Shane Dunphy
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| 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 also has a weekly column in the Wexford Echo. He is also a broadcaster on South East Radio[3] and a respected commentator on child-protection issues.
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/].
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[edit] Music
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 accordian 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.
[edit] 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]
[edit] Writer
[edit] 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)
[edit] 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"
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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]
[edit] Influences
The respected book One Child by author and child psychologist Torey Hayden was Dunphy's first motivation to work in child protection.[7]
