Up to 25 per cent of Mayo women in relationships may be experiencing domestic violence at any one time, and an average of 170 cases are currently being dealt with by the county's outreach advice service.
About two-thirds of total cases constitute physical abuse, according to a review recently published for the Mayo Women's Refuge and Support Services and the Western Health Board. About a third constitute mental and emotional abuse, and many women interviewed insisted that the psychological terror arising from this was as damaging as physical violence.
Entitled Going The Extra Mile, the review by Kelleher Associates aimed to measure the effectiveness of the Mayo Women's Refuge and Support Services to date. It was established in September 1994 by the Castlebar branch of the St Vin cent de Paul, and latterly the health board has become the main financial supporter.
Current research estimates that about 2,500 Co Mayo women are caught in domestic violence. Given the county population is over 100,000, that more than half of this figure is male and that a percentage comprises women living alone, it suggests that up to 25 per cent of women in relationships are suffering in this way.
An analysis of 96 cases from the project caseload and inter views with 26 women indicated that women of all ages use the services and that the violence experienced is severe. Over 16 per cent of the women disclosed that they had experienced sexual abuse, and financial control was applied as a weapon in 31 per cent of cases.
One women told how she was raped before she underwent an operation, despite being ill. When she was discharged from the hospital her partner at tempted anal rape.
A second woman described how her husband would order her up to the bedroom or would tell the children to send their mother up. When she came into the bedroom he raped her.
Verbal abuse took place in 75 per cent of cases, involving name-calling and use of abusive and humiliating language to break the woman's self-confidence and self-esteem.
The vast majority of women in the caseload had children, averaging three per family, and in interviews they described how the control exercised over them was extended to the family.
This took the form of bullying and being physically violent to children; not allowing them to play with other children; putting two teenage children out of the house; taking the children from the family home without the mother's knowledge, and causing damage to the property; and undermining the authority of the mother by making negative comments about her.
The project's main services include outreach advice clinics and support groups, public awareness, education and training, accommodation and networking. Part of the clinics' success, provided in 10 locations throughout the county, is that relationships exist between workers and women seeking help.
Personal interviews with women revealed that shortly after getting in touch, they were able to make decisions which helped them to resolve their immediate crisis.
"The change that came over me after I contacted the service was like a miracle," one woman said. "I saw things clearly, I felt supported and I got the strength to make the decisions that I had failed to make before." Having taken the first step, recovering from the experience of domestic violence can take many years.
The review has recommended changing the project's name to reflect its range of activities; strengthening the team and in creasing staff numbers; setting up a management committee as a legal entity; and developing a three-year plan, including long-term financial viability. Currently it has a budget deficit, and the cost of running the service last year was about £144,000.
It has recommended recording and compiling data; providing a specialised counselling service to women in isolated rural areas; providing group work-based counselling for children who have witnessed domestic violence; expanding the outreach clinics to include the Mayo islands and the Louisburgh area; making mobile phones available to all women considered to be at severe risk, which might be financed by a private company in telecommunications.
It has also recommended providing "culture-friendly" ways of helping Traveller women to deal with domestic violence; and distributing good-practice guidelines for statutory agencies and professionals who often give an "uneven" response to women in abuse situations.
Kelleher Associates says that what struck them most about the project was the truly innovative outreach service which it had piloted, with women de scribing its impact as "fantastic", "brilliant", and as a valuable "bridge" or "lifeline". Through contact with the project, women began to realise they had choices, and some have returned as volunteers.
One volunteer, Mitzi Reilly, wrote a poem in March 1996 which is published in the review and encapsulates some of the daily fear and paralysis affecting those caught up in the experience:
She was sick of walking into doors/And tripping over the cat/ That the kids had wanted for years.
She was sick of trying to remember/And trying not to for get/What to say, and what not to say.
She was sick of worrying about what to cook/And what she should wear/And knowing she would never quite get it right.
She was sick of being awake when she wanted to sleep/Scared of his screams/And her own dark dreams.
Sick of crying and worrying about dying/Because he said he would kill her/one of these fine days,/And she believed him.
Then one day they left/Just up and left/And she didn't die/And she knew what to wear/And she started to see the doors/And the cat never got in the way/And the kids started to laugh again.
