SOLOMON HUGHES recommends Sunjeev Sahota’s recent novel set in a trade union election campaign for its fresh approach to what unites and divides workers, but wishes the union backdrop was truer to life
WE LIKE to think that once a wrong has been exposed, the worst is over for the victim. There will be justice, we imagine: then help, healing, closure. Something like a happy ending.
Mick Finnegan might look like proof of that. In good shape at 40 — he’s taken up running and keeps shattering personal bests — Mick is a highly regarded mental health advocate, working towards a master’s degree in advanced child protection at the University of Kent.
But he’s also a whistleblower who broke a child abuse scandal that rocked Dublin. And because he was one of those children — and because of the torturous, mentally gruelling nature of the process of seeking justice — he’s also currently homeless, sleeping rough and in recovery for alcohol addiction.
Gisele Pelicot said ‘shame must change sides.’ We may think we agree, but, argues LOUISE RAW, society still has some way to go
LYNNE WALSH reports from the Women’s Declaration International conference on feminist struggles from Britain to the Far East
Lack of action over the St John Ambulance Ireland child sex abuse scandal leaves victims without justice and risks further abuses in the future, warns MICK FINNEGAN



