Towards Transitional Justice
Recognition, Truth-telling, and Institutional Abuse in Ireland
November 1-2, 2018
Gasson Hall, 100
Boston College
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
鈥淭ransitional Justice puts survivors and victims at the heart of the process. 听It commits to pursuing justice through truth. It aims to achieve not only individual justice, but a wider societal transition from more repressive times, to move from one era to another. Taking a transitional justice approach means that we will find out and record the truth, ensure accountability, make reparation, undertake institutional reform, and achieve reconciliation.鈥 听Katherine Zappone, T.D., Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, D谩il 脡ireann, Dublin. 9th听March 2017
鈥淲ill the government consider a broader truth-telling process in respect to these and other historical abuses?鈥 Ms. Felice Gaer, Deputy Chairperson, UN Committee Against Torture, Second Periodic Review of Ireland, Geneva, Switzerland. 28th听July 2017
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This conference brings together scholars, survivors, and activists in the international field of Transitional Justice, with a specific focus on the Irish state鈥檚 response to the nation鈥檚 history of institutional abuse. Researchers, students and interested members of the public are welcome to attend.
Traditionally, transitional justice has been focused on moments of dramatic political transformation and transfers of power (i.e., regime change). It promises a more 鈥渉olistic,鈥 survivor/victim-focused, approach to historic injustice, in part because it combines the four key elements of justice, reparation, truth-telling, and guarantees of non-recurrence. More recently, scholars are considering the application of this approach to the institutional abuses of settled democracies.
Our conference pursues a twofold conversation: we will discuss the efficacy of a transitional justice approach to Ireland鈥檚 history of institutional abuse and consider the State鈥檚 response to this legacy. Privileging victim/survivor testimony, we will ask the following questions: What do the methods with which Ireland has attempted to deal with its past tell us about the State鈥檚 current approach to power and vulnerability? What is it that Ireland still needs to learn about its treatment of vulnerable women and children? What are the implications of recent State-sponsored investigations for contemporary women, children and other citizens in vulnerable situations? Can truth-telling and a guarantee of non-recurrence take place in the absence of access to records and information held in public and private archives?
What can Ireland learn from transitional justice responses to similar histories in other jurisdictions? Does transitional justice have the potential to assist Ireland in building a Human Rights infrastructure and thereby help guarantee non-recurrence of these failures?
This conference is free and open to the public.听
Towards Transitional Justice: Recognition, Truth-telling, and Institutional Abuse in Ireland
November 1-2, 2018
Gasson Hall, 100
Boston College
Thursday November 1
1:00 PM听听听 Welcome Remarks
1:10 PM鈥1:40 PM听听听 Dr. Katherine Zappone, TD, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Government of Ireland.
Introduction by:听 Thomas H. Groome, School of Theology and Ministry, Boston College
"Love's Pursuit: An Approach to Transitional Justice in Ireland."
1:45 PM听听听 PANEL 1: Transitional Justice and Institutionalized Children
Chair, Arissa Oh, History Department, Boston College
Rosemary Nagy, Gender Equality & Social Justice, Nippissing University, Canada听听听听听听听听听听
鈥淓pistemology as a Resource for Transitional Justice: Healing the Intergenerational Legacy of Indian Residential Schools鈥
Gordon Lynch, Modern Theology, University of Kent, England
鈥淭ransitional Justice and Historical Child Abuse: Lessons from the Case of the UK Child Migration Programmes鈥
2:55 PM听听听 COFFEE BREAK
3:10 PM听听听 PANEL 2: Trauma and Records in the context of Transitional Justice
Chair & Commentary: M. Brinton Lykes, Lynch School of Education & Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Boston College
Patricia Lundy, Sociology, Ulster University, Northern Ireland
鈥淭he Potential and Limits of Historical Abuse Inquiries to Meet Victims' Justice Needs鈥
Shurlee Swain, History, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia
鈥淩ecords in Context: Lessons from Australia's 鈥樷 Project鈥
4:20 PM听听听 COFFEE BREAK
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4:30 PM-5:15 PM 听听 DISCUSSION SESSION I: International Human Rights听Conventions鈥擜 Transitional Justice Agenda
Moderator: Katherine O鈥橠onnell, Philosophy, University College Dublin, Ireland
Felice Gaer, Director, Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, New York and Vice Chair, UN Committee Against Torture* (*for identification purposes only)
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5:30 PM听听听听听 RECEPTION
Hosted by John J. Burns Library, Boston College, with generous support from Ireland鈥檚 and the
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7:00 PM听听听 听 LOWELL HUMANITIES SERIES LECTURE
Ruth Rubio Mar铆n, Professor of Constitutional Law, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain; Director of the Gender and Governance Programme at the School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute, Florence, Italy
"Reparations for Historic Institutional Violence: Learning from Transitional Justice?"
