Colls back demand for women's refuge

The mother of Clodagh Hawe, who died in an apparent murder-suicide alongside her three young children earlier this year, has expressed her shock that there is no safe house in the county for women caught up in violent relationships.
Mary Coll made the comments in the week that domestic violence charity, Tearmann, reported a rise in women accessing its services for the third year in a row and called for a dedicated refuge to be established in the region.
Mary Coll says that, if there was a refuge locally, she would be prepared to volunteer to provide assistance to help those most in need.
“I had thought there may have been one, but there isn’t. Where do those women go to if it’s a case they have to leave the home for their own safety? Something really needs to be done,” Mary Coll told the Celt last week.
Mary, along with daughter Jacqueline Connolly, Clodagh’s sister, continue to manage an online campaign to raise funds for domestic violence charity Women’s Aid in memory of Clodagh and her boys.
Clodagh (nee Coll), who was married to Kilkenny-native Alan Hawe, was found dead along with the couple’s three children Liam (13), Niall (11) and Ryan (6) at their Castlerahan home near Ballyjamesduff in late August this year.
To date, the Colls’ campaign has managed to raise almost €15,000 of an overall target of €50,000, and both Mary and Jacqueline say they are overwhelmed by the response, thanking everyone for the support, kind words and encouragement at this difficult time.

“Kids were Clodagh’s thing. Whether it was her family, her boys, or the kids she taught in Oristown, she loved helping them, seeing them grow. She was the kind of person, if she couldn’t do a good thing for somebody, she wouldn’t do a bad thing. We will never get over losing Clodagh and the boys,” Mary told The Anglo-Celt.

Donors to the Women’s Aid funding page in memory of Clodagh have responded to the touching gesture by her family by posting their own messages of support.
Jacqueline says: “The reaction [to EveryDayHero] has been incredible. We wish we could reply to people for their generosity but it would be almost impossible now at this stage there’s been so many. All we can say, from the bottom of our hearts, is thank you. It’s been amazing. Now hopefully that money can be used in a positive way.”
Their grieving has been made all the more difficult in that this Christmas will be the first without Clodagh and her three sons. 
“Liam, Niall and Ryan were wonderful kids,” says doting aunt Jacqueline. “Liam was fantastic at sports, Niall was too. He had just won most improved player of the year with the Eagles at basketball. He loved baking too, he was going to open a bakery in Virginia when he was older, that’s what he wanted.
“Clodagh was a big part of that, she always strived that they would be the best they could be. No pressure, just support. They all did brilliantly with their piano during the summer months, and they’d just gotten their results. Ryan, well Ryan was a rebel. A pure boy. The cheeky-chappie. He lit up the room.”
They say that raising money for Women’s Aid is part of continuing Clodagh’s legacy and that of her kids. “It’s helping our healing process. Aside from grieving the whole time, it, at least, lets us maybe do something for others who might be living in danger. It give us focus us too to get away from anger we feel and all the other feelings as well,” says Mary, who adds: “We’re living a hell that I don’t think we’ll ever see a way out of.”