Overview

A clear-eyed examination of Ireland and Northern Ireland’s efforts to provide justice for victims of institutional abuse.   REDRESS explores how Ireland and Northern Ireland have dealt with the past century’s legacy of institutional abuse, focusing on those who suffered in Magdalene Laundries, industrial and reformatory schools, homes for unwed mothers, and in the two countries’ closed and secretive adoption system. The authors of the essays collected here interrogate the structures that perpetuated widespread and systematic abuses in the past, and consider how political arrangements continue to exert power over survivors and their relatives, as well as controlling the remains and memorialization of the dead. The collection forensically examines both Ireland and Northern Ireland’s so-called “redress” schemes and investigations, and the statements of apology that accompanied them. With diverse and interdisciplinary perspectives, this collection considers how a survivor-centered approach to transitional justice might assist not only those personally affected by institutional abuses, but also policymakers, scholars, and the public at large. The editors of REDRESS 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).

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9781910820896

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Reviews

'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.; 'My mother was given a half hour's notice to get me ready to have me taken from her.' - The Journal, June 2022.; '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.; 'It is a brave, creative, radical and unflinching collection' - Lindsey Earner-Byrne, The Sunday Independent, August 2022.; '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.; 'It is a brave, creative, radical and unflinching collection, rooted in the concept of transitional justice' - ACIS, August 2022.; '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.; 'An Ongoing Injustice: State Responses to Historical Abuses in Ireland' - Maeve O'Rourke, The Irish Story, July 2022.; 'Lawyer calls for full baby homes inquiry instead of insincere remorse for survivors' - Nicola Byrne, Irish Mail on Sunday, June 2022.; '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.

"'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.; '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.; '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.; 'My mother was given a half hour's notice to get me ready to have me taken from her.' - The Journal, June 2022.; '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.; 'It is a brave, creative, radical and unflinching collection' - Lindsey Earner-Byrne, The Sunday Independent, August 2022.; '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.; 'It is a brave, creative, radical and unflinching collection, rooted in the concept of transitional justice' - ACIS, August 2022.; '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.; 'An Ongoing Injustice: State Responses to ""Historical"" Abuses in Ireland' - Maeve O'Rourke, The Irish Story, July 2022.; 'Lawyer calls for full baby homes inquiry instead of insincere remorse for survivors' - Nicola Byrne, Irish Mail on Sunday, June 2022.; '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."

Author Information

Katherine O'Donnell is associate professor of the History of Ideas, UCD School of Philosophy. The three co-editors recently co-authored Ireland and the Magdalene Laundries: A Campaign for Justice (Bloomsbury/I.B. Taurus, 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). The three co-editors recently co-authored Ireland and the Magdalene Laundries: A Campaign for Justice (Bloomsbury/I.B. Taurus, 2021). James M. Smith is an associate professor in the English department and Irish Studies Program at Boston College. He is author of Ireland's Magdalen Laundries and the Nation's Architecture of Containment (Notre Dame UP, 2007).

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