Shane Dunphy
| Shane Dunphy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
18 January 1973 Wexford, Ireland |
| Residence | Wexford, Ireland |
| Occupation | Writer, Child care worker and Teacher |
| Known for | Books which illuminate the types of child-protection cases he has worked on |
Shane Dunphy (born 18 January 1973) was born and reared in Wexford, where he still resides, with his wife and two children.[1] He has worked as a child care leader and family support worker in several countries and in southeast Ireland for fifteen years. He is now a tutor on social care courses in Waterford.
Dunphy is a child care worker by profession, but also works teaching and training others to work with children. He is best known for a series of books which he wrote detailing some of the situations that he has worked with.
Dunphy is a regular contributor for the Irish Independent[2] and Irish Examiner newspapers, and for several years had a weekly column in the Wexford Echo. Since February 2012 Dunphy has been the Childcare Expert for the Irish Sun newspaper. He presented the Morning Mix Show on South East Radio[3] from 2009 until 2010 and is a respected commentator on child-protection issues across the national and international media.
He has made documentaries for both RTE television and radio, including 'My Mother's Dying Secret' for RTE 1's Would You Believe series, and 'Yola: Lost For Words' and 'The Sinking of the St Patrick' for Radio One's Documentary on One slot [www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/].
Education
- Diploma in applied social studies
- Bachelor's degree in social care
- Master's Degree in Sociology
- Qualifications achieved at Waterford Institute of Technology and National University of Ireland, Maynooth[4]
Social Care Practice
Dunphy took a lengthy and circuitous route through the social care profession, beginning his career working on a voluntary basis in a day care unit for adults with intellectual disabilities before he had even completed secondary school. While at college he was offered relief work in a residential care unit for teenagers as well as ongoing work in a psychiatric outpatients unit. Once qualified, Dunphy has described working for several years in residential care before returning to college to improve his qualifications, and also of moving regularly. He has worked in residential care, the early years sector, as a community childcare worker, a community arts worker and a youth worker. Although he was employed for a short time by a local authority as a social worker for the Travelling Community, he has never claimed to be a social worker, nor has he ever been a member of the Irish Association of Social Workers (something the IASW has been at pains to point out). "I respect what social workers do, and I continue to be friends with many of them, but I made the decision early in my career that I am a child care worker, and I am proud of that," he says. Dunphy continues to practice on a consultancy basis.
Journalism
While he is best known as an Analysis writer on child protection issues, Dunphy's journalism has covered an eclectic range of material, and he has worked for a broad cross section of newspapers. He is best known as an Op Ed writer for the Irish Independent, where he has penned incisive articles on the Bertie Ahern government and cutting indictments on the public sector, as well as a series of fascinating articles on child care as an industry, particularly the early years sector. He covered the Madeleine McCann story from the beginning, and was contacted during the investigation by a named informant who claimed to have information on the child's whereabouts. Dunphy passed the details on to Interpol. Dunphy wrote a great deal in the Independent about the Travelling community and its various problems and issues,culminating in an article on May 9, 2009 in which he suggested, after a riot involving Travellers in a Dublin suburb, that the Travelling Community should begin sorting out their problems from within, something that caused Paavee Point, the Irish Traveller lobbying group, to condemn his stance, suggesting that he was 'perpetuating stereotypes'. Dunphy wrote a series of investigative pieces for The Sunday World, covering issues such as people trafficking, child prostitution, elder abuse and the rights of people with disabilities. His time at the paper resulted in a friendship and enduring association with crime journalist Paul Williams. Shane currently writes a column for The Irish Sun on Sunday. His pieces combine Opinion and research, as well as his by now trademark brand of autobiographical comment.
Music
-
Dunphy and fellow musicians
Dunphy is a multi-instrumentalist, performing live regularly. He plays mostly stringed instruments, favouring the mandocello and tenor banjo, but he is proficient on the guitar, autoharp, mandolin and ukulele. He often plays harmonica, which he plays using a neck harness. He admits to being 'functional' on the piano, and is reputed to be a good (if not gifted) drummer. His choice of music is eclectic, moving from acoustic folk of Irish, English, Scottish and American origin to blues to jazz and even classical. His regular musical partner, Kevin MacDermott, a native of County Cavan and a virtuoso three row accordion player, percussionist and story-teller, tends to provide the instrumental pieces while Dunphy focusses on songs. He sings with a mid-range tenor voice. Dunphy credits Woody Guthrie, Bryan Bowers, Bert Jansch and Andy Irvine as influences. Music features strongly in Dunphy's books - he regularly writes about playing music for the children he works with, or attending sessions. Music is also prominent in his media work - his choices of instrumental mood pieces, often from unusual or little known sources like Anne Briggs or Sean Tyrrell - have garnered comment.