Introduction by Katharine G. Young, Boston College Law School
Friday November 2
8:30 AM听听听听听 BREAKFAST
9:00 AM听听听听听 PANEL 3: Regulating Shame
Chair: Joseph Nugent, English & Irish Studies, Boston College
James Gallen, Law, Dublin City University, Ireland
鈥淪hame, Contempt and Power: Ireland鈥檚 Legacy of Historical Abuse鈥
Colin Smith, Law, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
鈥淧rocedural Obstacles to Access to Justice for Victims of Historic Abuse鈥
Mairead Enright, Law, University of Birmingham, England
Sin茅ad Ring, Law, University of Kent, England
鈥淕overning through Shame: State Shame, Transitional Justice and Violence Against Women and Children鈥
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10:15 AM听听听 COFFEE BREAK
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10:30 AM听听听 PANEL 4: Imagining the Truth-telling of Transitional Justice
Chair: Marjorie Howes, Associate Professor, English & Irish Studies, Boston College
Mary Burke, English, University of Connecticut, USA
鈥淭he Day of Reckoning: Protestant institutions for women and Joyce鈥檚 鈥楾he Dead鈥欌澨
Emilie Pine, Modern Drama and Irish Studies, University College Dublin, Ireland
鈥淒igital Tools for Responding to Institutional Abuse鈥澨
Emer O鈥橳oole, Performance Studies and Irish Studies, Concordia University, Canada
鈥淚 wish Ann Lovett were out Buying a Swimsuit for Lanzarote鈥
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12:00 PM听听 LUNCH AND ROUNDTABLE听听听听 听
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TRUTH-TELLING: SURVIVORS IN CONVERSATION听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听
Connie Roberts, Survivor, Poet, Teacher (New York, USA)
Mary Harney, Survivor, Teacher (Maine, USA)
Caitr铆ona Palmer, Survivor, Journalist, Author (Washington, DC, USA)
Mari Steed, Survivor, Activist, Advocate (Virginia, USA)
Moderator: James M. Smith, English & Irish Studies, Boston College, USA
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2:15 PM听听听 PANEL 5: Transitional Justice: Gender, Fact, and Artefact
Chair: Eileen Donovan Kranz, English, Boston College
Fionnuala N铆 Aol谩in, Law, University of Minnesota, USA
鈥淕endered Truth Telling in Northern Ireland鈥
Laura McAtackney, Archeology and Heritage Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark
鈥淢aterial Ruins and Retrieving Experiences of Magdalene Laundries鈥澨 听 听 听
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3:25 PM 听听 COFFEE BREAK
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3:35 PM听听听 PANEL 6: Truth-telling and Irish Adoption
Chair: Thomas Crea, School of Social Work, Boston College
Paul Michael Garrett, Political Science and Sociology, National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland
鈥淢other and Baby Homes: Notes on the Irish State and its 鈥榮hameful classes鈥欌澨
Claire McGettrick, Sociology, University College Dublin, Ireland
听鈥'Illegitimate' Knowledge: Transitional Justice and Adopted People?鈥
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4:45 PM听听听听 COFFEE BREAK
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5:00 PM 听听听 DISCUSSION SESSION II: Stakeholders in Conversation
Moderator: Maeve O鈥橰ourke, Senior Research and Policy Officer, Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Dublin; Legal Advisor, Justice for Magdalenes Research
Catriona Crowe, Archivist
Conall 脫 F谩tharta, Journalism, Irish Examiner, Cork, Ireland听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听
Colm O鈥橤orman, International Human Rights, Amnesty International Ireland, Dublin Ireland
Mari Steed, Co-Founder, Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFMR) and Adoption Rights Alliance (ARA)
Mary Burke, Associate Professor,听 Department of English, University of Connecticut, USA
Mary Burke is Associate Professor of English at UConn, where she directs the Irish Literature Concentration. She is author of 鈥Tinkers鈥: Synge and the Cultural History of the Irish Traveller听(Oxford) and has published widely on twentieth-century Irish drama and culture and on fiction writers as diverse as Edna O鈥橞rien, Henry James, and Bram Stoker. She has held the NEH Keough-Naughton Fellowship at University of Notre Dame and is current MLA Irish Literature Forum Executive Committee Chair. Recent articles consider the politics of postwar Irish couture, the Celtic Tiger and motherhood in Claire Kilroy鈥檚 oeuvre, correlations between the Synge and Stravinsky riots, and Croke Park鈥檚 1966 Easter Rising commemoration. Her forthcoming听James Joyce Quarterly听article examines elided women鈥檚 traditions and 鈥淭he Dead.鈥
Thomas M. Crea, Associate Professor, School of Social Work, Boston College
Thomas M. Crea, PhD, MSW, is an Associate Professor, Chair of the Global Practice Concentration, and Assistant Dean of Global Programs at the School of Social Work, Boston College.听 A former licensed clinical social worker, Dr. Crea鈥檚 research focuses on the intersections of child welfare, refugee social protection and education, and strengthening humanitarian aid and international development programs. His research spans multiple countries, which in addition to the U.S. have included Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya, Malawi, Palestine, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
Catriona Crowe, Archivist
Catriona Crowe is former Head of Special Projects at the National Archives of Ireland. She was Manager of the Census Online Project, which placed the Irish 1901 and 1911 censuses online free to access. She is editor of Dublin 1911, published by the Royal Irish Academy in late 2011. She presented the RTE documentary, Ireland before the Rising, which was shown in February 2016. She is Chairperson of the Irish Theatre Institute, which promotes and supports Irish theatre and has created an award-winning website of Irish theatre productions. She is an Honorary President of the Irish Labour History Society, and a former President of the Women鈥檚 History Association. She is Chairperson of the SAOL Project, a rehabilitation initiative for women with addiction problems, based in the North Inner City, and also Chairperson of the Inner City Renewal Group, which delivers employment and welfare rights advice and support to the community in the North Inner City. She is a member of the Royal Irish Academy.
Eileen Donovan Kranz, Associate Professor of the Practice, English Department, Boston College
Eileen Donovan Kranz, Associate Professor of the Practice of English at Boston College, is a writer who teaches writing and is the managing editor of听.听 She invites you to peruse and perhaps assign works from this accomplished annual essay collection written and edited by 精东影业 undergraduates. Her own work in creative nonfiction and fiction concerns family and memory and can be found in The Morning News, Literary Mama, YARN, among other publications. Donovan-Kranz' maternal grandparents emigrated from Ireland (Waterford and Wexford) in the 1920s. Her family now believes her grandmother鈥檚 sister (always referred to as 鈥減oor, poor Maggie鈥) was a Magdalen survivor. A sibling raised Maggie鈥檚 only child as her own until his teens. After being introduced to Maggie as an 鈥渁unt鈥 in the 1940s, this son lived with her until her death in the 1980s.
Mairead Enright, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Birmingham, UK
M谩ir茅ad Enright joined Birmingham Law School in 2016. Her research is in feminist legal studies and law and religion. She is especially interested in how patriarchal legal and religious structures can be resisted and changed. Her research in this respect looks beyond traditional methods of law reform to consider illegality, protest, private litigation, and experimental legal drafting. She is Co-Director of the听Northern/Irish Feminist Judgments Project, and often consults with and advises groups campaigning around reproductive rights and historical gender-based violence in Ireland.听
Twitter: @maireadenrighty
Felice Gaer, Director, 听Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, USA; and Vice Chair, UN Committee Against Torture* (*for identification purposes only)
Felice Gaer is Director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Human Rights, based in New York. She is also vice chair and an independent expert member of the UN Committee against Torture, which monitors compliance of 163 states with the Convention against Torture. Gaer was formerly a Commissioner and chair of the Bipartisan federal US Commission on International Religious Freedom, nominated by Congressional Democrats and later, President Obama. An expert on the UN and member of the Council on Foreign Relations, she was Regents Professor at UCLA, recipient of the First Freedom Center鈥檚 National Religious Freedom Award, and of the UNA-USA鈥檚 Louis Sohn Award in International Human Rights. In 2018, she received a Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Gaer has been active in ensuring that women鈥檚 rights are addressed as human rights, and that violence against women, including rape, has been addressed effectively by UN human rights bodies. At Ireland鈥檚 UNCAT examination in Geneva on May 24, 2011, Felice Gaer questioned the government's statement that "the vast majority鈥 of women entered Magdalene Laundries 鈥.鈥 In 2017, she was rapporteur on the UNCAT review of Ireland鈥檚 second report and has continued to engage the government on its听听on these matters under the Convention. See听, esp paras 19-23.
