Free Kathy's Story: The True Story Of A Childhood Hell Inside Ireland's Magdalen Laundries Ebooks To Download
Kathy O’Beirne was sexually abused at eight, labeled “troublesome” by a psychiatrist, and sent to reform school. After being raped by a visiting priest, she was transferred to a psychiatric hospital and subjected to electric shock therapy. At 12, she ended up in a Magdalen laundry, the notorious workhouses where thousands of other “troublesome” girls were incarcerated, abused, and forced to slave in horrendous conditions. In unflinching detail, yet illuminated by strength and hope, Kathy’s Story recounts her harrowing experiences, remarkable survival, and campaign to help other victims of institutional abuse.
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Greystone Books (March 8, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1553651685
ISBN-13: 978-1553651680
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #1,558,730 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #518 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > Irish #32941 in Books > History > Europe #38441 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Memoirs
So I read the whole book. I am glad I got this one from the library because it seems to have been unsubstantiated and may or may not have any truth to it. It is a rather horrific story, but it is a bit disjointed which left me questioning its authenticity as I went along. A few times the story she was recounting didn't fit in with the timelines she had established. I felt duped as I didn't think to have the author authenticated before reading it. Having grown up in a turbulent (alcoholic father) irish catholic home I am drawn into some of these books, and find that as an adult there are some parallel feelings...albeit far less intense. I probably won't read any more of her books.
Great story of how one young girl grew up with a horrible father and horrible neighborhood boys that beat and molest her for years. Just for her father to send her away and this road lead her to different institutions and finally to Magdalene laundries where she endured more child abuse.But, when she finally gets out of there when she turned the age 18 she goes through horrible nightmares and extreme panic attacks but that didn't stop her completely. She went on a crusade to draw attention to Ireland's dirty little secret of priests and nuns that were abusing the boys and girls.Just a moving story to read.
While I'm sorry she had such terrible experiences, and it truly was awful what she went through, what a terribly written book! Full of trite statements, she writes from a total victim's mentality and obsesses over what could have been different if only someone would have talked to her...yet when given a chance to talk, she stays mute and wonders why she is subjected to more. I was glad just to have finished it and wondered if I could find a better book of the Magdalene Laundries since it seems she wasn't there for very long. She was just abused in many different places.
Do your homework before accepting that this is a true story. The author is a nut job. Even her family tried to tell themedia this and the publisher, who was to publish a sequel, backed out. Sad that still carries the book, but they stillcarry another piece of fiction passed as fact, 'A Million Little Pieces,' so again, buyer beware.
I'm not suggesting that the current fad for 'misery lit' has not led to the production of other works that are no better, but "Kathy's Story" definitely is in the 'worst of the lot' category. As one may find from accounts in various prominent UK newspapers, Kathy's Story is a hash of unrelated incidents that make for a fictional horror story bearing little relation to the author's own life.What I find most tragic in this is that there is ample evidence of the genuine horror stories many experienced in such institutions as the Magdalene laundries, and an inaccurate tale of endless victim-hood, spun from borrowing elements of others' experiences and mixing them into an incoherent whole, takes away from what others actually suffered. It seems a tactic to get endless personal attention as the winner of a whinge contest (no wonder Kathy reports she was much younger than any other resident in the first institution, for example - since no one would have been there at the age of 8), clouding the horrid and truthful reality others have reported in a search for justice.
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