Author Biography
Katherine O’Donnell is associate professor of the History of Ideas, UCD School of Philosophy. She is co-author of Ireland and the Magdalene Laundries: A Campaign for Justice (Bloomsbury/I.B.Tauris, 2021).
Maeve O’Rourke is assistant professor of human rights at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, School of Law, NUI Galway and a barrister (England & Wales) and Attorney at Law (New York). She is co-author of Ireland and the Magdalene Laundries: A Campaign for Justice (Bloomsbury/I.B.Tauris, 2021).
James M. Smith is an associate professor in the English department and Irish Studies Program at Boston College. He is co-author of Ireland’s Magdalen Laundries and the Nation’s Architecture of Containment (Notre Dame UP, 2007).
Description
How will Ireland redress its legacy of institutional abuse? What constitutes justice? What is Transitional Justice? How might democracy evolve if survivors' experiences and expertise were allowed to lead the response to a century of gender- and family separation-based abuses? REDRESS: Ireland's Institutions and Transitional Justice seeks the answers. This collection explores the ways in which Ireland – North and South – treats those who suffered in Magdalene Laundries, Mother and Baby Homes, County Homes, industrial and reformatory schools, and in a closed and secretive adoption system, over the last 100 years. The essays focus on the structures which perpetuated widespread and systematic abuses in the past and consider how political arrangements continue to exert power over survivors, adopted people and generations of relatives, as well as controlling the remains and memorialisation of the dead. As we mark the centenary of both jurisdictions on the island of Ireland, REDRESS: Ireland's Institutions and Transitional Justice forensically examines the two states' so-called ‘redress' schemes and investigations, and the statements of apology that accompanied them. With diverse and interdisciplinary perspectives, this collection considers how a Transitional Justice-based, survivor-centred, approach might assist those personally affected, policy makers, the public, and academics to evaluate the complex ways in which both the Republic and Northern Ireland (and other states in a comparative context) have responded to their histories of institutionalisation and family separation. Importantly, the essays collected in REDRESS: Ireland's Institutions and Transitional Justice seek to offer avenues by which to redress this legacy of continuing harms.
The Editors are donating all royalties in the name of survivors and all those affected by Ireland's carceral institutions and family separation to the charity Empowering People in Care (EPIC).
‘Redress, a volume edited by Katherine O’Donnell, Maeve O’Rourke and James M. Smith, brings together survivors, academics, and activists (and those who fit into multiple categories), demonstrating the varied types of expertise and knowledge, all of which are vital in uncovering the histories of institutionalisation and their myriad effects.’ - Australasian Journal of Irish Studies, 2024. Read the full review here.
'This truly outstanding academic endeavour convincingly argues for its timeliness. It illustrates continuity of institutional abuse in Ireland, as the state and religious congregations resist accepting responsibility for their roles.’ - Review of Irish Studies in Europe 6.1, 2023. Read the full review here.
'Most chapters are academic in character, but the reader will also find poetry, photography, creative writing, songs, journalism and survivors’ testimonies in this profoundly interdisciplinary volume.' - Historical Dialogues, Justice, And Memory Network, April 2023. Read the full review here.
'The collection snaps our mind’s eye from the past and handwringing over what we did or did not know, could or should have done differently. These problems confront us with just as much urgency today.' - Critical Social Policy, March 2023. Read the full review here.
‘The contributors to this volume offer a different perspective, one that draws on the pain and truth-telling of survivors themselves.’ - James M Smith, The Irish Times, June 2022. Read the full article here.
'My mother was given a half hour’s notice to get me ready to have me taken from her.' - The Journal, June 2022. Read the full extract here.
'Redress should be read by anyone who cares about the vulnerable, & those who can influence how they are treated today.' - Tina Neylon, The Irish Examiner, October 2022. Read the full review here.
'It is a brave, creative, radical and unflinching collection' - Lindsey Earner-Byrne, The Sunday Independent, August 2022. Read the full review here.
'This is a compelling collection of essays, testimonies, analysis & interrogation. From the loss & denial of identity of the survivor, to the empty rhetorical gestures of state & church, to the closure of access to truth' - Christopher Stanley, The Village, August 2022. Read the full review here.
'It is a brave, creative, radical and unflinching collection, rooted in the concept of transitional justice' - ACIS, August 2022. Read the full article here.
‘There isn’t a book long enough to contain the stories of the suffering endured by all mothers and their children over the last century, but this one at least puts their experiences to the fore.’ - Clodagh Finn, Irish Examiner, June 2022. Read the full review here.
'An Ongoing Injustice: State Responses to "Historical" Abuses in Ireland' - Maeve O'Rourke, The Irish Story, July 2022. Read the full extended extract here.
'The collection snaps our mind’s eye from the past and handwringing over what we did or did not know, could or should have done differently. These problems confront us with just as much urgency today. So, what is it we are going to do now? - Louise Brangan, Critical Social Policy, March 2023. Read the full review here.
'Lawyer calls for full baby homes inquiry instead of insincere remorse for survivors' - Nicola Byrne, Irish Mail on Sunday, June 2022. Read the full interview here.
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