5 Books That Could Save Your Life - Cork Event

The ‘5 Books That Could Save Your Life’ Project is a public education initiative designed to change the conversation on coercive control.

10:30 -11:30 – Registration / Tea & Coffee / Networking / Book Sales

11:30 - 13:00 – Moderated Panel Discussion followed by Q&A

13:00 – 13:30 – Networking / Book Sales / Refreshments

The ‘5 Books That Could Save Your Life’ Project is a public education initiative designed to change the conversation on coercive control. A moderated panel discusses key books, raising awareness of coercive control, its links to domestic homicide, and the role men can play in the DSBGV response.

In 2026, there will be free public events in Waterford, Cork, and Omagh.

The 5 selected books are a mixture of memoir, fiction and books by experts and practitioners in the field. They include:

• In Control, Dangerous Relationships and how they end in Murder’ by Professor Jane Monckton Smith, an academic focusing on the link between coercive control and domestic homicide
• ‘Invisible Chains’ by psychologist Dr Lisa Aronson Fontes

• ‘Deadly Silence: A Sister’s Battle to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of Clodagh and Her Sons by Alan Hawe’ by award-winning author and activist Jacqueline Connolly

• ‘The Names’ is an acclaimed debut fiction novel by author Florence Knapp

• ‘Every Man’ by Dr Jackson Katz, a leading figure in the movement to engage men and boys in the prevention of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence

These books are part of a wider donation of 80 books on domestic, sexual, and gender-based abuse, donated by Haven Horizons to Libraries across Ireland.

This project is kindly sponsored by the Shared Island Civic Society Fund, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The ideas, opinions and comments in this project are entirely the responsibility of the presenters.