Twitter: @JBI_HumanRights
James Gallen, Assistant Professor, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, Ireland
James Gallen is a lecturer in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University. His PhD thesis examined the relationship between transitional justice, peace-building and economic development in international law. His research interests include human rights, international law and legal and transitional justice. His present research agenda and recent publications concern transitional justice and jus post bellum, and a transitional justice approach to historical abuse in consolidated democracies, especially child sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. In 2017 he was appointed as an Expert Advisor on Transitional Justice by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs to advise on a transitional justice approach to the issue of Mother and Baby Homes.
Twitter: @jamesgallen
Paul Michael Garrett, Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science and Sociology, National University of Ireland-Galway, Ireland
Paul Michael Garrett works at NUI Galway in the Republic of Ireland. In 2018 he was Visiting Professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) and he has presented keynote papers at international conferences across Europe and in China. Contemporary neoliberalism and historical practices of marginalisation and domination are some of his key scholarly concerns. For over ten years, he has been a member of the editorial collective of Critical Social Policy.听He is the author of many internationally peer-reviewed articles and several books including, in 2018,听Welfare Words听(Sage) and听Social Work and Social Theory: Second Edition(Policy Press).
Mary Harney, College of the Atlantic, ME, USA
Mary Harney was born in the Bessborough Mother and Baby home, in Cork City, Ireland in 1949. She was taken from her mother at age 2 and put briefly into foster care before being sentenced by a judge in Cork County Court to twelve-and-a-half years in the Good Shepherd鈥檚 Industrial School, also in Cork. During her stay in the industrial school, Mary was told that her mother was dead, but upon her release at age 16, she discovered that her mother was alive and living in the UK. She traced her mother by herself, and they were reunited when Mary was 17. Since that time, she has been a soldier, a teacher, a firefighter, a part-time lecturer, and a construction worker/painter. She earned her BA in human ecology at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbour, ME and a MA in Irish Studies at National University Ireland鈥揋alway. She was also awarded an honorary masters in philosophy from the College of the Atlantic. Mary has lived in the US since 1992.
Marjorie Howes, Associate Professor, English & Irish Studies, Boston College
Marjorie Howes teaches English at Boston College.听 She is the author of听Yeats's Nations: Gender, Class, and Irishness听(1996) and听Colonial Crossings: Figures in Irish Literary History(2006).听 She is the co-editor of听The Cambridge Companion to W. B. Yeats听(2006) and听Yeats and Afterwords听(2014), and a contributing editor to听The Field Day Anthology of Irish Women's Writing听(2012).
Patricia Lundy, Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland
Patricia Lundy received her PhD from Queen鈥檚 University Belfast in 1993. In 2016, Patricia was awarded a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship. She was the recipient of a British Academy Senior Research Fellowship in 2009/2010 and has received other grants from prestigious funding bodies including the Nuffield Foundation, Irish Academy and British Academy.听Her research has also been funded by Community Relations Council, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and European Union鈥檚 Peace funding.
Patricia's research has focused on post-conflict transformation, mechanisms for 鈥渄ealing with the past,鈥 鈥渢ruth鈥 recovery and the politics of memory. She has researched both community-based 鈥渢ruth鈥 recovery processes and official police-led historical conflict-related inquiries. Her in-depth study of the Police Service Northern Ireland鈥檚, Historical Enquiries Team achieved considerable media coverage and impact and听听has been widely regarded in changing the landscape in dealing with the past in NI.
Her most recent work is a major empirical study of historic child abuse. She is committed to 鈥渂ottom-up鈥 participatory approaches and a desire to ensure that survivor鈥檚 needs drive the form that redress takes. In this regard, Patricia was instrumental in working with survivor groups to set up a panel of experts on redress. In collaboration with Professor Kathleen Mahoney (Calgary University), she has published a number of practical and policy relevant reports designed to assist redressing historic child abuse, including a framework for compensation. She is committed to linking academia to the wider community and strives to make her research impact positively on beneficiaries.
M. Brinton Lykes, Professor, School of Education, Co-Director, Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Boston College
M. Brinton Lykes is Professor of Community-Cultural Psychology and Co-Director of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Boston College. Her anti-racist feminist activist scholarship focuses on: (1) violence against women and children in armed conflict and post-conflict (sic) transitions; and, (2) migration and post-deportation human rights violations and resistance. She has published extensively in refereed journals and edited volumes, co-edited four books, co-authored four others and is co-editor-in-chief of the听International Journal of Transitional Justice.
Gordon Lynch, Michael Ramsey Professor of Modern Theology, University of Kent, UK听
Gordon Lynch is Michael Ramsey Professor of Modern Theology at the University of Kent. He has undertaken extensive research into the history of the UK child migration schemes and is the author of听Remembering Child Migration: Faith, Nation-Building and the Wounds of Charity听(Bloomsbury, 2015). He served as one of two lead expert witnesses for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) investigation into the sexual abuse of British child migrants during 2016/17 and previously acted as the academic curator of a major national exhibition on the history of UK child migration programmes at the V&A Museum of Childhood in London.
Twitter: @gordon_lynch
Ruth Rubio Mar铆n, Professor of Constitutional Law, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain; Director of the Gender and Governance Programme at the School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute, Florence, Italy
Ruth Rubio Mar铆n is Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Sevilla, Director of the Gender and Governance Programme at the School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute, Florence, and a member of the Faculty of The Hauser Global Law School Program at New York University. Her research represents an attempt to understand how public law creates categories of inclusion and exclusion around different axis including gender, citizenship, nationality and ethnicity. Professor Rubio is the author of over 40 articles and author, editor and co-editor of 8 books (plus two in press). She is currently working on the book The Disestablishment of Gender in the New Millennium Constitutionalism. As a consultant and activist, Rubio has worked for several national and international institutions and agencies including with the UN and the EU, and has extensive in-country experience in dealing with reparations in post-conflict societies, including in Morocco, Nepal and Colombia. Her image will be included in the Legacy Wall to be installed in the new building of the International Criminal Court in The Hague to honor her lifelong commitment to gender justice.
