Personal Profile
The battle for life in Ireland is a vicious one, but there are those out there looking to soften the hard edges it’s being fought with. Carolyn O’Meara is one of them, and she’s seeking to do so through her work with Gianna Care, an organisation that seeks to aid women experiencing crisis pregnancies while also caring for those who’ve experienced abortion, whether directly or tangentially.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Carolyn talked about where these convictions came from: “The minute I heard what abortion was and understood, I just immediately felt very, very passionate about it – about how wrong it was.”
Coming from a background of Faith, she said: “I didn’t really stick to it for my teenage years, but I always was very, very pro-life, and that never wavered at all.”
While her Faith may have been slow to blossom, blossom it did during the World Youth Day in Rome in 2000.
Rome
“I had the opportunity to go to the World Youth Day in Rome with John Paul II. I really went because I just had never been to Italy and I just wanted to go. I didn’t have a massive interest in the World Youth Day part, but I attended everything and I went everywhere, and it was really at John Paul II’s Mass that everything – I can’t even really explain it, but I definitely experienced the love of God in a very real way,” she says.
Reflecting on her experiences, she said, “I came back different, definitely. Everything made sense after that, and everything of the truth was very to the forefront of my mind – that this was the truth.”
While her pro-life beliefs had never dimmed, the renewal of her Faith bolstered what was already there. “It gave me a lot of courage which I wasn’t really expecting. I remember feeling much more courageous and much more alive when I came back. I just felt different, all in a positive way.”
Weathering a tough Leaving Cert year during which she also lost her mother, Carolyn progressed to university, where her involvement in the pro-life movement deepened. She helped to re-establish the university pro-life society, which kept her busy.
“Lots of pro-life activity all during my college years. Loads, like weekly, at least.”
Husband
The pro-life work didn’t stop upon attaining her degree, but it continued as she took up her job in psychiatric nursing. It was during this time that she met her future husband.
“During that time when I was working, I met my husband through the pro-life movement. We both met doing pro-life work, and yeah, so it was a great foundation of course, to be on the same level and he had always had Faith.”
It was through her engagement with these various pro-life initiatives that Carolyn came to envision Gianna Care.
“It started off with really providing a safe environment in a humble room, giving people that opportunity to be able to just to safely speak and be listened to. But it has grown from “safe environment” to offering professional counselling with qualified counselling psychotherapists to ultrasound scanning, material support in every was you can possibly think of, financial support. We have the birth partners, we’ve been companions for hospital visits, we do interview prep and CVs – you know, helping women to continue on getting jobs or applications for colleges, courses. We’ve been godparents.”
She continues, “Pre-Covid, we did have a monthly mother and baby support group. So, after women had their babies they could come once a month in to the office, just to meet up, talk about being mothers and the challenges and successes, and sharing all the knowledge that they have. Hospital bags, maternity wear. Basically, anything and everything you can possibly think of that can support a mother through this. And it doesn’t end. It really ends when the mother feels that she’s gotten the support that she needs and that she can move on.”
Under her guidance, the group has gone from strength to strength.
“In 2018, we opened in Galway, and in April 2020 we opened in Tralee, Co. Kerry. And just recently then, we opened in Offaly – it’s more just for practical support.”
Origins
Looking back on their humble origins, and tracing the path to where she stands today, Carolyn finds herself overwhelmed. “I find it very hard to take it in, to be honest, Jason. Because I found photographs the other day, of when we first got the office, and I took pictures. It was this horrible, old brown carpet and two desks that were wrecked.”
“I just think it’s a miracle. That’s all I can think of. Because we had no money, we’d nothing really to go on, and it all just came together. Very hard to take it in, to be honest.”
Carolyn, and Gianna Care under her direction, don’t limit themselves to crisis pregnancy care – they make themselves available to those who’ve suffered the consequences of abortion, too.
“When we started Gianna Care, I remember the few of us that were there saying no matter what, we have to do something for post-abortion women. So, very soon into Gianna Care, we started a monthly post-abortion support group, and that was the first one of its type in Ireland,” she remembers.
“There was nothing as far as we researched that was allowing women, and men, to come together to hear that they weren’t the only ones – again, safe environment. It wasn’t group therapy, but it was more like peer-support,” she says. “We’re very, very passionate about post-abortive healing,” she adds.
With pro-lifers often being accused of seeking births, while ignoring the life that comes afterwards, Carolyn O’Meara seeks to put the “care” in Gianna Care.