Recruited to Opus Dei at age 15: ‘I don't think I've ever come to terms with the enormity of what happened to me'
Opus Dei,
an institution of the Catholic Church that was founded in Spain in 1928 by Josemaría Escrivá.
Allen worked part time in a local hotel in Ballyvourney Co Cork when two women arrived to her family home saying that they were interviewing for a free catering course. The women said that Allen would receive pocket money of five pounds a week and a job guaranteed by the end of the two year course.
This meeting began the 6 year long ordeal chronicled in Allen's memoir
Serve: My Lost Years at the Heart of Ireland's Opus Dei
.
In this episode of The Women's Podcast, the
Cork
author discusses her experience.
READ MORE
After a few weeks Allen began to notice 'there didn't seem to be any catering teachers there. There were members of Opus Dei.'
These members of Opus Dei were known as 'the local council, the directors, the sub directors, and the Secretary.
'But none of them seemed to have qualifications in catering,' adds Allen.
As a teenager she cooked, served, ironed, washed, scrubbed for the members of Opus Dei.
'Not long after I joined, maybe a couple of months, I was called up into the director's bedroom, and she gave me this little bag, and I opened it up, and there was a chain, a kind of barbed wire with two cords in it and a whip.
'She said, 'these are for mortification',' recalls Allen.
Allen says that she was told to wear the chain on her leg for two hours every day, and on occasion for an extra hour a day depending on behaviour.
The whip was used 'on your back, your legs or your bum'.
'There was other mortifications as well,' says Allen, including but not limited to sleeping on the floor without a mattress, sleeping without a pillow and cold showers.
'They were obsessed with the idea of temptation, of temptation and sin, the occasion of sin,' she says.
However, 'the chain and whip were nothing in comparison fraternal correction,' says Anne Marie.
'Fraternal correction as it was marketed to us was a way of helping us improve our spiritual life and and how to become more aligned to the perfect member of Opus Dei. But what it was a form of behavior control'.
Fraternal corrections were verbal reprimands from your peers based on conduct. 'You were only supposed to get one a week but I remember getting two a day'.
Although Allen says that she is in a 'good place now', she says she will 'always be recovering' from her time in Opus Dei.
'I don't think I've ever come to terms with the enormity of what happened to me and what happened to us all. I know. I don't think I'll ever get over it. I will never stop fighting to correct it'.
You can listen back to this conversation in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
5 hours ago
- Irish Times
Changing the conversation on Ireland's Natura 2000 sites
The mainstay of biodiversity protection in the EU rests on two directives: the first, for birds (the Birds Directive ), adopted in 1979; and the other, for habitats and species that are not birds (the Habitats Directive ), approved in 1992. Among the requirements, member states are obliged to designate areas for the protection of those species or habitats that were considered by ecologists to be of highest ecological value, or which were particularly rare or threatened: Special Protection Areas (SPAs) for birds, Special Areas of Conservation (Sacs) for the rest. In Ireland, these include native forests, bogs, sand dunes, otters, bats and kingfishers. Taken together, the network of SPAs and Sacs are referred to as Natura 2000 and are, according to the European Environment Agency 'the largest co-ordinated network of protected areas in the world'. The extent of Natura 2000 across Europe continues to grow, but the latest data indicate that it covers 18.6 per cent of land and 9 per cent of seas. In Ireland, coverage is below the national average, encompassing 13.2 per cent of land and 7.7 per cent of the Celtic Seas marine region (seas including Ireland but stretching from Northern Spain to Scotland). These figures fall short of the EU-wide commitment to protect 30 per cent of land and sea by 2030, a target set at Cop15 in Montreal, Canada, in 2023, which was like a Paris Agreement for biodiversity. The effectiveness of Natura 2000 has been called into question. On the one hand, it has prompted some of Europe's greatest conservation success stories, from the recovery of the Iberian Lynx from near extinction to the nature-friendly farming practices developed in the Burren in Co Clare. On the other hand, it has failed to stem the continued loss of biodiversity, something that was implicitly recognised in 2023 with the proposal for a Nature Restoration Law . Natura 2000 requires member states to ensure habitats and species are in 'favourable status' but lacks timelines, while the lists of species and habitats deemed worthy of protection in the early 1990s lack flexibility (unlike the endangered species Act in the United States). This has left many threatened species, especially in the marine environment (eg endangered shark species) outside the network. Creating protected areas was never meant to the be-all and end-all of nature conservation, but they have a certain allure in the public imagination, which has come to expect lines on maps and (if you're lucky) a sign announcing a site's designated status mean measures are taken which provide the refuge that is so badly needed for nature. Indeed, they are critical in providing space for nature in a crowded world but people are right to be shocked when the protection that is advertised is not delivered on the ground. While the health of individual Natura 2000 sites is not monitored and reported on, the status of 85 per cent of these 'protected' habitats and 30 per cent of species (not including birds) in Ireland was found to be unfavourable/bad here at our last reporting to the European Commission (EC) in 2019 (an update report is due