Media Work
Dunphy is a regular face and voice on television and radio in Ireland, mostly commenting on child protection issues, but often simply on the stories of the day. He has been a guest on the hugely influential 'Late Late Show' four times, although never with the current incumbent, Ryan Tubridy,despite having been a regular contributor to Tubridy's Radio 1 programme. He had a regular slot on the short lived 'Daily Show' with Daithi O Shea and Claire Byrne. On TV3 he has had many appearances on Ireland AM, on Vincent Browne Tonight and, before its current all-female lineup, on the Midday Show. He was one of the main contributors to TV3's landmark, award-winning series Lawless Ireland, a series which continues to be aired to high ratings several years after it was made. In 2011 he made 'My Mother's Dying Secret' for the Would You Believe series, a deeply personal documentary about his mother, Noel Dunphy's life before her marriage to Dunphy's father.
Dunphy's radio work has garnered much praise. He has had a long-standing relationship with Newstalk, filling in for Brenda Power on the Your Talk Show on several occasions, and making regular appearances on Sean Moncrieff's programme and George Hook's show. In 2009 Shane Dunphy and his regular collaborator Orla Rapple made the moving documentary series 'Stories for the Margins', which was broadcast on Newstalk. On RTE Dunphy was a familiar voice on Gerry Ryan's show before that presenter's untimely death - Ryan was a tireless promoter of Dunphy's books. On RTE Radio 1 Dunphy has made regular contributions to Mary Wilson's Drivetime slot, and has, in recent years, become a major producer for the Documentary on 1 slot, making programmes also for the short programme series The Curious Ear. Dunphy's documentary work is sociologically based, examining stories that have rarely been heard, uncovering truths that have often been long buried. 'Yola - Lost for Words', produced with Orla Rapple, dealt with a lost community and 'The Sinking of the St Patrick', made with his wife, Deirdre Wickham, told the story of the bombing of a passenger ferry during WWII. Bizarrely Dunphy also made 'Breaded or Battered: The Wexford Rissole', a short documentary on a kind of potato cake peculiar to Wexford, his home town.
From June 2009 to May 2010 Dunphy presented The Morning Mix, a daily chat show on Wexford's South East Radio. The show did extremely well in Ireland's JNLR (listener figures) ratings, managing a blend of easy-going debate about everything from politics to films to cookery.
Academia
Dunphy has written much academic work, and continues to teach in the field of child- and social-care. He has written articles for the Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies, and in recent years a series of pieces on childcare theory for Childcare.ie, the Irish early years magazine.
His Masters degree is in sociology, but he has done research in applied social psychology also.
Dunphy has taught in WIT and St Patrick's College, Carlow. He currently teaches at Waterford College of Further Education. As well as teaching at the college, he runs the WCFE Lecture Series, which involves him publicly interviewing well-known individuals from across the social spectrum. Previous guests of the Lecture Series have been David McWilliams, Eddie Hobbs, Paul Williams, John Waters, Minister Frances FitzGerald. The interviews can be found on the WCFE channel on YouTube, and excerpts have been broadcast on Newstalk, TV3 and Beat FM.
WCFE is a further education college - a level of education between the Leaving Cert (A Levels) and Higher Education (College University). While FE is firmly established in many countries, it is still something of the poorer cousin in Ireland. Dunphy has written about the status of further education in Ireland, as well as commenting about it in the media.
