According to Plutarch: Courage consists not in hazarding without fear but being resolutely minded in a just cause. Bronagh was truly courageous. A survivor, not a victim. Even though every moment felt precarious, she lived a worthwhile life and battled a legal system that does so little for the victim.
And yes, the justice system is far from just. A theme of my own novel ‘Heart of Cruelty’ is how easy it is for disclosures of abuse to be discredited and the victims blamed. Although a historical novel I drew on my own first hand experience, as a paediatrician giving evidence in child abuse cases, of how the legal system protects abusers.
It’s meant to be the basis of a fair legal system that the court assumes the accused to be innocent until proven guilty. But to do that, logically, you have to assume that their accuser is lying. So this is structured in to the justice system at every level from the initial allegation up to the highest court in the land. Survivors of sexual violence therefore have a mountain to climb before they can even be heard. This has been in the news headlines so many times in recent years. In ‘Bronagh’, Aoife Rose O’Brien shows clearly why we continue to deny justice to so many, even in the modern day.
Published by Red Books, with 50% of profits going to the Wexford Rape Crisis Centre.
|