Upon reading about the death of Rachel Peavoy from hypothermia in her corporation flat in Dublin, I was filed with dread for the future of those living in poverty in Ireland. When we look to what values a society holds dear, Ghandi’s contention that you can judge a society by how it treats its weakest members seems particularly poignant in light of this young woman’s senseless death.
The fact that this young woman’s death failed to make the news in our national broadcaster speaks volumes about what is important in Ireland. Why is one young woman’s death treated with hourly updates bordering on the macabre while another’s is blithely ignored? While the structural and societal cause of this tragedy will hopefully receive considerable interrogation in the coming weeks, I was particularly motivated to write about it due to the report of her death in the Irish Examiner and the Herald. The closing line in the piece on Rachel’s death was ‘The victim, who had a borderline personality disorder, also suffered from back pain.’ Why had editorial chose to include this piece of information on the young woman given that it has nothing to do with the circumstance of her death?
The individualist understanding of this case will be that Rachel in some way facilitated her own demise, that she was in some way culpable or responsible for freezing to death in her own home due to lack of heat. The insinuation created by the addition of information on Rachel’s mental health is noteworthy on a number of levels.
Firstly, mental health is still, despite efforts, heavily stigmatised in Ireland. Borderline personality is not the defining criteria for anybody’s life, no diagnosis is; it adds nothing to the story. The story is that of a young woman, a mother of two children, who froze to death in substandard accommodation. Her mental health had nothing to do with it. By including this information in the piece it serves to legitimize the treatment of this tenant. Irish media is particularly good at picking up at any perceived psychological shortcomings in those whose stories do not make for easy reading. I have yet to read anything of the psychological health of those who ran our economy into the ground.
Secondly, a diagnosis is just a label, and it is a label that for some facilitates access to services and support that can help. A diagnosis does not define a person; there are many labels that Rachel could have had applied to her life: a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, all of these as important or relevant for the piece as the snide inclusion of her mental health diagnosis. It was a parting kick to the article, to remind readers that all is well in the world as long as ALL are well.
Mental health is not a static entity, it fluctuates, it ebbs and flows, it is a process not an end game; a past difficulty does not denote a flux at the time of her death, she was competent enough to bring her children somewhere warm and safe, but thought of herself as stronger and more capable. When she put the key in her door she was returning home. Who among us does not prefer our own bed? To drop the remark about Rachel’s mental health in the article serves only to widen the gulf between those who do and those who do not have to strive for flow and balance in respect to their mental health.
Rachel died from freezing to death in her flat in Ireland in 2011.
Ann Cronin
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You note Ghandi’s contention that you can judge a society by how it treats its weakest members. I’m not sure what you mean when you refer to “society”.
While the article does seem to suggest a degree of rigidity and/or indifference on the part of officialdom, where were this poor girl’s family when it came to giving her a “digout”? Maybe they had done all they could do, I don’t know.
But as a general point (and not referring specifically to this case) we surely can’t get to a situation where families have no responsibility for the welfare of sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, neighbours.
This point will surface to an increasing extent as cutbacks bite deeper. And there is no point sitting back and railing against the root cause of the cutbacks (however understandable this may be); we all must get on with ensuring that we are doing all we can for close family, friends and neighbours. Waiting for those in authority to do so may not be sufficient.
Her two children were staying with her parents. She was found the next day by her brother and her friend. I don’t think there is any indication that she was abandoned by those around her.
The papers also state Rachel had tried to get the heating turned back on, including making contact with TDs.
On politics.ie a poster familiar with the building in question said that gas cylinder heaters were not allowed, electric heaters ineffective. They added that leaving your flat unoccupied would almost certainly result in it being broken into. If that is the case (and I don’t see why it should be) it’s hardly surprising Rachel would stay at the flat. Who’d expect to freeze to death in Ireland?
That’s “should not be” (sigh)
I term Society to be that social group which we determine to be ours through social structures, thus society is all of us, including the government and structures of state which binds us. As for treating our weakest members, single parents are statistically more likely to be living in poverty than others, therefore they are a more vulnerable section of society. Deserving of support not exclusion from a basic standard of care.