Laura McAtackney, Associate Professor, Archaeology and Heritage Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark
Laura McAtackney is an Associate Professor in the Department of Archaeology & Heritage Studies at Aarhus University, Denmark. An archaeologist by training, her current research uses contemporary and historical archaeological approaches, and its heritage implications, to explore areas as diverse as material barriers in post-conflict Northern Ireland, female experiences of political imprisonment during the Irish Civil War and race/social relations on early modern Montserrat in the Caribbean (the latter is as a member of the SLAM project at Wayne State University and Brown University in the US).听
Twitter: @LMcAtackney
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Claire McGettrick, PhD Candidate School of Sociology, University College Dublin; Irish Research Council, Government of Ireland; and Co-founder, Justice for Magdalenes Research, Ireland
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Claire McGettrick is an Irish Research Council postgraduate scholar at the School of Sociology in University College Dublin. Her PhD research is reconstructing the progression of formal and informal adoption in Ireland, as well as examining how adopted adults and children have been classified and defined in the discourses of expert knowledge, and how they have been managed in adoption policy and practice. Claire is also an adopted person and survivors' rights advocate. She is co-founder of Justice for Magdalenes (now JFM Research) and Adoption Rights Alliance. She coordinates the Magdalene Names Project, which has recorded the details of over 1,600 women who lived and died behind laundry walls. Claire also jointly coordinates the Clann Project with Dr Maeve O'Rourke. The Clann Project provides free statement-drafting assistance to witnesses who wish to give evidence to the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation.
Twitter: @cmcgettrick
Rosemary Nagy, Associate Professor, Department of Gender Equality and Social Justice, Nipissing University, Canada
Rosemary Nagy is Associate Professor in the department of Gender Equality and Social Justice at Nipissing University in North Bay, Canada.听 She lives and works in Robinson-Huron Treaty territory on the traditional lands of the Anishnaabeg People, specifically, the Nipissing First Nation.听 Rosemary has researched and published on transitional justice in South Africa, Rwanda and Canada.听 Her last project was on Indian Residential Schools and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.听 She continues to work on Indigenous-settler relationships, including through her current role as Co-Director of the听.听 Rosemary has published in the听International Journal of Transitional Justice,听Human Rights Review,听Third World Quarterly听and guest co-edited a special section on residential schools in the听Canadian Journal of Law and Society.
Joseph Nugent, Professor of the Practice, English Department & Irish Studies, Boston College
Boston College Professor of the Practice Joseph Nugent teaches the works of James Joyce, Digital Humanities, and Irish language. His research runs from Irish nationalism, through Irish modernism, to sensory studies and the application of digital technologies. He has published on Irish religious history and olfaction in nineteenth-century Ireland, and produced the e-books听Digital Dubliners and Jewels of the Irish Arts & Crafts Movement. His successful digital productions include the smartphone app听JoyceWays, and听Dubliners Bookshelf. 听His highly-acclaimed recent digital enterprise involved a virtual reality experience called听Joycestick, which offered an immersive realization of scenes from听Ulysses. His current interest turns to the area of Public Humanities: From听Page to Pod听is a classroom- and media based multidisciplinary enterprise designed to bring the works of Flann O鈥橞rien to a broad American audience.
Fionnuala N铆 Aol谩in, Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School, USA and University of Ulster, Northern Ireland
Professor of Law, Public Policy and Society at the University of Minnesota Law School and Professor of Law at the University of Ulster鈥檚 Transitional Justice Institute in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Professor N铆 Aol谩in is the recipient of numerous academic awards and honors including the Leverhulme Fellowship, Fulbright scholarship, the Alon Prize, the Robert Schumann Scholarship, a European Commission award, and the Lawlor fellowship. She has published extensively in the fields of emergency powers, conflict regulation, transitional justice and sex based violence in times of war. Her book听Law in Times of Crisis听(CUP 2006) was awarded the American Society of International Law鈥檚 preeminent prize in 2007鈥搕he Certificate of Merit for creative scholarship. Her book听On the Frontlines: Gender, War and the Post Conflict Process听was published by Oxford University Press (2011). Another book,听Exceptional Courts and Military Commissions in Comparative Perspective听was published in 2013 by Cambridge University Press (with Oren Gross). She recently edited the听Oxford Handbook on Gender and Conflict听(2017) and has published extensively on issues of gender and international law.
Professor N铆 Aol谩in is currently the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights while Countering Terrorism (3-year appointment). Previously, she was a representative of the prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at domestic war crimes trials in Bosnia (1996-97). In 2003, she was appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations as Special Expert on promoting gender equality in times of conflict and peace-making. In 2011, she was appointed as consultant jointly by the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights and UN WOMEN to prepare a Study on Reparations for Conflict Related Sexual Violence. N铆 Aol谩in has been nominated twice (2004 and 2007) by the Irish government to the European Court of Human Rights, the first woman and the first academic lawyer to be thus nominated. She was appointed by the Irish Minister of Justice to the Irish Human Rights Commission in 2000 and served until 2005.
Twitter: @NiAolainF
Katherine O鈥橠onnell, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, University College Dublin, Ireland and Justice for Magdalenes Research, Ireland
Katherine O鈥橠onnell is Assoc. Prof. History of Ideas, UCD School of Philosophy and is a member of Justice for Magdalenes Research. She was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to study for a Masters in English Literature at Boston College. She won a further fellowship to study at the University of California at Berkeley while completing her Ph.D. thesis on the Gaelic background to Edmund Burke's political thought. She was appointed as a College Lecturer in Women's Studies in UCD and went on to become Director of听 UCD Women's Studies Centre, a position she held for ten years until 2015. In 2016 she taught modules in Feminist Philosophy on the University of Oxford's B.Phil programme. In 2017 she was appointed to her current position as Assoc. Prof. in the History of Ideas at UCD. She has published widely in the history of sexuality and gender; and the cultural history of Eighteenth Century Ireland.
Twitter: @Ka_ODonnell
Conall 脫 F谩tharta, Senior News Reporter,听Irish Examiner, Ireland
Conall 脫 F谩tharta听is a Senior News Reporter with the听Irish Examiner听newspaper in Ireland. His work is primarily investigative in nature and focuses on Ireland's treatment of unmarried women and related practices鈥搃ncluding forced and illegal adoption, infant trafficking, falsification of identities and records, medical and vaccine trials, infant mortality and the use of infant remains for anatomical research. He has also written extensively about Ireland's Magdalen Laundries and reported on recent advocacy campaigns, government inquiries, and redress schemes. In 2018 the Law Society of Ireland recognized his contribution to the pursuit of human rights and social justice for vulnerable citizens by awarding him a merit certificate citing his work on the Magdalene Redress scheme as "of enormous national significance.鈥 In 2011, he received a Justice Media Award from the Law Society for a series of articles on illegal adoption and State failures to legislate for adoption tracing rights. He regularly features as a contributor on national current affairs broadcasts on both television and radio, including听Prime Time,听Morning Ireland,听Drivetime,听Today with The Pat Kenny Show,听and听Tonight with Vincent Browne. Writing in the听London Review of Books, Ireland's first Laureate for Fiction Anne Enright best captured the significance of his work: "In the听Examiner,听Conall 脫 F谩tharta keeps breaking a story about Bessborough, another Mother and Baby Home, also in Cork."
