“WHEN I came here, I was under a black cloud. I was in pain, shattered. A lot had happened to me. But the support that I got here was very important.”

That’s how a client, who first reached out to the Mayo Rape Crisis Centre (MRCC) in October 2023, described her experience with the counselling she received. The mother wants to stay anonymous, we call her Claire.

“There was a time I thought, I could take my life,” Claire remembers. She won’t disclose publicly what exactly happened to her. But suffice to say, that it was urgent when she contacted the MRCC for the first time.

The charity based in Castlebar offers services to support men and women who have experienced rape, sexual assault or childhood sexual abuse. Survivors find a safe, trustworthy and supportive environment.

When Claire arrived for her first appointment, MRCC advocacy and suppport worker Nicci picked her up from the bus stop.

“She opened her arms to hug me. To me, I knew I was safe,” Claire recalls fondly. And then, she was brought inside and her assigned counsellor Martina greeted her with a beautiful smile.

“When I saw Martina, I knew, she’s a mother. The welcome was overwhelming. She said that I should trust her.”

This was the start the start of a long journey for Claire. As she tells her story we’re sitting in the same room she first sat down with her counsellor Martina. The two have developed an emotional bond during their countless sessions.

Claire sings the praise of Martina: “She would give me my time. She would sit there and listen I would talk and talk. If anything happened to me during the week, I was feeling hurt or I couldn’t sleep, I would look forward to share that with Martina.”

After two years of weekly sessions in person and an abundance of support, Claire has moved to phone calls, making her slot available to others in need.

“I haven’t healed fully, but coming here separated my pain,” Claire concludes.

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More clients than ever

CLAIRE’S story is one of many. The Mayo Rape Crisis Centre has seen a rise in survivors seeking their services. The annual report published last week states that there has been a 6.25 percent increase in people contacting the organisation.

The report also states that the number of appointments held at the Castlebar based charity have gone up by 10.4 percent.

“In line with previous years, there’s an increase in our service,” reflects Shauna Jackson, Director of Service as the Mayo Rape Crisis Centre (MRCC): “What we can see from 2025 already is that there’ll be another increase, considerably more actually. So, the need for the service is growing.”

Counselling remains the heart of the organisation’s service with approximately 30-35 appointments weekly. Once again the demand for counselling service in 2024 was such that the Mayo Rape Crisis Centre had an ongoing waiting list.

“We don’t know whether sexual violence is increasing within our society,” Jackson explains, speaking to The Mayo News.

“What we know is that more people are wanting to access the service. So, if you look at the recent Central Statistics Office figures from An Garda Siochána, which was just last week, you can see that there’s a decrease in a lot reported crime, but there’s an increase in reporting of sexual violence and rape.”

The Mayo Rape Crisis Centre was founded in 1994 and is a member of Rape Crisis Ireland (RCI), the national representative body for Rape Crisis Centres and the specialist voice on sexual violence in Ireland.

The services include a 24/7 freephone helpline, in-house counselling, crisis counselling, or a large number of clients need help with their rights or safety issues. This can involve meetings with Community Welfare Officers, Social Workers, housing department etc.

“We also offer our experience and support to clients going through the legal system; accompany them to Gardai meetings, statement taking and Court.”

The centre is a safe place and they don’t advertise their exact location. There is no giant sign over the door or even a small one on the door bell. Any survivor attributed a counselling slot will be given the whereabouts.

It feels like entering a normal house, visiting friends, neighbours. Soft incense beguiles the nose. A cup of tea makes for a lovely welcome everywhere, the same goes for the Mayo Rape Crisis Centre.

It cannot be underestimated how important a warm and hospitable environment is for anyone brave enough ringing the door bell and making this step.

“We know that only 50 percent of people will ever tell anyone when there’s been a sexual assault or when they’ve been raped. They just keep it to themselves for the whole time. So it’s important to us that we have a service when those numbers go up that we can meet the need,” Jackson states.

Younger age profile

IN an age of growing awareness around issues like cyber stalking, and social media affecting people’s behaviour, challenges are on the rise. The MRCC observes a shifting ground:

When the centre was first set up, most cases they saw were people who were reporting childhood sexual abuse. Currently most cases fall within the age groups between 25-44 years of age. But it’s adolescent clients are occuring more often than they used to.