My piece does not address the societal values and structures that lead to this young woman’s untimely death, but I will if you prefer write about that.
As an adult I do not expect family support, but in terms of means suppose that my parents may be i a better position to offer assistance should I so need, that does not mean that Rachels’ family failed her. To insinuate as such is to blame the victim once again, why can’t the poor just get it together and stop being poor?
Why cant they get the heating turned on after numerous letters and phone calls, why do the ESB think its OK to cut off the electricity to families and individuals in arrears. These are the problems in society that I care about. Perhaps you could submit a piece outlining your solutions for the inequality present in Irish society.
Personally, I would read the mention of a mental illness of a victim in this circumstance in the complete opposite way. To me, it underlines even further how vulnerable a position Rachel Peavoy was in. It highlights just how disgraceful the actions of DCC were. They were negligent and caused the death of someone that was not only living in poverty, but also had a mental illness.
I wouldn’t read this as trying to place blame on Rachel Peavoy for what happened, but as another way of showing just how shameful this entire tragic story is.
I agree with Aideen – a person with mental health problem is very vulnerable indeed – and I wouldnt be surprised that someone living in the conditions / neighbourhood as described would suffer from anxiety or depression.
What I am very surprised about is that RTE TV news did no report on this case at all. Who made that decision in the newsroom? Does it make FF look bad? I understand primetime is now looking to do a report on it. Will Primetime comment on the fact that RTE news did not report this death?
The case was originally up in the Coroner’s Court in October 2010. No journalists picked up the story. Fortunately the Coroner was not entirely satisfied with the evidence he heard and adjourned the case to last Friday, when the family was legally represented and the rights queries were raised.
Ironically this case resumes on 24 February, the day before the GE. Lets wait and see what happens!
Thank you for writing about this woman’s death. The stark contract between media coverage of her death and that of Michaela McAreavey is very stark and speaks volumes about Ireland in 2011.
What a methapor for the sorry state of this country. We have lost so much and are so easily distracted by glamour and fame!
I hope that it is not just the Dublin City Coucil who learn lessons from Rachel’s death but also the media which has clearly been very remiss in ignoring (for the most part) this horrific case.
May she rest in peace and warmth.
If health issues are raised, they deserve a little more explanation than a mere one-liner at the end. That one did strike me when I came across it.
>> I have yet to read anything of the psychological health of those who ran our economy into the ground. <<
Very valid point – would love to see this investigated, actually.
I read the (tiny) article in Saturday’s Irish Times and was absolutely appalled that a young woman could die from the cold in our so-called civilised society.
There was no mention of health issues and said that she had ‘no other system disorder’, but the article was tucked away below a 3/4 page article about Fianna Fail on page 8 while the news of the announcement of the date of general election and a house in Dalkey valued in 2007 at €6.2m selling for €1.4m were the front page home news items.
More like Strumpet City every day.
I passed a thirty something alcoholic in the rain today. Her face bloated, but her gaze lucid.
a kind look isn’t enough when you need a bucket of coal .
I was actually shocked and appalled when I read this story in the Irish Times yesterday, we all know fuel poverty is a serious issue, it’s just almost unfathomable…
I felt that the newspaper report was relatively vague in terms of explaining the circumstances, but that is not to take away from the fact that a young woman died from the cold in 2010 in Ireland in her home, words fail me…
Agree with you on Hotel Ballymun, June. The worst thing was that the opening was delayed because the building was deemed unsafe. Apparently, it was perfectly safe for thousands of working class families for the previous three four decades.
From the Irish Times article:
“The inquest heard how Dublin City Council had turned off the heating in Ms Peavoy’s flat. The single mother had contacted the council about it but was told the heating would not be turned on as a number of flats around her were empty and because regeneration was ongoing.”
Can anyone explain this? I don’t understand the logic of the DCC. Why would they turn off heating to one flat because nearby flats were unoccupied?
