Anne Marie Allen was fifteen when she was accepted onto a cookery school course that promised real qualifications and a future in the career of her dreams. Seeking a better life, she moved to the calm and peaceful countryside of the west of Ireland. Her happiness was short-lived as it became clear she had been tricked instead into a life of domestic servitude to the members of Opus Dei.

Before long she was whisked away to Rome where she signed her life away with vows to serve. What followed were years of misery in slavery, forced celibacy and traumatic physical suffering under an ambitious and tyrannical institution that demanded perfection, humiliation and pain.

Her family eventually managed to coerce a visit home where they refused to let her return to the Order, and where they began the long process of deprogramming Anne Marie – a task that has been a life-long struggle. 

Anne Marie Allen spent seven years within the Opus Dei cult in Ireland. She is an executive coach with a career in senior management within the Irish Prison Service and community bodies. She has vast experience in training development across the public sector and charitable organisations. A passionate advocate for human rights, women’s rights and political engagement, she has dedicated years to voluntary work supporting community groups, women’s initiatives and children’s charities. Widely travelled and committed to lifelong learning, she lives in Laois with her family.