Twitter: @ococonuts
Colm O鈥橤orman, Executive Director, Amnesty International Ireland; Founder and Former Director of One in Four, Ireland
Colm O鈥橤orman is the Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland. He is the founder and former Director of One in Four, the national non-governmental organisation that supports women and men who have experienced sexual violence. In this role Colm was instrumental in the establishment of the Ferns Inquiry, the first state investigation into clerical sexual abuse. The inquiry investigated the management of child sexual abuse concerns and allegations by the Catholic Church and by State authorities. Prior to his role with One in Four, Colm worked as a psychotherapist in his own practice in London.
He has made a number of documentary films, including the BAFTA awarding winning听A Family Affair听(2000),听Suing the Pope听(2002) and听Sex Crimes and The Vatican, which he presented for B精东影业 Panorama in 2006. In 2005, Colm O鈥橤orman helped to establish Gorey Educate Together National School, a multi-denominational, co-educational, child centred, and democratically run primary school. Colm was one of the lead campaigners in the Marriage Equality Referendum held in May 2015.
Colm has also served as a member of the Irish Senate, having been appointed as a Senator in May 2007. He is a regular media commentator and contributor, and essayist writing and听听extensively on social justice and human rights. He is also the author of a best-selling memoir,听Beyond Belief听(Hodder & Stoughton 2010). Colm lives in County Wexford with his family.
Twitter: @Colmogorman
Arissa Oh, Associate Professor, History Department, Boston College
Arissa H. Oh is Associate Professor in the History Department at Boston College, where she teaches and researches migration in US history, particularly in relation to race, gender, and kinship. Her first book,听To Save the Children of Korea: The Cold War Origins of International Adoption听(Stanford University Press, 2015), examined how and why Korean adoption began in the aftermath of the Korean War, and how it developed into international adoption in subsequent decades. She is currently working on a history of marriage migration and immigration fraud since the 19th century.
Maeve O鈥橰ourke, Senior Research and Policy Officer and Legal Advisor, Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Justice For Magdalenes Research, Ireland
Dr Maeve O鈥橰ourke works as Senior Research and Policy Officer at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. She has also acted as voluntary legal advisor to Justice for Magdalenes Research since 2009, and she is a co-director of the voluntary Clann Project (an evidence-gathering initiative between JFMR, Adoption Rights Alliance and global law firm Hogan Lovells). Maeve is a barrister at 33 Bedford Row, London, and she is also called to the New York State Bar. Prior to joining the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Maeve practised in human rights, family law and international mass tort/environmental claims. She worked for the international women鈥檚 rights organisation Equality Now, and as a researcher at Harvard Law School and the University of Minnesota Law School Human Rights Center. Maeve teaches university human rights-related courses regularly. She is a graduate of University College Dublin, Harvard Law School and Birmingham Law School. Her PhD, awarded in 2018, focused on the potential for the rule against torture and ill-treatment in international human rights law to better protect older people.
Twitter: @maeveorourke
Emer O鈥橳oole,听Associate Professor of Irish Performance Studies, Concordia University
Emer O'Toole is Associate Professor of Irish Performance Studies at the School of Irish Studies, Concordia University. Her current research, funded by the Fonds de Recherche de Quebec and by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, examines the relationship between aesthetics and activism in contemporary Irish theatre. She is author of the book听Girls Will Be Girls听and co-editor of the collection听Ethical Exchanges in Translation, Adaptation and Dramaturgy. Her academic work appears in international peer-reviewed journals including听Sexualities,听LIT听(Literature, Interpretation, Theory),听脡颈谤别-滨谤别濒补苍诲, and听Target. She is also a regular contributor to听The Guardian听and听The Irish Times.
Twitter: @Emer_OToole
Ca铆triona Palmer, Author, Journalist, Washington, DC. USA
Ca铆triona Palmer is the author of the bestselling memoir, An Affair with my Mother: A Story of Adoption, Secrecy and Love (Penguin, 2016). A writer, journalist, and Irish adoptee, Ca铆triona is a frequent commentator on the legacy of secrecy and shame generated by Ireland鈥檚 closed adoption system. Her commentary has appeared in the Irish Times, the Irish Independent, RTE radio, the B精东影业 and CNN. Ca铆triona鈥檚 latest book,听Climate Justice, co-written with former President of Ireland and UN Special Envoy on Climate Change, Mary Robinson, will be published by Bloomsbury in September 218. A native of Dublin, and a graduate of University College Dublin and Boston College, Ca铆triona now lives in Washington, DC with her husband and three children.
Twitter: @CaitrionaPalmer
Emilie Pine, Associate Professor, School of English, Drama and Film, University College Dublin, Ireland
Emilie Pine is Associate Professor of Modern Drama at University College Dublin. Emilie is Editor of the听Irish University Review听and Director of the Irish Memory Studies Network. She is PI of the Irish Research Council New Horizons project Industrial Memories, a digital humanities re-reading of the Ryan Report on institutional child abuse. Emilie has published widely in the field of Irish studies and memory studies, including听The Politics of Irish Memory: Performing Remembrance in Contemporary Irish Culture听(Palgrave, 2011) and听The Memory Marketplace: Performance, Testimony and Witnessing in Contemporary Theatre(forthcoming Indiana University Press, 2019). Her first collection of personal essays,听Notes to Self, is published by Tramp Press (2018).
Twitter: @emiliepine
Sin茅ad Ring, Senior Lecturer, Kent Law School, University of Kent, UK
Sin茅ad is a Senior Lecturer at Kent Law School in England. She is the author of numerous articles on historical child sexual abuse, and the central question animating her research focuses on what law's engagement with reports of historical child sexual abuse reveals about shared public understandings of fairness, victimhood, and the nation. Her work has been published in听Social and Legal Studies, The International Journal of Evidence and Proof, 鈥鈥媋nd听The International Journal for Crime Justice and Social Democracy. She is the author (with Kate Gleeson [Macquarie] and Kim Stevenson [Plymouth]) of听Legal Responses to Historical Child Sexual Abuse: Critical and Comparative Perspectives 鈥(Routledge, forthcoming 2019). In addition to historical child sexual abuse, Sin茅ad also researches the criminal law on rape and is currently working on a project on the criminalisation of so-called 'stealthing' (non-consensual condom removal during sex).
