Mary Raftery

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Mary Raftery (born December 21, 1957 in Dublin , † January 10, 2012 in Dublin ) was an Irish investigative journalist . With her television documentaries she exposed, among other things, abuse and mistreatment of children in Catholic institutions in Ireland as well as previous abuses in the local psychiatry.

biography

Mary Raftery was born in Dublin in 1957 as one of four children of Adrian and Ita Raftery. She spent her childhood in France before returning to Ireland for her secondary education . After graduating from school, she completed an engineering degree at University College Dublin . At the same time she was studying music at the Dublin College of Music and was considered an excellent cellist . She did not finish her studies, but developed her interest in journalism as a student representative . In the 1980s she worked for Magill and In Dublin magazines.

In 1984 Raftery became a TV producer for Irish broadcaster RTÉ and worked on a number of current affairs programs. Among other things, a program on the corruption and fraud case involving Irish real estate entrepreneur Patrick Gallagher, through which 600 investors had lost their savings.

In addition, Raftery researched the career of the criminal Dunne family and tried to find out why members of the family had become criminals. Her research led to the production of the States of Fear series , which aired in April and May 1999. The series documented the abuse and mistreatment of children in the 60 so-called reformatory and industrial schools for "neglected, orphaned and abandoned children" between the 1930s and 1970s; several members of the Dunne family had spent their childhood there. The majority of these schools were run by the Catholic Church under the supervision of the Irish Ministry of Education . The series met with a great response from the general public, and even before the last part aired, then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern publicly apologized to the victims. In 2009, the Ryan Report was submitted, which confirmed the information from the States of Fear .

In 2002, Mary Raftery co-produced Cardinal Secrets with Mick Peelo for RTÉ, which investigated the Catholic Church's handling of allegations of sexual abuse against clerics in the Diocese of Dublin. That television broadcast led to the government's decision to set up the Murphy Commission , which also released its report in 2009. Her last production was Behind the Walls in 2011 , which documented the history of psychiatry in Ireland. The result of the program was that in the 1950s Ireland had the highest number of inmates in psychiatric hospitals in the world and that Ireland was even ahead of the Soviet Union in terms of figures per capita .

Mary Raftery has also held a number of teaching positions, including at Dublin City University , the Dublin Institute of Technology , St. Mary's College in London , New York University , the University of Washington in Seattle and Boston College .

Mary Raftery died of ovarian cancer on January 10, 2012 at the age of 54 in a Dublin hospital ; she left her husband and a son. The Irish Independent newspaper wrote in its obituary for Raftery:

“Your work has had a devastating impact on Irish society. Fearless, relentless, tireless: three words that are synonymous with a headstrong journalist who did more than anyone else in her job to shed light on the darkest chapter of modern Irish history. "

Honors and memories

Mary Raftery has received numerous awards throughout her career, including the Justice Media Television Award in 1999 and the Irish Film and Television Award, the Houston WorldFest Special Jury Gold Award in 2000 and the New York Festival Gold Medal , all for States of Fear .

In 2012, friends and colleagues set up the Mary Raftery Journalism Fund to support investigative journalism, which in December 2018 turned over to Dublin City University . Their Media History Collection of the School of Communications hosted an exhibition on Mary Raftery in 2019. The Mary Raftery Prize is awarded to journalistic work on areas of society in Ireland.

Publications

  • With Eoin O'Sullivan: Suffer the Little Children - The Inside Story of Ireland's Industrial Schools . Continuum, New York 2001, ISBN 978-0-8264-1337-6 .
  • Do they think we're eejits? : a selection of the Irish Times columns 2003–2009 . The Irish Times , Dublin 2013, ISBN 978-0-907011-37-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Freya Drohan: Women's Museum of Ireland- Articles - Mary Raftery. In: womensmuseumofireland.ie. Accessed November 30, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Mary Raftery. In: maryrafteryfund.ie. March 24, 2014, accessed November 30, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Investigations 2016: Legacy and legal challenges: The Gallagher STORY Mary Raftery. Irish Film Institute, accessed December 11, 2020 .
  4. ^ The Dunnes - the inside story of a criminal family. In: magill.ie. January 10, 2012, accessed November 30, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Owen Forsyth: The Dunnes - Dublin's Original Crime Family - The Irish Mob. In: theirishmob.com. February 4, 2020, accessed November 30, 2020 .
  6. ^ Tributes to Mary Raftery. In: maryrafteryfund.ie. May 9, 2014, accessed November 30, 2020 .
  7. ^ The Mary Raftery Journalism Fund. In: maryrafteryfund.ie. Accessed November 30, 2020 (English).
  8. ^ Mark Hilliard: Reporting on child welfare and homelessness nominated for Mary Raftery Prize. In: irishtimes.com. November 5, 2020, accessed November 30, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Raftery, Mary
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish journalist
DATE OF BIRTH December 21, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin
DATE OF DEATH January 10, 2012
Place of death Dublin