Author
Dunphy's books combine autobiographical detail with in-depth discussion of case work, following the complexities, triumphs, challenges and defeats of child protection work as it is done on a day-to-day basis. The books follow a loose timeline, beginning when Dunphy has returned to care work after a break to teach for a year, and continuing more or less consecutively after that. The books are written in the first person, in the form of narrative stories, and Dunphy is very careful to stress that, while the incidents described are real and did happen, he goes to great lengths to fictionalize aspects of cases used so the actual participants can never be recognized. "I go to great lengths to make my stories unrecognizable to those involved," he said on East Coast FM's Morning Show. "Details, from the locations to the gender of participants right down to when something was supposed to have occurred are altered." Crime writer John Connolly had, in a review, written of the fact that Dunphy's books read like novels, despite the fact that they are non-fiction. Dunphy has come in for some criticism for this, with writer Dermot Bolger stating that, while the books are extremely well written, they are actually fictionalized to the point of being more novels than non-fiction. Dunphy has been candid about this issue: "To be able to write these books at all, to raise the issues and address the points I want to highlight, I have to change things and adjust information. I feel that this is justified. The stories are all true, everything I describe occurred - I have just tinkered with the settings." Dunphy has also spoken about the privacy and protection of the children and families involved. "Where possible I do get permission from the subjects of the stories," Dunphy has said, "and have been given the blessing of former clients on many occasions. I do seek out the parties in every instance, and most of the cases I write about are done so with full permission. I have also been approached on more than one occasion and asked to write about a particular incident - sometimes I have done, sometimes I chose not to." The books can be read as stand-alones, but this is the order of publication.
Wednesday's Child
Wednesday's Child (2006) - Dunphy's first book[5] The book is a distillation of cases that he encountered during his fifteen-year work with child-welfare situations. He blends an amalgam of actual experiences into three fictional cases:
- Gillian: When Shane meets her, Gillian is starving herself to death and in thrall to a mother more interested in abusing and manipulating her daughter than cherishing and protecting her. Though he tries to help, it seems Shane is just another adult destined to fail Gillian.
- Connie: As the daughter of disturbed violent parents, Connie is an amazingly well-adjusted A-grade student. But when Shane finally gets behind the façade, he unearths a shattering truth behind her apparent normality.
- Cordelia: Cordelia, Victor and Ibar are three loving siblings left with a hopelessly alcoholic neglectful father. It’s a race against time to see if he can become the kind of Dad he wants to be, or if they are destined to be split up and sucked into the childcare merry-go-round.
- Wednesday's Child is that rare beast: a serious work of non-fiction that reads like a thriller...by turns funny, angry and ultimately, almost unbearably moving, it is a stunning achievement. (John Connolly, Irish author)
Crying in the Dark
Crying in the Dark (2007) - Dunphy's second book paints four heartrending portraits of damaged children, and one man's battle to help them:
- Bobby and Micky: Two boys, ages six and four, were controlled from beyond the grave by an evil father.
- Mina: A seventeen-year-old girl, born with Down syndrome, desperately trying to be "normal", abused by men whom she trusted.
- Sylvie: A fourteen-year-old girl who already has a baby, but who is forced into prostitution by her father.
- Larry and Francey: Ten-year-old twins, scarcely human after an upbringing of savage cruelty.
The book describes how one man came to befriend each child, and worked to give them a future.
This book is also published under the title "Last Ditch House"
Hush, Little Baby
Hush, Little Baby (2008) - Dunphy's third book is a heartrending true story of children neglected, despised and abused - and how their shattered childhoods were redeemed:
- Clive: A thirteen-year-old victim of terrifying demonic visions, tells frightening stories of abuse and imprisonment. Could they be genuine?
- Patrick: Aged twelve, he tries to uncover the truth of his birth family, however painful it may be.
- Johnny: Six years old, tiny and undernourished, recovering from a brain injury inflicted by his drunken and violent father.
- Katie: Aged fourteen, she is so aggressive that she is placed in special care, away from other children. What could be the cause of such fury?
- Larry and Francey: The ten-year-old twins, introduced in the previous book, are in state care while their mother, the real evil behind their father's cruelty, tries to regain custody.
The Boy in the Cupboard
The Boy in the Cupboard (2008) - Dunphy's fourth book continues the theme of damaged children: Craig: He can't speak English, isn't allowed to use his real name, and hides food around his playschool, afraid he'll be hungry again. His parents are trying to make a fresh start, but their gangland bosses are about to catch up with the family and Craig will pay a terrible price. Edgar: An unwanted twelve-year-old boy, rejected even by the staff at the residential unit where he lives. Just when it seems that there might be a way of getting through to Edgar, his mother reveals a secret that changes everything. Vinnie: A teenage boy who knows what his gangster father is capable of, and how he makes problems disappear. He also knows that he had become a very big problem for his father.
