Justice for Magdalenes Research Resources:
(i) The Irish Research Council funded project “Magdalene Institutions: Recording an Oral and Archival History” currently has forty testimonies from Magdalene survivors, family members and key informants. Transcripts can be down-loaded and there are some audio-files. Some of these testimonies also refer to time spent in Industrial Schools and/or Mother and Baby Homes.
(ii) Back in 2018, JFMR conducted a formal “Listening Exercise” with 146 women attending the Dublin Honors Magdalenes event. The Department of Justice published the Volume 1: “Key Findings” Report in 2020, which summarizes survivors’ wishes at that time. The JFMR is still waiting for the Department to publish Volume 2 which will reproduce the women’s fully transcribed testimonies, and the website will be updated when that becomes available.
(iii) The CLANN Project began the process of making available Witness Statements submitted to the Mother and Baby Home Commission of Investigation this past January after the publication of the Final Report, again with consent. These statements were prepared with the pro bono assistance of Hogan Lovells law firm in the UK.
(iv) To coincide with the recent publication of the JFMR’s book, Ireland and the Magdalene Laundries: A Campaign for Justice (Bloomsbury/IB Tauris, 2021), they have made available a dedicated book archive with links to all materials referred to in the book not otherwise available in the public record. [All royalties from the book are being donated to the non-profit EPIC organization].
With thanks to James M. Smith for sharing this information.
Women's History Association of Ireland 