At Kent, Sin茅ad teaches The Law of Evidence and Law, Literature and Film听and she is a Director of Graduate Studies. Sin茅ad is also a member of the University of Kent's Working Group on Sexual Violence against Students.
Twitter: @sineadring
Connie Roberts, Poet, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Creative Writing, Hofstra University, New York
Connie Roberts, a County Offaly native, is the author of听Little Witness听(Arlen House, Dublin),
a collection of poetry inspired by her experiences growing up in an industrial school in the Irish midlands. Her 14 siblings were also reared in Irish orphanages. Writing in听The New York Times, Dan Barry stated, 鈥淚n her vivid recounting of a childhood spent in one of Ireland鈥檚 notorious industrial schools, truth hides behind no 鈥榤asquerade of metaphors鈥. Roberts honors children, holds adults accountable, and finds acceptance, all with a reportorial rigor that, through her soaring language and big-hearted vision, achieves poetic art. 听This is the poetry of rock-hard experience. It will skin your soul.鈥 She is the recipient of the Patrick Kavanagh Award and the Listowel Writers鈥 Week Poetry Collection Award.听 She was selected as the Exceptional Offaly Person of the Year 2016. She teaches creative writing at Hofstra University, New York.
Website:听听
Colin Smith, Barrister, Bar of Ireland and School of Law, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Colin Smith is a barrister practising in the field of human rights law. He specialises in representing victims of trafficking in human beings. He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the School of Law at Trinity College Dublin and lectures in anti-trafficking law at the Honorable Society of King鈥檚 Inns. He is a member of the Human Rights Committee of the Bar Council of Ireland and a former chairman of the Irish Society of International Law. He has worked as a consultant for the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the International Bar Association and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Before practising in Dublin, he worked in Chambers at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in Freetown and in the War Crimes Division of the Office of the Prosecutor at the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo.
James M. Smith, Associate Professor, English Department, Boston College
James M. Smith is an Associate Professor in the English Department and Irish Studies Program at Boston College. He also directs the university鈥檚听Lowell Humanities Series. He has published articles in Signs, The Journal of the History of Sexuality, 脡颈谤别-滨谤别濒补苍诲 and ELH. His book, Ireland鈥檚 Magdalen Laundries and the nation鈥檚 architecture of containment 听(U of Notre Dame P/Manchester UP) was published in 2007 and was awarded The Donald Murphy Prize for Distinguished First Book by the American Conference for Irish Studies. Together with Maria Luddy, he co-edited the collection Children, Childhood and Irish Society: 1500 to the Present (Four Courts, 2014). And, he edited Two National Tales: Maria Edgeworth鈥檚 Castle Rackrent and Sydney Owenson鈥檚 听The wild Irish girl (Houghton Mifflin, 2005 ). He is also a member of the advocacy group Justice For Magdalenes Research (JFMR).
Mari Steed, Co-founder, Justice for Magdalenes Research; US Coordinator, Adoption Rights Alliance, USA
Mari Steed was one of more than 2,000 children exported from Ireland to the US, and was born in the Bessboro mother-baby home in Cork. She serves as US Coordinator with Adoption Rights Alliance. In 2003, Mari co-founded Justice for Magdalenes (now known as Justice for Magdalenes Research), an advocacy organization which successfully campaigned for a State apology and restorative justice for survivors of Ireland鈥檚 Magdalene Laundries. She currently serves as the group鈥檚 Committee Director. In 2016, ARA and JFMR launched Clann Project, a comprehensive fact/testimony-gathering effort to shadow Ireland鈥檚 current Commission of Inquiry into Mother-Baby Homes and Adoption, and to provide those wishing to give sworn testimony to the Commission pro bono legal advice and support. She also serves as vice president on the executive committee of US adoptee rights organization, Bastard Nation.
Twitter: @culchiewoman听
Shurlee Swain, Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Education and the Arts, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia
Professor Shurlee Swain is a social historian whose work has informed several of the recent Australian inquiries into past child welfare practices. She is a fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the Academy of the Humanities in Australia, the historian Chief Investigator on the national Find & Connect web resource project and a consultant on various adoption related research projects. She has been CI on ARC Discovery and Linkage programs throughout her academic career and has published widely particularly at the intersection of welfare and history, including her recent co-written history of adoption in Australia, The Market in Babies (2013).
Dr. Katharine Young, Associate Professor of Law, Boston College Law School
Katharine Young is an Associate Professor of Law at Boston College Law School, where she teaches the law of contracts, comparative and international human rights law, and feminist legal theory. Her scholarship focuses on issues of comparative public law and theory, and positive state obligations, and her book,听Constituting Economic and Social Rights听(Oxford University Press, 2012), was published in Oxford鈥檚 Constitutional Theory series. Her co-edited collection (with Kim Rubenstein),听The Public Law of Gender: from the Local to the Global(Cambridge University Press, 2016) appeared in the series Connecting International Law with Public Law. She has also published a casebook, with James S. Rogers,听The Law of Contracts(Foundation Press, 2017). Professor Young is currently editing听The Future of Economic and Social Rights听(Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). Prior to joining the faculty of Boston College Law School, Professor Young was an Associate Professor at the Australian National University College of Law, and earlier worked with Paul, Weiss in New York, Allens in Melbourne, and clerked with the Hon. Justice Michael Kirby AC CMG of the High Court of Australia. She received her first law degree from the University of Melbourne, and LL.M. and S.J.D. degrees from Harvard Law School, and also studied law at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. She was a fellow at Harvard University鈥檚 Project on Justice, Welfare and Economics, and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. 听
Dr Katherine Zappone, TD, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Government of Ireland
Activist, social justice campaigner and an Independent Minister of the Irish Government, Dr Katherine Zappone is a leading human rights figure in Ireland. Her leadership on complex issues surrounding Mother and Baby Homes has brought a strong transitional justice focus to the Irish Government鈥檚 response. She established a ground-breaking听听to ensure no decisions are taken without the strong input and voice of survivors. Prior to entering politics Dr Zappone and her late spouse Dr Ann Louise Gilligan set Ireland on the road to Marriage Equality with legal action in Ireland鈥檚 highest courts.听 Together they also co-founded, an organization that combats inter-generational poverty through education and training. Since its inception, An Cos谩n has grown into Ireland's largest community education organization. Dr Zappone also lectured for a decade in Trinity College Dublin on ethics, human rights and practical theology.听 She holds a PhD from Boston College, an MBA from the Smurfit Business School and an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from University College Dublin鈥檚 School of Law.
