Social media giants must tackle bullying, says grieving mother
A GRIEVING mother who lost her only daughter after an attempted suicide wants social media firms to tackle tormentors and stronger penalties for bullies.
Mary Sheehan, from Southill, in Limerick, is ‘heartbroken’ after her ‘red-haired queen’ Kayleigh Ryan-Sheehan, 14, died after a horrific campaign of bullying by her peers.
Describing her daughter as an ‘angel’, she said that those who abused her were ‘vermin’ and that she hoped they ‘rot in hell’.
‘Kayleigh was a lovely child. She was very bubbly. She had a great sense about her. She was more like an old soul. It’s still so hard,’ her mother said.
‘I’ve got nothing left. My whole routine is gone. I lived for her. I don’t see a purpose sometimes. But I will stand and fight until I take my last breath so I can get justice for my child.
‘If I can help another little child and let them see that you can come, and there are people to talk to, I will. Don’t let these bullies take your life,’ Ms Sheehan said.
Ms Sheehan said her only daughter – who dreamt of following in the footsteps of pro-wrestler Becky Lynch – was being ‘bullied by members of her own community’.
‘The people who do this don’t understand the impact they leave behind on families. I miss her so much,’ Mary sobbed.
‘These people need to understand that it’s not okay to be bullying children.
‘Making fake [social media] pages and torturing them so much that they can’t bear it anymore, that they end their lives,’ she said.
‘Something needs to be put in place for people who run Snapchat and Facebook.
‘These people need to be brought to justice.’
According to Ms Sheehan, her daughter wrote on Facebook to her tormentors: ‘Please leave me alone I’m only a child’ in a bid to end the bullying she was being subjected to.
Posts attacking her daughter were subsequently deleted, her mother said.
Ms Sheehan said she wants to work with her local council and Government to get a law in place so people who do this can be prosecuted.
‘The Government needs to step in for the mental health of the youth of Ireland,’ she said.
She told the Irish Daily Mail that she is in favour of legislation to crack down on online bullying.
The legislation is set to be named Coco’s Law, after a young woman who was also being bullied, took her own life.
Nicole Fox Fenlon, known as Coco, died in Dublin last year after suffering a campaign of bullying that prompted her mother, Jackie Fox, to campaign for more stringent laws.
Struggling to hold back the tears, Ms Sheehan said: ‘I gave birth to my child and I reared her so well. I gave her everything she wanted. For people to bully her, to make her feel she was ugly and lose her self-confidence...
‘But she’s not: she’s beautiful, my red-haired queen, my princess, my baby. And these vermin robbed me of that. Robbed her of her dreams.’
Kayleigh made an attempt on her life while on holiday with extended family in Clonmel and later died in Temple Street Children’s Hospital.
‘Kayleigh did not choose to do this. She just couldn’t take it any more.
‘There is always people that will speak to you. You can come, you can speak to me. I’ll get you help, find you support,’ the grieving mother pledged.
Ms Sheehan spoke on her birthday, a day on which she and Kayleigh would normally go out for a meal, or shopping together.
‘I’ve no routine left. My routine is my baby coming home on the 303 bus, me waiting for her.
‘She would play her music. The house is dead – I’m dead inside,’ she cried.
‘Kayleigh was a real angel. She always put everybody before herself. She helped everyone. She had a heart of gold.’
Asked if she had a message for the bullies, Ms Sheehan added: ‘I hope they rot in hell for what they did to me and Kayleigh. The pain and suffering bullies cause families...
‘They are pure, genuine evil. How can you be so evil? These people, they laugh into your face. They get a kick out of it. I think they are mentally disturbed themselves.’
For further information on suicide support, contact the Office for Suicide Prevention on 061-461262.
Alternatively, contact the Samaritans at 116123. Services are free and confidential.
‘These people, they laugh into your face’