Colm

This account of what happened to Josie Ray and her daughter Mary at the hands of this man and at the hands of the agents of this state is both shocking and shameful. A man was allowed land into a publicly owned house where an 89-year-old woman and her adult daughter, who has an intellectual disability, were the sole tenants. And despite the world and his mother and every relevant state agency, including the Gardaí, knowing there was a serious problem with this man being anywhere near these women, despite his refusal to leave, they weren’t able to drag him out and stop him going anywhere near these two vulnerable women. In fact, it seems, the only person who was threatened at all by the agents of the state, was the 89-year-old woman, who was threatened multiple times with losing her home because SHE was in breach of her tenancy, because this man had decided to takeover her home. She was so terrified of him, after being in hospital, she refused to go back to her own home until he was gone. And instead of making sure that this monster of a man was duly gone, so Josie Ray could return to her own home after being in hospital, what did the state attempt to do as a solution? They attempted to find a place in a nursing home for Josie Ray, not a plane seat on a flight back to Chad, with a kick up the arse for this pig of a man. When you get to 89, it’s most people’s dream to be able to pass away at home in your own bed. That’s probably what Josie had expected before Hasan Ali Gori decided to takeover her home. Instead, she spent her last months terrorised in her house and her last minutes terrified and fighting for her life against this man. If there isn’t a full enquiry into the role of state agencies in the eventual murder of Josie Ray, I am going to be very angry. Will this state ever consider women’s safety and dignity ahead of a man’s desires? Truly, women in Ireland, especially those who are vulnerable through age or disability, are second class citizens.