in 2026 but few are expecting results to be dramatically different). In 2023, following a case taken by the EC, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) found Ireland had failed to implement the Habitats Directive and, in particular, had failed to identify measures to achieve favourable status within the 441 Irish Sacs. Meanwhile, 'designation' is a dirty word among farming organisations and is a byword, particularly in the west of Ireland, for dispossession and devaluation of land. In essence, farmers were informed their land was designated, frequently only in writing, accompanied with technocratic language and dreaded lists of 'activities requiring consent'. There was a certain tragic irony that farmers have viewed the sweep of designations as 'sterilising' their land in terms of development and income potential, when the land was also biologically being sterilised with little or no incentive for changes to farming practices. The eruption of negativity around the ending of turf-cutting on Sacs designated for raised bogs during the early years of the 2010s, when politicians blamed bureaucrats in Brussels and Garda helicopters flew over the heads of protesting locals, made nature a toxic political issue that was followed by the defunding of the National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS). Rather than protecting our most important biodiversity sites, Natura 2000 has, in many cases, hastened their decline (incidentally, turf-cutting on Sacs continues, illegally, to this day and is subject to a separate case in the ECJ). The ruling from the ECJ came at a time when the rehabilitation of the NPWS was also a political priority. Today, it is an independent State agency with more staff and money to spend on actual conservation initiatives. Problems remain, as you might expect, but today a more confident NPWS is ready to be a champion for nature – and Natura 2000 is top of its priorities. NPWS director of nature conservation Ciara Carberry admits the saga has been long and 'not always glorious'. While the location of Natura 2000 sites is spread across the country, within urban as well as rural areas, most of the very large sites are in the west of Ireland, where Carberry says, many of those places coincided 'with the places where it was hardest to make a living. So you had this coming together of having an obligation on Ireland to protect and designate these sites in places where people may already have been struggling to make a good livelihood ... and that can create a tension ... I think in places, justifiably so, there can be this perception that it was imposed on them, from outside, from up in Dublin, that we just drew a line on the map.' She says the past four years, with the rebooting of the NPWS, they have worked 'to address that perception in terms of working much better with communities' as well as being 'more open and transparent'. Much of the effort since the ECJ ruling has been around more accurately mapping Sac boundaries, completing the statutory protection process and developing 'conservation objectives' for each site. These objectives make it clear to everyone what it means for the species or habitat to be in 'favourable' status, and they have important ramifications for plans and projects that may have an impact upon them. This has been a 'gigantic piece of work', says Carberry but the process for all Natura 2000 sites is nearing completion. The next step, and also a part of the ECJ ruling, is establishing measures on each site in order to meet the objectives. These can be protective measures (stopping bad things from happening) as well as proactive interventions, and usually a combination of both is needed. In addressing this challenge, the NPWS has developed an approach in close consultation with the commission, the outcome of which is a table of measures which are under way at each site and which, it is predicted, will allow for further analysis of what additional actions may be needed. The NPWS leads this process but given that Natura 2000 sites include vast areas of mountain bogs, entire river systems where water quality is being impacted by all kinds of activity in the catchment, or coastal areas with different fishing activities, the NPWS is going to need the co-operation of a range of government departments (notably the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine) if we are to see these measures ultimately translate into positive trends for species and habitats. Carberry is not shy in emphasising the challenge but is upbeat with regard to their engagement so far with other departments and State bodies. She maintains this process will be complete for all Sacs in two years, but works are already under way through dedicated funding specifically for Natura 2000 sites, which includes invasive species removal and deer management on some of their properties. There is also a 'Natura communities and engagement' scheme for community groups and which is delivering €600,000 in 2025. The language around Natura 2000 is technocratic and arcane and can create a gulf between distant government targets on one hand and protecting wildlife in places people know and love on the other. Carbery concedes 'there is a challenge as to how we get these stories out there', but points to a positive experience at the 2024 ploughing championships where initial trepidation concerning farmer reaction gave way to warm engagement. The agency is beginning to put a human face on the bureaucracy. 'It's such a simple thing, but so important, that people have a human face, that's local to them, that they can go and talk to. 'I do appreciate that there are people and communities who feel that having a Natura designation is stopping them from doing things they'd like to be doing. I'd like to see us get to a place where being in a Sac is a benefit to people and not a difficulty for them. If you live in a very special place, that should be a good thing and not a bad thing.'