Will Mummy Be Coming Back for Me?
Will Mummy Be Coming Back for Me? (2009) - Dunphy's fifth book concentrates on one life. When Dunphy meets Jason in 1991, he is a tiny, frightened five-year-old who has stopped speaking and terrorizes even the older children in the care home with his angry, violent behaviour. Eleven years later, Shane is shocked to find Jason’s file on his desk again. Jason has committed some horrendous crimes and is facing a life of incarceration.
Little Boy Lost
Little Boy Lost (2009) - Dominic is a sixteen-year-old man-child: while he has the body of a prize-fighter, as a result of a terrible seizure when he was a small child, he has been left with the mind of a child. In the centre where he spends his days, Dominic is a challenge and an inspiration: someone who struggles against the odds and whose every victory over his limitations is a cause for celebration. But when a new member of staff at the centre breaks a sacred trust, the fallout is horrific, and Dominic becomes a pawn in a dangerous game. The book portrays Dominic’s brave battle to face up to betrayal and demonstrate again that he is a survivor.
The Girl Who Couldn't Smile
The Girl Who Couldn't Smile (due for release February 2012) - When Shane Dunphy starts work at Little Scamps creche, he has no idea what he has let himself in for. He had not worked in an early years setting for many years and on arriving for his first day he found that two members of staff, Susan and Tush, are at the end of their tether and on the verge of resigning. The children themselves are completely out of control. At the centre of this chaos Shane finds Tammy, a pretty, doll-like five-year-old who is a mystery to everyone: she does not talk, or even smile, yet shows signs of remarkable intelligence. Through the course of the year, Shane attempts to bring order to this motley group and we learn the stories of some of the other children in the creche: Milandra, an angry, violent four-year-old, the daughter of a Nigerian father and Irish mother; Rufus, a gypsy child who is direly neglected; Julie, a tiny, painfully shy little girl with Down's Syndrome. How is Shane ever to find a way to communicate with and ultimately befriend such diverse and challenging personalities? Then one afternoon, Gus, the class tear away, receives the gift of a blue crayon - a crayon he claims is magic. And Shane begins to wonder if this magic could be the answer to all his problems ...Shane Dunphy's moving portrait of a year at Little Scamps is a testament to the redemptive power of love and nurturing, of finding oneself through the care of others, as well as finding the secret of a girl who couldn't smile.[6]
Dunphy as a Character in the Books
The author himself is the central character in each of the books, and the children, other professionals and the world in general are seen through his eyes. Dunphy does not try to depict himself as a hero or as someone who is infallible. In some instances he makes mistakes, comes off as rude or narrow-minded, and many cases do not end well, sometimes directly because of his intervention. His personality is portrayed as emotional, impulsive, self-contained and occasionally arrogant. His dedication to the children and families he serves is total, but this often puts him at loggerheads with other professionals, and he often disregards advice and the opinions of others. Through the books we learn that he is a caffeine addict, smoked heavily (he gives it up in The Girl Who Couldn't Smile), enjoys music, but particularly folk and blues, reads a lot, but favours crime novels, can cook very well, has a dog (a greyhound called Millie) and has moved around a lot, living in various locations for short periods of time. Recurring characters in the books are:
Karl Devereux, a former criminal who is a friend of Dunphy's and helps out on cases in every book except Wednesday's Child and The Girl Who Couldn't Smile
Melanie Moorhouse, a social worker who appears in 'Wednesday's Child' and 'The Boy in the Cupboard'
Ben Tyrrell, the manager of Dunleavy Trust, a child protection group for whom Shane worked in all titles from Crying in the Dark up to Will Mummy be Coming Back for Me
Tristan Fowler, manager of a centre for adults with learning disabilities, featured in Little Boy Lost and The Girl Who Couldn't Smile
Lonnie Whitmore, a dwarf, colleague and friend of Shane's in Little Boy Lost and The Girl Who Couldn't Smile
Influences
The respected book One Child by author and child psychologist Torey Hayden was Dunphy's first motivation to work in child protection.[7] Hayden has commented favourably on Dunphy's books, even providing a jacket quote. Dunphy has said on numerous occasions that he considers her work a huge inspiration, and that it is a major resource for anyone working in the area of child- and social care.
References
|