to collect evidence, process case files, and bring perpetrators to justice.”

Rafif Jouejati went on: “Syrians must change the social narrative regarding rape. We must understand it is a crime that affects both men and women. We must understand that a double injustice is committed when women are raped, then shamed and socially alienated for defiling a family’s honour. By the same token we must declare honour killings as crimes that must be prosecuted.”

Our CEO Ellen O’Malley Dunlop was interviewed by the Lunch time show on SpinFM Radio on Wednesday the 16th of May.  She spoke about Staying Safe this summer and the Don’t be that guy Campaign.  Please see link to the Podcast below.

http://media.spin1038.com/podcast/74080/?uniqueID=2308623

Our Ceo Ellen O’Malley Dunlop speaking on Ireland Am this morning with Jill Meagher’s aunt Catherine.  Catherine and family are taking part in this year’s Flora Mini Marathon on behalf of the DRCC to support survivors.  Please find attached link to interview

http://www.tv3.ie/3player/show/184/62717/1/Ireland-AM

DRCC Your Campaign

For Ladies Who Lunge 

Walk or run for the DRCC

The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has launched a new campaign appealing for women to support them at this year’s Flora Women’s Mini Marathon, in an effort to help them provide crucial counselling and therapy services as well as maintain a 24-Hour Nationl Helpline for those who have been affected by rape and childhood sexual abuse.

The ‘YOUR’  campaign, fronted by the DRCC is a new endeavour for the charity on their messaging and campaigning which focuses on the personal connection with thousands of silent voices in Ireland. Claire Byrne commented at the launch “These are people we may all know, someone’s sister, brother or work colleague. This campaign is driving the point home that we should aim to support those who may be unable to vocalise their experience, whose life may be damaged irreperably by their experiences. What the Dublin Race Crisis Centre provides is compelling and vital: a place where victims can be believed,  listened to, understood, healed and counselled in a calm and trusting environment with highly trained counsellors”.

Last year the DRCC had 50 runners for the marathon whose sponsorship contributions helped funds enormously. This year they hope to sign up over 200 people. Please pledge your support and receive your sponsorship card by contacting our Fundraising Department on Freephone 1 800 77 88 88 or email fundraising@rcc.ie.

Don’t forget that you also need to register with the event. You’ll find entry forms online at www.florawomensminimarathon.ie  or in the Evening Herald on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Without your registration number, the organisers will not allow you participate on the day. The closing date is 24th April 2013 or when the maximum number of entries is reached.

Ends//

For further information on the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre contact:

Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop, Chief Executive                 01 6614911 / 086 809 9618  

Notes to the Editor:The Dublin  Rape Crisis Centre dealt with over 11,000 contacts in 2011, underpinning the urgency to generate funds to provide life-changing healing counselling.

Photocaption: Pictured at the launch of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre’s “YOUR” Campaign for the Flora Women’s Mini Marathon is L-R: Natalia Hyland (Ballyboden St. Endas) Claire Byrne, Sinéad Goldrick (Foxrock-Cabinteely), and Sinéad Finnegan (Fingallians) who are part of the Dublin Senior Ladies Gaelic Football Team.