Nicci Rowntree-Carroll joined the MRCC as a volunteer shortly after it opened its doors in 1994. And she’s been working for the centre ever since, moved to a full-time position after a while. Nicci has been working on the ground for the last 30 years.

“One of the changes that I have seen is the women, the girls coming to us are getting younger and younger,” Nicci the suppport worker states.

“Years back we had one 13 year old. This case was such an anomaly. The whole idea of having an adolescent therapist wasn’t there. That kind of age group just nowhere wasn’t in our statistics.”
It is now. Last year the MRCC handled 14 cases.

“And so much of it is peer abuse,” Nicci observes: “It is literally the same age. The changes that I have seen have been absolutely wild, in terms of the introduction of mobile phones, the introduction of the internet. For example, ‘Pornhub’ is huge and the influence of this platform is huge. I genuinely do not think that most parents are aware of the danger that a smartphone actually introduces to their children.”

It has to be said, at the minute the MRCC doesn’t have an adolescent service. They can’t see people under 18 officially, but it’s possible when the centre has counsellors accredited to see adolescents available and they have space. In those cases, the MRCC will do as much as they can to see those people.

Services expansion

THE centre has reacted and plans to expand their services. Shauna Jackson notes: “We have applied for funding and we’re hopeful that we will be successful to be able to deliver some kind of adolescent service in the future.”

The growing demand in services for adolescents was shockingly propelled into the public sphere by the recent mini-series ‘Adolescence’ on Netflix. It’s a drama about a 13-year-old boy, who is arrested on suspicion of the murder of his classmate who the viewers later learn had rejected his advances and then cyberbullied him.

The show sparked reactions from all walks of life and sharply brought the issue of sexual assault and rape committed and experienced by adolescents to the fore.

Apart from readily accessible internet, Nicci Rowntree-Carroll thinks, Covid did a huge amount of damage as well: “We have so many young men who have access to Pornhub and the message is women are there to serve you. And that’s highly problematic.”

That was exactly why Nicci and her husband made the conscious decision, that he has been at home for 24 years. One of them would always be at home for the kids. It has meant only one income, but it’s a sacrifice they were willing to make.

But even homes aren’t safe any more these days. Nicci recalls the scene in the series ‘Adolescence’, when the family father devastatingly delivers the line “I thought he was safe upstairs in his room.”

Nothing could be further from the truth in an era of constant availability and push notifications.
At the Mayo Rape Crisis Centre, the counsellors have to deal with the consequences of lingering prejudices from the past, as much as with the ailments of digital times.

It is important to point out, the perception that sexual violence and rape is something that women endure and doesn’t affect men is still prevalent misconception. In 2024, 6.8 per cent of clients at the Mayo Rape Crisis Centre were male. And the centre operates on a gender neutral basis.

The growing demand in cases and appointments mean that the organisation will have to upscale. The annual report shows a stable financial situation with rising income for the charity.

The MRCC is currently looking for new facilities to expand its services. More rooms, more personnel are the goal.

The work that suppport workers like Nicci have done over the years, saw them bringing down so many barriers, trying to fight so many wrong perceptions.

Nicci herself has always been driven by a strong strife for equality: “I was always very passionate in terms of equality and that women have just as just as much rights as men do. I got into trouble in school over it, but I was very involved in the likes of social injustice.”

It’s a tough job, most people are fairly able to leave their place of work and more or less forget about it the moment they go home. It’s strange that Nicci Rowntree-Carroll and also Shauna Jackson put all their effort and passion into their work, while the best outcome would be, that their jobs weren’t necessary at all.

“Let me tell you”, Nicci admits: “I think we’ve all had that fantasy of going to work in a less mentally challenging area. I’m grateful of having a bit of a drive home and lots of peer support.”

The counsellors and support workers themselves have a support structure in place, and they do all they can, filling their lives with positives, with joy, with all the lovely people.
But sometimes, it all has to get out, as Nicci confesses: “I’ve been known to stop at a beach and scream at seagulls.”

Anyone who needs help and wishes to contact the Mayo Rape Crisis Centre can call the freephone helpline: 1800 234900