February NUI Galway History Society to Host Talk on Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes

An Cumann Staire, NUI Galway’s History Society will host a talk on Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes, delivered by Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley, NUI Galway Lecturer in the Discipline of History and an internationally recognized scholar of modern Irish history. The virtual event will take place on Wednesday, 24 February at 6pm over Zoom.

With the Irish government’s decision to seal records of the homes in late 2020, and the recent publication of the Commission of Investigation into the Mother and Baby Home’s final report, there has been confusion and disappointment into information surrounding the homes. This event aims to inform on what exactly the homes were, their distinction from the Magdalene laundries, and what happened to those who came to the homes.

Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley is an esteemed historian of gender, women and childhood in Ireland. She is co-principal investigator of the Tuam Oral History Project, which aims to form a public archive of stories from survivors of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home.

Grace Carolan, Auditor of An Cumann Staire, NUI Galway, said: “From Tuam to Thomastown, thousands of Irish woman and children passed through the mother and baby homes. We hope this event will help us educate ourselves on what happened to those within them, so please join us for an engaging evening of information on a subject less spoken about.”

The Zoom event is free to attend and open to the public. To book a place or for further information visit https://www.nuigalwayevents.ie/cumann-staire.

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