Irish Times
6 hours ago
- Irish Times
Key dates for the 2025 Leaving Cert class to know
Friday, August 22nd – The State Examinations Commission (SEC) issues the 2025 Leaving Certificate and Leaving Certificate Applied (LCA) examination results to candidates. Results will be issued to candidates through the Candidate Self Service Portal (CSSP) available at at 10am. The CSSP will facilitate students in accessing their provisional results in the examinations plus the details of the outcomes of the Leaving Cert examinations including their grades and their marks in each subject. Tuesday, August 26th – Detailed subject-by-subject information will be published by the SEC at noon in advance of the viewing of scripts. From noon, candidates will see their Leaving Certificate marks, including for each component. Applications to view Leaving Cert scripts open at 5pm and closes at 8pm on Wednesday, August 27th. The LCA application to view scripts will be via email. The same timeline will apply. Wednesday, August 27th – CAO Round One offers are available from 2pm online to all applicants applying based on school leaving examination results, regardless of the year completed; QQI FET applicants who have applied for a course where there is no quota for such applicants; and additional mature applicants. The Round One offers will also be issued by email and SMS text. After Round One offers are issued, any applicant who has not received an offer in Round A, Round Zero, or Round One will receive a statement of application email with instructions to check their CAO account and inform the Central Applications Office immediately if there are errors or omissions. READ MORE Thursday, August 28th – CAO Available Places facility opens at noon. Available places are places that remain unfilled in particular courses after all offers have been made and waiting lists have been exhausted. When considering applying for available places courses, applicants should ignore previously published points in earlier offer rounds. However, applicants must check that they meet the normal minimum entry requirements for the course(s) in question. Go to and click on the Available Places tab. This facility is open to new applicants for a fee of €45 and is free for existing applicants. Sunday, August 31st – This is the final date by which Irish students who have applied for places in continental European universities, particularly Dutch ones, where tuition is through English, must provide evidence of the results of their school leaving examinations. Saturday, August 30th-Sunday, 31st – Scripts in Leaving Cert subjects, which were marked manually, will be available to view. Candidates will be assigned to one of two sessions in their school on Saturday Session 1, 9.30am-12.30pm, Session 2, 2pm-5pm. Scripts in subjects marked online can be accessed to view online for 24 hours between 9am on Saturday, August 31st, and 9am on Sunday, September 1st. Sunday, August 31st-Monday, Sept 1st – Application to appeal. Timelines for candidates to apply to view Leaving Cert scripts and to lodge appeal applications are very short and the deadlines will be strictly applied. Anyone wishing to apply to appeal their exam results can do so from 10am on Sunday, August 31st until 5pm on Monday, September 1st. Students will use the CSSP to view examination scripts, to make an appeal application and to access their appeal results. Examinations Appeal Fees will be charged at a rate of €40 per subject at Leaving Certificate; €15.50 per subject at LCA; This fee is refunded in the event of a successful appeal. The SEC states it will not accept late applications. It is not possible to commit to a specific time frame for the issue of the appeal results until the number of appeals is known. Every effort will be made to process appeals as quickly as possible and candidates will be notified of this date as soon as possible. Candidates will find information about the services provided by the SEC on its website, . Tuesday, September 2nd (3pm) – CAO Round One acceptances closing date. Monday, September 8th (2pm) – CAO Round Two offers available online. Applicants will also receive an offer notification by email and SMS text. Wednesday, September 10th (3pm) – CAO Round Two acceptances closing date. Tuesday, September 16th (10am) – CAO Round Three offers available online. Applicants will also receive an offer notification by email and SMS text. Wednesday, September 17th (9am) – Friday, September 19th (1.30pm) – The Irish Times Higher Options Event takes place in the RDS. The event is expected to feature more than 150 colleges, including Irish universities and colleges of higher and further education, and United Kingdom and international universities, as well as admissions bodies and information stands. Each day will also feature a programme of talks, with live Q&A sessions. Thursday, September 18th (3pm) – CAO Round Three acceptances closing date. Tuesday, September 23rd (10am) – CAO Round Four offers available online. Applicants will also receive an offer notification by email and SMS text. Thursday, Sept 25th (3pm) – CAO Round Four acceptances closing date. Friday, Sept 26th – Results of the Leaving Certificate appeals expected. Tuesday, September 30th (10am) – CAO Round Five offers are available online. Applicants will also receive an offer notification by email and SMS text. Thursday, October 2nd (3pm) – CAO Round Five acceptances closing date. Offer season ends on this date. On or after October 2nd, any movement of first-year undergraduate students from their allocated CAO course becomes a matter for the college in question. Tuesday, November 4th – CAO application facility opens online at for 2025 applications. SEC contact details: candidateportal@ / 090-6442702.
