You're not alone, it's never too late, and you will be believed: says Ciara Mangan, founder of Beyond Surviving
Ciara Mangan from Castlebar, County Mayo, founded the charity Beyond Surviving, a survivor-led charity that provides post-crisis support and community connections for survivors of domestic, sexual, gender-based violence and abuse in Ireland.
Ms Mangan, a survivor of rape and victim harassment herself, founded the organisation after recognising a gap in the support system for survivors once their needs have moved beyond the initial frontline sector services.
Her core message is clear: 'You're not alone, it's never too late, and you will be believed.'
Explaining this, she said: "Firstly, you're not alone, I spent 12 years in the justice system and I had never met another survivor. It's never too late. I achieved justice after a 12-year fight through the system,
"You will be believed, this is a really important one in terms of - it's not that you're not believed if the DPP doesn't choose to prosecute or you don't get justice. You're always going to be believed and just tell somebody."
"I feel like I'm not alone in it anymore. I'm excited that everyone else seems to really believe in where this can go.
Ms Mangan was named an awardee of Social Enterprise Ireland's Impact Programme 2025, which supports changemakers tackling Ireland's most urgent social and environmental challenges. The nine-month programme provides funding and guidance to help organisations, like Beyond Surviving, grow and create a lasting change in society.
"It's lovely for this to be recognised on a broader scale now, and I feel like I'm not alone in it anymore. I'm excited that everyone else seems to really believe in where this can go," she said, “It feels like people can see the vision and see where this organisation can go. I’ve always believed in this and I just stuck to my guns.”
We are living in an epidemic of violence against women and girls and sexual violence against men too.
Beyond Surviving was born out of Ms Mangan’s lived experience, as both a survivor of sexual violence and someone who navigated the justice system in Ireland.
She waived her right to anonymity after she got justice. Her rapist pleaded guilty and received an eight-year sentence in 2023. Throughout her 12-year fight, she had support from Rape Crisis Centres, counsellors, her GP and psychotherapists.
She explained that there comes a time in the healing process where survivors feel they have outgrown the initial frontline support that is offered from various organisations.
"I did a lot of research and used my own experience of services I was lacking. I looked for what I needed at that point in my journey, and I couldn’t find it,
"What I found was that you do reach a point on this journey where you outgrow services and you look for something beyond that. The services that are available in Ireland support you up to this point of survival. I was looking around and I said - What's beyond this?"
"I definitely progressed beyond those services. To be honest, I would not be here today, I wouldn't even be alive, if it weren't for the vital frontline crisis sector services."
After Ms Mangan realised that survivors often have nowhere to turn once they move beyond this stage.
"We are living in an epidemic of violence against women and girls and sexual violence against men too," she said, “We hear this all the time, and I said to myself, right, so it's every second woman, it's 52pc – where are they? Surely there's a support group for survivors; there's a support group for everything else. But no, there wasn't,
“So I set up my own organisation. I just really felt that I couldn't be the only one who found themselves in this gap.”
We have to be able to support survivors to reclaim a new narrative of themselves and have more future-oriented support.
Beyond Surviving centres its work on connection, choice and continuity of support.
"It was that connection, sense of belonging and resonance that you get from people who genuinely have walked a mile in your shoes. They understand the nuances and complexities of what it's like to survive something like that. You also don't really have to explain yourself or even talk about your story; it's just another person who genuinely gets it, and that's what I was missing,
"It's about having choice. That's the basis of trauma-informed work as well, which is respecting every survivor's lived experience. They are the experts of their own lives,” Ms Mangan said.
"We can often feel like we're constantly perceived as just victims, and we have to be able to support survivors to reclaim a new narrative of themselves and have more future-oriented support."
Beyond Surviving offers choice. The organisation runs weekly online 'Survivor Tea & Chat' meetings, alongside in-person events such as 'Creative Writing for Creative Wellbeing' and 'Vision Board Workshops'. Its advocacy pillar, the most active strand of the charity, helps survivors to contribute their voices at a national level, and offer a chance to research into new policies and legislation.
"We also have the advocacy pillar, a lot of survivors are active in that. They love advocating for themselves, researching policy and seeing how they can input and get their voices heard on a more national scale," said Ms Mangan, "That would maybe suit some people more than the peer-led groups."
For Ms Mangan, survivor-led advocacy must be at the heart of any new national legislation. Beyond Surviving has taken its advocacy to the international stage, with representatives travelling to Geneva in June 2024 for the 91st session of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). There, they urged the Irish government to end the practice of disclosing survivors' counselling notes in sexual offence trials.
In particular an alarming issue is how some young men are influenced by pornography.
Closer to home, Ms Mangan noted that in recent years there has been an improvement in raising awareness of sexual violence, but said that the conversation must look deeper into the complexities of consent.
"Recent statistics and surveys show really disturbing things like 'if you know their partner was not enjoying [sex] and asked them to stop, would they stop', and [respondents] said no. In particular an alarming issue is how some young men are influenced by pornography," she said.
Here, Ms Mangan was referring to research conducted by the WeConsent project from the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre.
Statistics showed that 43pc of men under the age of 45 agreed with the statement 'Sometimes people say no when they want convincing'. In terms of the general public, 27pc agreed with the statement.
As well, one in four men under the age of 45 agreed with the statement 'I would probably keep going even if I suspected my partner is not enjoying a sexual encounter'.
"That's really frightening results to hear from young male populations," she said, "It's lovely to see WeConsent focusing on, not just consent, but enthusiastic consent as opposed to being coerced into saying yes - when actually it should be a yes yes."
With the support of SEI's Impact Programme, Ms Mangan hopes Beyond Surviving can grow and can continue to offer survivors not only the chance to heal and connect with other people, but to truly move beyond surviving.
The organisation will continue to advocate and raise awareness of the current societal issues that surround consent, as well as campaigning for the rights of survivors domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence and abuse.
To learn more about Beyond Surviving, visit their website www.beyondsurviving.ie or visit their Instagram page @beyondsurviving.ie.
The 24 Hour Rape Crisis Helpline can be contacted via 1800 778 888
The Mayo Rape Crisis Centre can be contacted via 094 902 5657
This article has been funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.