Twitter: @KZapponeTD
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Additional Resources for Teachers and Students
We are pleased to offer the following online resources to encourage attendees, teachers, students, and members of the community to enhance their engagement with this conference. This conference is free and open to the public, and we encourage 精东影业 students, faculty, and community members to participate in the conversation. Resources provided cover both the Irish Institutional Complex and the field of Transitional Justice more generally. 鈥婩or speakers鈥 book titles, please see their short bios on the 鈥淎bout the Speakers鈥 page. Articles in academic journals are available to members of the 精东影业 community through the University Libraries听.
TEACHABLE TEXTS/CONTEXTS鈥擨reland鈥檚 Institutional Complex:
Videos
Dublin Honours Magdalenes 鈥,鈥 6 June 2018
Felice Gaer,听, 24 May 2011
Felice Gaer,听, 28 July 2017 (start at 2.18 min)
Maeve O鈥橰ourke, 鈥溾 TEDxUCD, 2015.
TrueTube Educational Video, 鈥溾
New York Times, 鈥?鈥
鈥溾
鈥溾
Ca铆triona Palmer, 鈥,鈥 Adoptees on Relationships Podcast
John Pascal Rodgers, featured in 鈥溾 documentary (prod. Sunset Presse) [also features Derek Leinster and the Protestant Bethany Home survivors campaign]
Guardian, 鈥溾
Speeches
Dr Katherine Zappone, TD, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, 鈥,鈥 26th July 2018
Research Projects Websites:
University College Dublin/Irish Research Council,听听(includes links to survivor testimony)
Justice for Magdalenes Research,听
Justice for Magdalenes Research/Adoption Rights Alliance,听
Justice for Magdalenes Research,听
University College Dublin,听
Justice for Magdalenes Research,听
Journalism:
(See Conall 脫 F谩tharta鈥檚 wordpress site for his extensive investigative journalism on related matters:听; the following are a select few of 脫 F谩tharta鈥檚 articles)
鈥.鈥澨The Irish Examiner听25 June 2018.
鈥.鈥澨The Irish Examiner19 February 2018.
鈥,鈥澨The Irish Examiner听1 November 2017.
鈥,鈥澨The Irish Examiner听18 October 2017.
鈥.鈥澨The Irish Examiner听15 November 2016.
鈥.鈥澨The Irish Examiner听3 June 2015.
鈥.鈥澨The Irish Examiner听4 June 2015.
Recent Opinion Editorials:
James M. Smith, 鈥,鈥澨The Irish Times听9 November 2016.
Maeve O鈥橰ourke, 鈥,鈥澨The Irish Examiner听21 February 2018.
Emilie Pine, 鈥,鈥澨The Irish Times听14 April 2018.
Ca铆triona Palmer, 鈥,鈥澨The Irish Times听2 June 2018.
Claire McGettrick and Susan Lohan, 鈥,鈥澨The Irish Examiner听2 June 2018.
Katherine O鈥橠onnell, 鈥.鈥澨The Irish Times听5 June 2018.
James Smith, 鈥,鈥澨The Irish Examiner5 June 2018.
Una Mullally, 鈥,鈥澨The Irish Times听18 June 2018.
Fintan O鈥橳oole, 鈥,鈥澨The Irish Times听9 June 2018.
Long-form Journalism:
Clair Wills, "," The New York Review of Books 16 August 2018
Dan Barry, 鈥.鈥澨New York Times听28 October 2017.
Sarah Hampson, 鈥.鈥澨The Globe and Mail听(Canada) 29 September 2017.
Anne Enright, 鈥.鈥澨The London Review of Books听17 December 2015.
Polaneczky, Ronnie. 鈥.鈥澨Philadephia Magazine, 23 May 2013.
Academic Articles and Lectures/Talks related to the Justice for Magdalenes Campaign
Katherine O鈥橠onnell,听 鈥淎cademics Becoming Activists: Reflections on Some Ethical Issues of the Justice for Magdalenes Campaign.鈥澨Irishness on the Margins: Minority and Dissident Identities, edited by Pilar Villar-Arg谩iz, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2018, pp. 77-100.
Maeve O鈥橰ouke and James M. Smith. 鈥淚reland鈥檚 Magdalene Laundries: Confronting a History Not Yet in the Past.鈥澨A Century of Progress? Irish Women Reflect,听edited by Alan Hayes and M谩ire Meagher, Arlen House, 2016, pp. 107-34.
Maeve O鈥橰ourke, 鈥淭he Justice for Magdalenes Campaign.鈥澨Implementing International Human Rights: Perspectives for Ireland, edited by S. Egan, Bloomsbury, 2016. 153-78.
Claire McGettrick, 鈥.鈥 Critique of Chapter 16 of McAleese Report.
Smith, James M. 鈥溾 Stephen E. King Chair Lecture Series, University of Maine, 7 March 2018.
McGettrick, Claire. 鈥Magdalene Names Project鈥 Gender Arc Project seminar series, University of Limerick, 21st听November 2017.
Advocacy Organization Websites:
TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE
What is Transitional Justice? (Websites and Academic articles)
听鈥溾 ICTJ Factsheet.
Pablo DeGreiff, 鈥淎 Normative Conception of Transitional Justice,鈥澨Politorbis听50, 3 (2010): 17-29.
M. Brinton Lykes & Hugo van der Merwe, 鈥淓xploring/Expanding the Reach of Transitional Justice,鈥澨International Journal of Transitional Justice听11, 3 (November 2017): 371-77.
Fionnuala N铆 Aol谩in & Eilish Rooney, 鈥淯nderenforcement and Intersectionality: Gendered Aspects of Transition for Women,鈥澨International Journal of Transitional Justice听1, 3 (December 2007): 338-54.
Ruth Rubio-Marin, 鈥淩eparations for Conflict-related Sexual and Reproductive Violence: A Decalogue.鈥澨William and Mary Journal of Women and the Law听vol. 19, no. 1 (Fall 2012): 69-104.
Rosemary Nagy, 鈥淭ransitional Justice as Global Project: Critical Reflections,鈥澨Third World Quarterly听29, 2 (2008): 275-89.