Irish Times
6 hours ago
- Irish Times
Small fraction of applicants to Defective Concrete Block Scheme have had their homes fixed
Just 7 per cent of applicants to the Defective Concrete Block Scheme have had their homes remediated in the five years since the scheme opened, new records show. Some 220 homeowners have had their remediation works completed under the scheme out of a total of 2,870 applications since it opened in June 2020, according to figures released by the Department of Housing up to the end of July 2025 show. A further 977 applicants have issued notices to commence work. The Defective Concrete Block grant scheme helps homeowners to repair or rebuild their homes where significant damage has been caused by the presence of pyrite or mica in the blocks used to build it. READ MORE These minerals cause cracks and other defects to appear in the homes which have been built with blocks from certain quarries. The scheme was originally opened in June 2020 and covered counties Mayo and Donegal , with owners able to claim 90 per cent of a maximum rebuild cost of €247,500. Campaigners argued this left a huge gap in funding the actual cost of rebuilding their homes. Dr Martina Cleary, founder of the Clare Pyrite Action Group and a lecturer at the Technological University of the Shannon, says the new scheme has 'a lot of problems'. Dr Martina Cleary's home under demolition near Crusheen, Co Clare. Photograph: Eamon Ward 'The first problem is you need an awful lot of money to start it,' she says, giving the example of her own home outside Ennis which she has already spent €40,000 on. 'Then the grant itself is short. I have a small bungalow and the grant I got was €187,920. When you take out €30,000 for demolition and €10,000 for engineers, I have somewhere between €145,000 and €150,000 to rebuild my home,' Dr Cleary says. [ Donegal's Titanic: The sinking of a housing estate built on a peat bog Opens in new window ] In June 2023, an enhanced scheme opened for applications with homes in Clare and Limerick now included and the rebuild cost limit pushed up to €462,000. In October 2024, Co Sligo was also added. A total of €163 million has been paid out in grants so far, figures released by the Department of Housing in response to a parliamentary question from Sinn Féin's Eoin Ó'Broin show. These figures, accurate up to the end of June, show that out of the 2,796 applications to the scheme at that stage, 1,334 had met the damage threshold required to qualify for the grant. Some 54 applications were refused or withdrawn, while 27 did not meet the damage threshold. Since applications to the enhanced scheme opened there have been 164 applications in Co Clare, 64 in Co Limerick and three in Co Sligo. 'It will work for people who are wealthy, but it is inaccessible for people who are most at need.' Photograph: Eamon Ward Some 11 applicants have started work in Co Clare, with none on site yet in Limerick or Sligo. Homeowners in these counties say there are several difficulties with getting access to the enhanced scheme. Sinn Féin housing spokesman Mr Ó Broin says the latest figures show 'the defective concrete block scheme is not working for the vast majority of affected homeowners'. Some of the issues he points to are that several properties are being refused or delayed for long periods of time before final grants are awarded. 'Government must go back to the drawing board and introduce an end-to-end scheme run by the Pyrite Resolution Board to ensure 100 per cent redress for all impacted homeowners,' he says. Speaking of her own experience in Clare, Dr Cleary says she spoke to 14 builders and looked at every type of building method, but all quotes came in at between €230,000 and €300,000. While there is light at the end of the tunnel for Dr Cleary, it did not come without significant stress over the last five years since realising her home was crumbling. [ 'I grew up in an apartment in another country. I bought an apartment in Dublin and had to get out after a year' Opens in new window ] 'It consumes your life trying to fix it,' says Dr Martina Cleary. Photograph: Eamon Ward 'It was extremely traumatic, extremely shocking to realise I was in that situation,' she says. 'I remember sitting in the house and I could actually hear the blocks cracking. I could hear the roof rafters moving when it got windy and you're awake at night, terrified,' she says. 'It's just like a train crash in slow motion, it consumes your life trying to fix it.' 'The scheme will work for people that have at least €100,000 to €150,000 to put into a house. It will work for people who are wealthy, but it is inaccessible for people who are most at need,' Dr Cleary says. When asked about the latest figures, the Department of Housing pointed to the fact that 220 homes had been completed and 977 had issued notices to commence work, representing 41 per cent of applications. The Department said in a statement that '2024 was the first full year of the current DCB grant scheme and it is evident from the large number of commencement notices that the scheme is now ramping up'.
