Personal safety workshop for women hears heart-wrenching talk from Tipperary woman

CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE FOR MORE IMAGES FROM THE EVENT 

On Sunday, March 13 in the quiet village of Golden, something unique took place.

A seminar and workshop for women.

Hosted by Anne-Marie Ryan, Clinical Psychologist and Developmental Specialist, its aim was to empower women through increasing their situational awareness in all aspects of life with particular emphasis on personal safety, especially in the light of recent events in our country.

The seminar was well attended and after an initial heart-wrenching and unbelievably brave talk by Anne-Marie on her own experiences, Margo Noonan, the first guest speaker of the afternoon, took the stage.

Margo, an inspirational woman, is the head of the Cork division of the national Sexual Assault Treatment Unit and she spoke about her work, about the process and the dignity with which women are treated if they have to attend her clinic as well as the control women have over every element of the process.

Unfortunately, she had to say that she was quite exhausted as she had only come from work where she finished at 5am, such is the volume of women needing the service.

When she concluded, Mr Bobby Duggan took the floor to give a talk on situational awareness and practical demonstrations of escaping an attacker, based on his Safe Skills course.

Bobby is a renowned 6th Dan martial artist and security consultant who has also served for three decades in the armed forces.

Assisting Mr Duggan was local martial artist Karl Clancy, also 6th Dan.

They demonstrated several situations and techniques for breaking free from an attacker.

Two other notable guests were Mr Richie Moore 8th Dan and Mr Tom Foley 10th Dan, who had travelled from both Dublin and Kilkenny to support the event and both of whom gave practical demonstrations and talked about women’s personal safety.

Tom is head of The Black Dragon Association, an international group of martial artists promoting the idea of unity between both the arts and the diverse people who practice them in a spirit of openness and camaraderie and Richie is the founder and head coach of his own martial arts style in Dublin where he teaches both traditional martial arts and self-defence.

This was an afternoon for the women of Tipperary, where every speakers’ goal was to have the women present take away a better understanding of personal safety, awareness and a sense of empowerment.

Presented by Anne-Marie in a light-hearted and sensitive manner and well-received by all participants, who all left with a bag containing several helpful items including a personal panic alarm, one can safely say it achieved its aim.

It’s a shame that such an event was necessary but the world we live in is one where the spectre of violence against women is always lurking in the shadows.

This was brought home when I saw, posted on the wall, the list of women who have lost their lives to violence in Ireland since 1996.

It’s a list of 244 names that might be any of our sisters, mothers or daughters.

Anne-Marie is in talks to develop the content of the day into a series of seminars for women and a further series for both men and women, addressing the wider issues of personal awareness and safety for everyone and to promote a culture for all where violence against anyone becomes a rarity rather than a commonplace news report.