Shane, heating in Ballymun Flats was ‘communal’ underfloor heating, since they were built/open. The heating was not for individual flats but for whole blocks. The block Rachel was in was partially abandoned, most of the occupants had been moved on to the newfangled flats & houses supplied under the Ballymun regeneration scheme.
Thanks June. What a shambles.
The way loads of the Ballymun flats were depopulated seems to have been very badly handled. There seem to have been a dwindling number of unfortunate families in the blocks on the eastern side of Ballymun Road (behind the nice new-ish arts centre) who were gradually left behind as their neighbours moved on, while the blocks became more and more delapidated and dangerous. They should surely have moved everyone at once, or in a couple of big moves – does anyone know how it was arranged?
Also, from what I’ve heard the heating in the flats was always problematic – I don’t think you could ever control individual heating in your own flat. Which seems like a terrible idea – people have different heating needs depending on their circumstances and health.
PS. there was also a time – at the end of the C. Tiger madness – when the poverty-sodden flats turned into an ‘arthouse attraction’ for a while. Hotel Ballymun was a nutso venture back in 2007 where artists turned one of the abandoned tower blocks into a temporary ‘hotel’ before it was demolished….myself and @henry_mcdonald went along to view it – I found it truly stomach churning (his piece is here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/01/ireland)Plenty of rich idiots booked into the hotel to experience what it must’ve been like to live in such shit conditions….architects, pop stars, the rich & the hideous were all retro-eager to know what it was like to live in the notorious tower blocks. The hotel was booked out solidly for the short time it was operational. It had a ‘burnt out’ flat featured in a glass cage in the middle of it, complete with drug needles, old fags, a broken doll’s arm. I guess they assumed that the likes of Rachel’s living conditions were a misrecollected feature of Ireland’s embarrassing past.
It also puts a different perspective on things.
“The individualist understanding of this case will be that Rachel in some way facilitated her own demise, that she was in some way culpable or responsible for freezing to death in her own home due to lack of heat.”
Seems strange to blame individualism, when she was killed by a public-funded organisation who decided to save money rather than save an individual. The Ballymun flats are sometimes used as examples of the failure of top-down socialist solutions to poverty.
@June, 4.54pm – Dear God, are you really serious?! That makes Zoolander’s Derelicte satire look positively normal and healthy.
@Mary: ‘fraid so. The website is still available: http://www.hotelballymun.com with details. The furniture was all made from ‘reclaimed stuff’ from skips, in other words, rubbish that poor people threw out or that was cleared from derelict flats. Beds were bits of old furniture balanced on drinks crates and so on. The rich and should’ve been famous were falling over themselves to experience it all, I guess it was a bit like East Berlin in the year after the wall came down. I found it truly bizarre. There was a complete assumption that this was the Ireland we’d left far behind, not one we were about to step back into with gusto. The locals thought it was nuts too, that public money had been spent making a spectacle out of living conditions other people found intolerable in real time. I recall them saying that no-one was to be left in any of the flats by the end of that year, 2007.
Vulnerable, in need & let down by everyone. Dead but not newsworthy, not worthy of a few minutes reflection on how a society can become inured to the suffering of others; others not like us because poor or sick or lost in disheartenment. Who partied? This is shameful.
Important topic to write about, so thanks. Just a small thing, but I understand that she died in 2010, the inquest is now (a year later)…it was during the cold January of last year that Rachel died. I don’t remember hearing the story as ‘breaking news’ at the time. I agree with what you say re: the mention of ‘mental health issues’, it adds a jaundiced eye to the public’s perception of why she might’ve died…that she was somehow incompetent. Newspapers do this at any/every juncture, always with the unemployed for example – especially related to crime – or to stories about ethnic minorities, travellers, mentally ill, etc. Those same newspapers will now run scaremongering headlines about how appalling it is that this happened in modern Ireland, as the story has become more interesting to them, as recession and bailout and Ireland being f–ked, deepens. The real story here is that Rachel was living in unsuitable mostly abandoned accommodation that had been more or less condemned under the recent Ballymun regeneration scheme…that a slowing down of funds had halted the last phase of residents moving on to new flats and houses, and that there’s still a glut of people left living in dire conditions in these old 1960s flats. She had been very proactive in dealing with this, had contacted DCC, her local TD, and various representatives. It wasn’t dealt with and now there’s a bureaucratic panic in the heat of the spotlight. During the whole celtic tiger shennanigans, we handily forgot that poverty and substandard living conditions existed. Rachel’s tragic end brings it once again to the fore. It’s shocking, sad and typical. Now what?
