Sheila Joyce is reminded of her seven long years trapped as a 'slave' in the notorious Catholic sect, Opus Dei, every time she has a shower. Along her leg is a series of red ugly marks, the result of being made to wear a spikey metal garter, sharp like barbed wire, every single day as 'punishment'.
But it is not the scars that keep Sheila up at night; shockingly, these are just the tip of the iceberg, as I was to find out during a remarkable interview so chilling it felt like a chapter out of The Handmaid's Tale. Sitting in the living room of their homes in the town of Drogheda outside Dublin, Sheila and her younger sister Margaret revealed to me their nightmare in Opus Dei, the secrets of the shadowy sect, and even how they are still being stalked by its devotees.
But there was one memory Sheila recalled with such poise it stopped me in my tracks.
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