‘They just want to live normal lives’

ONE Irish women who is head of mission with MSF Holland in Iraq, a branch of Médecins Sans Frontières, is heading a rehabilitation programme to help victims of violence lead normal lives once again.

Helen O’Neill, a south Dublin-born nurse, oversees three teams in Iraq giving mental health care. She has been in Baghdad eight times in the last half-year and says much has changed since she was a nurse in Iraq in the 1980s.

“It [the return] was completely shocking. Though I had expected it to be heavy on security, it was heavier than I expected. Checkpoints everywhere. Destroyed buildings, and I didn’t recognise anything.