Mary Crilly to retire from Sexual Violence Centre Cork but says she will continue campaigning 

The founder and chief executive of the Sexual Violence Centre Cork is set to retire this summer, but — true to form — Mary Crilly intends to continue campaigning.

Ms Crilly founded the charity as the Cork Rape Crisis Centre, when it was based over the Quay Co-Op, in 1983, and it was, she said, treated with deep levels of suspicion and resentment by many in the city, including in the clergy, in City Hall, and in An Garda Síochána.

Ms Crilly’s office was raided by gardaí in those early days, and a senior officer told the Dublin native she wasn’t welcome in Cork. Characteristically, she ignored him.

Nowadays, a retired garda chief superintendent serves on the centre’s board, and in 2022 Ms Crilly was awarded the freedom of her adopted city.

She said at the time that the only legacy she has ever wanted is an end to victim-blaming.

Ms Crilly has long threatened to retire, but she told The Echo that the time had come to at least step back, and the centre will soon be advertising a vacancy.

“The ad should be out in the next few weeks, and although I’m hoping to keep on the Safe Gigs campaign, I would say by the summer I won’t be running the centre anymore,” Ms Crilly said.

An initiative of Ms Crilly’s, Safe Gigs Ireland, has, in recent years, worked to foster safer nightlife and concert experiences across the country.

“We’re making a big impact with the Safe Gigs, and I’m much happier running that, because I think running the centre requires new energy.

“Plus, I really don’t want to leave the centre in a state where if something happened to me it would be in chaos,” she said.

Earlier this month, Ms Crilly was given special recognition for her work by the European Committee of the Regions at the Mayor Paweł Adamowicz Awards.

“It was the first time someone who has worked with survivors of sexual violence has been recognised in the awards, so I felt hugely privileged,” she said.

Paying tribute to his friend, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said Ms Crilly deserved thanks for her “extraordinary commitment to women in Ireland, and particularly in Cork, and for being a pioneer in establishing services to support victims of sexual abuse and rape”.