Blog: The Shield, The Support and the Loudspeaker: Collective Whistleblowing by Ireland's Women of Honour
I was listening to RTÉ’s radio documentary, Women of Honour. It was 2021. I had been researching whistleblowing for almost fifteen years. But this was something new. The show was a damning account of abuse within a culture that did not accept or listen to women. The whistleblowers' experiences of isolation and exclusion were depressingly familiar. But something different seemed to be happening in this case. Women of Honour represent themselves as a single entity. They speak in public as though they were one. This makes their experience as whistleblowers stand out in three ways: the support, the shield, and the loudspeaker. Read more...
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Article: Speak out against wrongdoing in an Irish workplace, and here is what happens [Irish Times, 2020]
It is to the credit of RTÉ Investigates: Whistleblowers Fighting To Be Heard (RTÉ One, 9.35 pm) that it is an immensely frustrating watch. We are introduced to ordinary people who courageously and with tremendous fortitude have gone public with evidence of malpractice at their places of work. But rather than be feted for their bravery they have been shunned and in at least once instance blacklisted. As final credits roll you feel you have been subjected to a maddening gaze straight into the Irish soul. Here were individuals clearly doing the right thing. Read at Irish Times.
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Research Report: Transforming Whistleblower Experiences [NUI Galway, 2018]
The public debate on whistleblowing needs to be changed. There is a persistent contradiction in how whistleblowers are perceived. On the one hand, whistleblowing is a vital way in which corruption comes to light. Yet, society does little to support the real-life struggles of the many whistleblowers who find themselves without a source of income and with little prospect of sourcing further work in their chosen career. If this situation does not change, fewer and fewer whistleblowers might come forward.
For this project, we gathered empirical evidence in order to reappraise how organizations and society see and value whistleblowers, and how society might better support them. We present data from an eighteen-month study carried out between 2016 and 2018 that involved interviews with fifty- eight whistleblowers and seventeen experts, along with quantitative data from a survey of ninety-two whistleblowers.
See peer-reviewed academic article from this study here
Or Download Research Report>
Article: How much money does whistleblowing cost people who speak out? [RTE Brainstorm, 2021]
Professor Kate Kenny, Dr Meghan Van Portfliet with Stephanie Casey (Transparency International Ireland).
It is more than a year since the bill was settled in one of the country’s most well-known whistleblowing cases. Maurice McCabe suffered serious retaliation and a sustained smear campaign for his efforts to speak up about Garda malpractice. April 2019 saw the former sergeant settle proceedings against the State and Tusla, the child and family agency. The final bill was not disclosed, but significant legal costs were likely involved given the 11 sets of High Court proceedings that had to be dealt with. Last September an RTÉ Investigates programme showed the high price faced by whistleblowers and their families when trying to expose uncomfortable truths. ESB’s Seamus O’Loughlin described the financial and psychological impact: “I am still out on my own engaged in a legal process that is costing us an absolute fortune”. Many of us are aware of the experiences of high-profile whistleblowers such as these, but what is the actual cost of speaking out for other whistleblowers? And who pays it? Continue reading…
