MINDFREEDOM IRELAND ANNUAL REPORT 2024.

Sinn Fein is a well-known political party in Ireland. The two Gaelic words of the name can be translated as ‘We Ourselves’ or ‘Ourselves Alone’. Leaving all political affiliations aside, the words can also accurately describe the activities of MindFreedom Ireland, especially in relation to any dreams we may have of changing the face of established psychiatry.

Given its history, given its powerful and legally backed position and given the support it enjoys from the pharmaceutical industry, we accept the reality that that is the way it is.  At the same time we know that for millions of people worldwide with experience of it, it is a system that does not work.  It is a system which is based on pseudo-science, a system which legally incarcerates and forcibly drugs people, a system of revolving doors and a system which labels people for life with all the accompanying discrimination that goes hand in hand with it.

So we are sinn fein. We are ourselves alone.  We are a minority.  But to be so is a strength in itself.  We are not pseudo.  We are authentic, we are real and we bear witness to our truth.  It is so here in Ireland (of which more later) as it is also increasingly true in many countries around the world where we who term ourselves survivors of psychiatry have been bearing witness now going back to the second half of the 20th century.

Inspired by people like David Oaks, Don Weitz, Ted, Chabasinski, Tina Minkowitz, Linda Andre, Jill Kesti Jim Gottstein, Celia Browne, Maths Jesperson, Graham Basque, Gabor Gombos,  Peter Lehman, Laura Delano, Lauren Tenny, Terry Lynch, Michael Corry, Peter Breggin, Leon Mosher, Thomas Szasz Maria Angel, Joanna Moncrieff, Lucy Johnson, Bob Johnson, Bonnie Burstow, MindFreedom Ireland is proud to be part of that global movement standing for truth and justice.  That is why the hidden counter-story to established psychiatry must be stated, that we speak our truth to power, that someone shouts STOP.

So that is what we in MindFreedom Ireland do.  Small and operating on a shoestring, we continued during 2024 to actively provide mutual support to people from around the country, to connect people with one another, to share information and contacts, to provide practical help and to assure people that they are not on their own even as our general movement paradoxically is.  We let people know about initiatives such as Inner Compass run by Laura Delano and through the internet, introduce them to the wider global family as mentioned earlier and give them a sense of their own potential and power that comes from being active.

That is why our annual electroshock protest is so important.  For many years just held in Cork, it is now also held in Dublin.  People speak of how good they feel about themselves having given testimony of their experience of shock.  It has been compared to the rape victim confronting their rapist with their impact statement.  Our Cork protest this year was held in torrential rain and lasted a mere 15 minutes but the protest was HELD and truth was spoken.  The presence of a mother and daughter who, at great inconvenience, had travelled all the way from Leitrim, a journey of over 200 miles, was greatly appreciated.  Also present as they are every year were the Occupational Therapy students from the Dominican University of California along with their professor Dr Karen McCarthy, further evidence of the global movement.

Another Irish aspect of that movement is the Critical Voices Network Ireland which held their 14th annual two-day conference in University College Cork in November, the theme of which was ‘Iatrogenic Harm – First Do Good’.  Among the many keynote presentations and workshops was one by MindFreedom Ireland entitled ‘Harmony not Harm’.  The conference plays a vital role every year in strengthening bonds and forging new ones.

 In 2025, we hope to resurrect our ‘A Little Help From My Friends’ music group which had flourished in the years before the COVID lockdowns.

As ever, at this time of year, MindFreeom Ireland remembers deceased members Helena King, Tim Nyhan,  Carmel Delaney, John McCarthy and also our valued living members throughout Ireland who, in the face of an uncaring and heartless system, seek a better way.

‘Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive’. C.S.Lewis

Jim Maddock,

31st December, 2024.

www.mindfreedomireland.com