Country Report: Ireland

POPULATION:

4,670,976

CAPITAL:

Dublin

TRAFFICKING ORIGINS:

The Irish slave trade is one of the more obscure and forgotten atrocities in history. The Irish population, all but destroyed by the English, became one of the major commodities of the New World. From 1641–1652, over 500,000 Irish were killed by the English and another 300,000 were sold as slaves. The population of Ireland plummeted from 1,500,000 to 600,000 in a single decade.

The barbarity they encountered in the New World is shocking. If they disobeyed or rebelled in the slightest, they would be punished in the harshest ways. They were worth less than African slaves; therefore, their cheep status earned them the most degrading and torturous treatment. Slave owners would hang their “property” by their hands and set their hands and feet on fire as one form of punishment.

The horrors didn’t end there. Breeding became common––usually beginning with girls as young as 12––often just for the personal pleasure of the owner or for increase in workforce. The more slaves the greater profit. Forced interbreeding with African slaves went on for several decades until it was outlawed in 1681 due to interference with the profit of large slave transport companies.

Human beings were reduced to animals by those who were around them. Today, slavery has taken on a different, hidden face but it’s still the same wicked, dehumanizing trade.

SLAVERY SYNOPSIS:

The Irish are known for their rich culture, beautiful homeland, luck and Saint Patrick, among other things. Now they are associated with something else––human trafficking. Amidst the magnificent ancient castles and stunning green hills, women and children are sexually exploited.

Many of the Ireland’s trafficking victims are from Africa. Women and girls are attracted to offers of overseas education and work only to find themselves face to face with human traffickers and witch doctors. One victim revealed that they sealed their hold on her through a satanic ceremony. During the ceremony they made her; swear an oath to repay her “debt”, eat the heart cut out of a live chicken, strip in a burial ground and swear not to run away or go to the police.

When they get to Ireland, their situation only becomes worse. The women are beaten fiercely, thrown down stairs, burned, raped, bitten and starved. Again and again they are degraded by their pimps, repeatedly informed they are ugly, bad at “performing” or not showing enough enjoyment. All the while they are forced to allow strangers to violate them however they wish. One former prostitute expressed how she saw her life by saying it meant, “turning yourself into a public toilet.”

While these nightmares are occurring in the lives of young women in larger cities, another unbelievably malicious act takes place in the more rural areas––parents selling their daughters. A relative will go to a local pub, place the house keys on the bar and auction off their daughters. Whoever pays the most goes home that night.

Jacqui Montgomery-Devlin from Barnardos encountered these children, “I remember the young people talking about the horror of not knowing who was coming home that night.” Of all the numerous perverse acts by traffickers and parents, this is among the worst.

POLITICAL STATUS:

According to the 2010 TIP report, Ireland is stated as a Tier 1 country. However, it was only until 2008 that trafficking was even recognized as a crime. Since then, there have been arrests and charges made but no prosecution.

They are also greatly lacking in policies and structured aftercare. As of now they have new laws and no real action.

PRAYER:

Women are cruelly objectified and treated as sub-human. Pray for the awakening of truth in the hearts of men, that they may see them as children of God
Parents flippantly throw their children away like trash. Cry out for their freedom, that all the horrors they experienced would fade away in the midst of the light of Jesus Christ.
There is little action by the government and godly men are scarce. Contend for the raising up of Saint Patricks who will spread the gospel to the whole nation.