Transitional Justice and Irish Institutional Abuse (Websites & Academic articles)
Emilie Pine, Susan Leavy, & Mark T. Keane, 鈥淩e-reading the Ryan Report: Witnessing via Close and Distant Reading,鈥澨脡颈谤别-滨谤别濒补苍诲: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Irish Studies听52, 1 & 2 (Spring/Summer 2017): 198-215.
Padraig McAuliffe, 鈥淐omprehending Ireland鈥檚 Post-Catholic Redress as a Form of Transitional Justice,鈥澨Oxford Journal of Law and Religion听6 (2017): 541-73.
James Gallen, 鈥淛esus Wept: The Roman Catholic Church, Child Sexual Abuse and Transitional Justice,鈥澨International Journal of Transitional Justice听10, 2 (July 2016): 332-49.
Anne-Marie McAlinden, 鈥淎n inconvenient truth: barriers to truth recovery in the aftermath of institutional child abuse in Ireland,鈥澨Legal Studies听33,2 (June 2013): 189-214.
Patricia Lundy and Kathleen Mahoney, 鈥淩epresenting Survivors: A critical analysis of recommendations to resolve Northern Ireland鈥檚 historical child abuse claims,鈥澨Annual Review of Interdisciplinary Justice Research. Representing Justice. 7 (Winter 2018): 258-91.
Paul Michael Garrett, 鈥淓xcavating the past: Mother and Baby Homes in the Republic of Ireland,鈥澨British Journal of Social Work听47, 2 (March 2017): 358-74.
Amnesty-International, Ireland,听. Carole Holohan (2011).
IRISH STATE COMMISSIONS OF INVESTIGATION, REPORTS & REDRESS SCHEMES
Ireland.听听(Ryan Report) [2009].
Ireland.听听[2002].
Ireland.听听(McAleese Report) [2013].
Ireland.听听(Quirke Report) [2013].
Ireland.听.
Ireland.听听(Walsh Report) [2013].
Ireland.听听(Harding Clark Report) [2016].
Wiki Pages:听;听;听;听;听;听
UNITED NATIONS CONVENTIONS RESEARCH SUBMISSIONS
UN Committee Against Torture:听
UN Universal Periodic Review:听
UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women:听
UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights:听
UN Human Rights Committee/International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights:听
UN Committee Against Torture:听
International Truth and Reconciliation Commissions Related to Institutional Abuse & Child Abuse:
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada:听
Australian Human Rights Commission听Bringing Them Home Report听(1997):听
Australian听听Project
Reconciliation Australia:听
Maine Wabinaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission:听
The organizers sincerely thank the co-sponsors of this conference as well as everyone who contributed to making it a reality.听 We appreciate your help and support. 鈥淭hank You!鈥
Special thanks to Irish artist and photographer Fiona Ward for permission to use her photographs and artwork for the conference website and program. Thanks also to Hugh Smith.
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Conference Co-Sponsors:
The Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences
The Center for Human Rights and International Justice
The Global Leadership Institute
The Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics
Thank You:
Christian Dupont, Burns Library; Peter Marino, Shaylonda Barton, Stephanie Querzoli, and Gaurie Pandy, Center for Centers;
Volunteers:
Annelise Gergen, Annesley Anderson, Brianna Hynes, Emily Casper, Hannah Clay, Jennifer Brown, Katie Brennan, Madison Cortez, Meg Holly, Megha Pancholi, Melissa Serre, Sabrina Hansen, Sophie Nunnally, Tadhg Malone, Kerry Simpson, Emily Lyons, Amirahg Orozco, Rachel Connelly, Matthew Mersky, Theodore Lehre
Organizing Comittee:
Dr. James M. Smith, Associate Professor, English and Irish Studies, Boston College
Dr. Katherine O鈥橠onnell, Associate Professor, Philosophy, University College Dublin
Dr. Maeve O鈥橰ourke, Senior Research and Policy Officer and Legal Advisor, Irish Council for Civil Liberties
Megan Crotty, PhD Candidate, English and Irish Studies, Boston College
The Conference will take place in Gasson Hall, 100, Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Ave., Chestnut Hill, 02467 on the Boston College Chestnut Hill Campus.
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Recent News
Abuse survivors need a truth-telling process
Minister for Children Katherine Zappone has said there is a need for a truth-telling process for victims and survivors of institutional abuse.|
Zappone to address Boston conference on abuse in Ireland
Minister for Children and Youth Affairs听听will be keynote speaker today at a conference at听听College in the US which will discuss how best to address abuse issues and their consequences in听. |
鈥榃e have one chance to get justice for babies found in septic tank鈥
Katherine Zappone has said that Ireland only has 鈥渙ne chance鈥 to get justice for the families of children buried at the Tuam mother and baby home.|
Travellers still marginalised, says Zappone
Minister听听has pointed to the marginalisation of Travellers in questioning if Ireland has really changed into a "republic of equality, justice and love". |
US calls for transparency from Irish State on child abuse and forced adoptions
Last week in Dublin, Minister for Children Katherine Zappone, T.D., announced the government鈥檚 decision听听where it is believed as many as 796 infant and child remains lie buried in a disused septic tank. |
Referendum may be needed on access to adoption files
Children鈥檚 Minister Katherine Zappone has indicated a referendum may be required to give adopted people full access to their records and birth information.|
Abuse victims to attend transitional justice event
Irish survivors of abuse will join international academics and activists in Boston today for a major conference on transitional justice.|
'We have only one chance to get Tuam investigation right' - Zappone
A听听identified human remains in 17 out of 20 chambers in an elongated structure within the boundaries of what is currently referred to as the memorial garden there. |
In the fall semester 2018, James Smith offered an undergraduate elective at Boston College entitled 鈥淥utcast Ireland: Pauper, Penitent Patients,鈥 where the students researched and designed poster-boards for presentation at the 鈥淭owards Transitional Justice鈥 conference:
Mary Cobble, Liza Frost, Isabelle Morford, Haley Walker, and Oliver Whitters,听How do I know who I am?: An Analysis of the Ramifications of Ireland's Adoption Policies, 2018.听
Tara Coffey, Meg Dolan, Isabel Rivera, and Daniel Walsh.听Narrating Neglect at Artane Industrial School, 2018.听
Meghan Dougherty, Sophia Fox, Megan Kelly, and Sydney Walters.听Making Visible the Truth of the Galway Magdalen Laundry, 2018.听
Audrey Ballard, Kathleen Flaherty, Taylor Puccini, and Jessica Rowe.听Confronting Compartmentalization: Bessboro Mother & Baby Home, 2018.听
Lyons, Emily.听House of the Good Shepherd Boston MA, 2018.听.听 听听