Mary Crilly of the Sexual Violence Centre Cork: ‘Don’t tolerate any abuse’

Mary Crilly will be a panel moderator at this year's Joy in the Park. She chats about the work she has been doing in the arts industry

Mary Crilly will be a moderator at a Couch Sessions at Joy in the Park with Minding Creative Minds. Pictures: Denis Minihane

Sitting down on a bench in Fitzgerald Park with co-founder and CEO of the Sexual Violence Centre Cork, Mary Crilly, on a sunny morning, she explains the hectic weekend she has just had. She spent it in her native Dublin, at the Longitude music festival, no less.

Crilly wasn’t there as an attendee though, instead she was there as part of the Safe Gigs initiative she founded. She tells of how her and the team put some 4,800 temporary tattoos of the Safe Gigs logo on youngsters, rolling up her sleeve to show she too got “inked”.

“If I was told I could only do one festival a year, I’d pick Longitude,” she tells the Irish Examiner. 

“All day long. Being in the middle of 30,000 teenagers is where I belong. They’re so honest and so upfront and there’s not messing and not loads of drinking, and there’s not hassle and they will come up and say, ‘What’s this about?’; and they talk about maybe being spiked or what happened to their friend.”

Using the tattoos as a marketing technique was Crilly’s brainchild. “You need something to draw them in, even if you just get them for that five seconds,” she says, adding that the goal was to get festival-goers to follow Safe Gigs on Instagram to build more momentum.

Safe Gigs was born during the pandemic and was launched in August 2021 and aims to make nightlife a safer place for all. Having met a lot of people from the creative industry presenting at the centre, Crilly says she could see that a lot of people working in the arts could be isolated.

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“I felt a lot of them were working on their own and they didn’t have the capacity to make a change, and sometimes it’s hard when you’re in within an industry to make a change on your own.” 

While operating a council centre that sees over 500 people a year, and with other campaigns to keep moving, delving into an industry-specific support initiative would take a lot of work without the resources like a campaign officer or policy officer. 

However, when covid hit — although the centre was working “as normal” with Zoom calls facilitating clients — it gave the team time to research nightlife safety in other countries. Couple that with the feeling that the “nighttime economy” was coming down the tracks, Crilly knew Safe Gigs would be needed.

Before she knew it, she was being asked to speak about the movement at a conference in Zurich and being asked to come to Electric Picnic, Longitude, and Indiependence, as well as smaller venues who reached out to the centre to attend their gigs.

Safe Gigs has set out a charter which asks that venues take a zero-tolerance approach to violence, plan for safe gigs, train its staff, believe and support victims and act on the abuse. 

It covers all aspects of abuse — sexual violence, sexism, racism, homophobia, ableism, body shaming, and discrimination. 

It is working with the Department of Justice to legislate the charter, meaning that if a pub, club or venue doesn’t adhere to the charter, its licence can be called into question. 

Mary Crilly says crowds at festivals are “hungry for information”, and meeting them gives her the opportunity to open dialogue on what young women are tolerating nowadays. She is concerned at some of the comments by young men today.

“’Did you hear what he said to me?’, ‘he’s a right pain, ‘this isn’t acceptable’, and they would say they hear that all the time, but they thought they had to take it because some girls would say it didn’t bother them,” she says. 

“And then you turn around and say, ‘what should you decide what bothers you or not? Why should he be allowed get away with this?’”

Mary Crilly and Safe Gigs have been working at festivals such as Longitude, Indiependence and Electric Picnic, as well as small venues and events.

Where we meet, Fitzgerald Park, will play host to Joy in the Park (JITP), a one-day festival organised in association with Cork Mental Health Foundation which aims to promote minding our mental health and wellbeing. 

Mary Crilly will be the moderator of a panel discussion at the Couch Sessions hosted by Minding Creative Minds (MCM). Entitled ‘Broaden your horizon as a creative: Opening your mind to a broader career as a creative’, it will feature RedFM presenter and comedian, Laura O’Mahony and poet, playwright, and performer, Stephen James Smith. Crilly is keen to point out that one of the best things about Safe Gigs was “getting to know MCM”, adding that the two organisations linked up over social media. She says: 

“I just found them so generous, so open, so supportive, so welcoming. 

“It was just a great fit because we’re doing quite similar things, but maybe for different parts of the population that come to events.” 

Crilly moderated at a Creative Careers Summit held in Dublin by MCM in May, and she found it reassuring that the organisation was acknowledging that sexual violence can happen in the creative industry as much as any other workplace.

Having seen how Crilly can interact with people at the summit, it was fitting to invite her to the panel. 

She aims to highlight the “invaluable” work of MCM, as those in the creative sphere “are so isolated” because musicians, artists, writers and other are often working on their own, unlike those working, say, in an office or retail setting. 

Dave Reid, CEO of MCM, says that with 10% of its service users coming from Cork, it is delighted to be heading back to JITP, and to be working with Crilly once again. 

“We’ve worked with Mary Crilly and Safe Gigs for the last year, so we know her from being involved in various festivals and being involved in mental health,” Reid explains, adding, “she’s doing great work in what she does — just trying to promote a safe environment in live events”. 

As well as promoting mental health, Reid is keen to point out that MCM also covers other areas. There is a mentoring programme, as well as financial or legal advice services, across a range of jobs — including musicians, visual artists, actors, performers, circus acts, comedians, writers, journalists, managers, promoters, bookers, and production workers. 

Following a video campaign with a voiceover by Colin Farrell, some 400 people contacted the MCM services between January and March this year, double that of last year. 

With such demand, MCM will be looking at different goals down the line including launching free art/music/drama therapy, taking on more staff, and building an app.

Joy in the Park is in its second year and will take place on July 23 at Fitzgerald Park, Cork.

Reid is keen to point out an important aspect of the body. “MCM is a free service for the entire creative industry — north and south of Ireland — and if anybody just needs a chat to pick up the phone. Or if anybody needs more specialist advice, just contact us.”

Back on the park bench with Mary Crilly, she explains that while she is aiming to retire in the next two years as she will be approaching her 70th birthday, there are some campaigns she’s aiming to get over the line first. 

One thing she feels strongly about is the issue of stalking, and she is glad to see progress being made in stalking legislation. Another project aims to get an art room in the Sexual Violence Centre Cork due to the volume of young girls now presenting there.

As well as that, another initiative the centre is researching at the moment — and one Crilly says “I’m not giving up on” — is test kits in pubs, clubs, and venues for spiking.

“A lot of venues and guards don’t want to believe it happens. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard ‘They took something’ or ‘They didn’t know’,” she explains, saying that victims of spiking are aware of their own tolerance levels and how much they have had to drink – they “still know” when something is wrong. 

With over-the-counter test kits being unreliable, and no accurate toxicology report available to a spiking victim unless they present at a Garda station/SATU, the centre is currently trying to work in tandem with a local lab to deliver the results as part of the procedure. 

These kits will be available at the venue, where a sample will immediately be taken and sent to the lab for results. 

Despite the aforementioned pending retirement, it’s impossible to imagine Crilly ever slowing down. For crowds heading along to Indiependence and Electric Picnic this year, you can get “inked” in the Safe Gigs tent.

For now, young people can follow Mary Crilly’s advice: “Stick together, believe each other, and look after each other, and don’t tolerate any abuse, no matter how minimal it seems to be.”

• mindingcreativeminds.ie
• sexualviolence.ie