Thanks June, my bad with proofing…shocked by your piece in ‘Derelicte living’
Agree with June re the throw-away comment about Rachel’s mental health. Totally unnecessary. The press (for some unfathomable reason) tends to add “non-national” or “same-sex partner” or “rented dwelling” or other such comments to *enlighten* the reader… Of what exactly? It only enables pigeonholing & bigotry. I reitterate an earlier remark that this poor young mom will rest warmly in peace. RIP
Thank you so much for highlighting this story when i read this a few days ago it really hit me personally and was very upset that it had not goth any rte coverage have been on Facebook all weekend pleading with people not to let Rachel Peavoy s death go unnoticed she has 2 sons who have being denied their mother this is a crime in my eyes
Thank you so much for highlighting this story when i read this a few days ago it really hit me personally and was very upset that it had not goth any rte coverage have been on Facebook all weekend pleading with people not to let Rachel Peavoy s death go unnoticed she has 2 sons who have being denied their mother this is a crime in my eyes
I have noticed that this story has also gone on noticed by our Major news also, although I did see a very small article about Rachel’s which is how I knew of her untimely death.
Rachel’s death is a very unnecessary death. Rachel asked for help and did not receive it her voice was ignored.
It sickens me to the pit of my stomach that this young woman mother, sister, and daughter of Ireland has died due to hypothermia.
The rich and poor divide in this country is bigger than ever, and this is not because we did this to ourselves but our government mismanaged OUR country.
There was a time when I felt proud to be Irish not so much anymore
I agree with what you say re: the mention of ‘mental health issues’, it adds a jaundiced eye to the public’s perception of why she might’ve died…that she was somehow incompetent. Newspapers do this at any/every juncture, always with the unemployed for example – especially related to crime – or to stories about ethnic minorities, travellers, mentally ill, etc. Those same newspapers will now run scaremongering headlines about how appalling it is that this happened in modern Ireland, as the story has become more interesting to them, as recession and bailout and Ireland being f–ked, deepens. The real story here is that Rachel was living in unsuitable mostly abandoned accommodation that had been more or less condemned under the recent Ballymun regeneration scheme…that a slowing down of funds had halted the last phase of residents moving on to new flats and houses, and that there’s still a glut of people left living in dire conditions in these old 1960s flats. She had been very proactive in dealing with this, had contacted DCC, her local TD, and various representatives. It wasn’t dealt with and now there’s a bureaucratic panic in the heat of the spotlight. During the whole celtic tiger shennanigans, we handily forgot that poverty and substandard living conditions existed. Rachel’s tragic end brings it once again to the fore
Animation Institute Delhi
Please do not forget Rachel Peavoy and her two young sons. The inquest will hopefully resume tomorrow (24th February) and some of the family’s witnesses will be giving evidence.
The family has had to fight tooth and nail to get this inquest date reinstated – the Dublin City Coroner’s office had mysteriously taken it off the hearing list last week.
Was it “inconvenient” for the DCC or embarrassing for the councillors standing on 25 Feb? We don’t know but given the media moratorium the day before election, hopefully the case will receive the coverage it deserves.
Hi Ann.
Thanks for highlighting the case of Rachel Peavoy. I’ve only stumbled across the story tonight.
I hear the outcome of the inquest was ridiculous too. Hope she is resting in peace.