News

In the 2020/21 academic year, Human Rights Law Clinic LLM students James Conroy, Andrea Quinlan and Annmarie Townsend worked with Loughlin O’Nolan of Article 8 Advocacy, Cassie Roddy-Mullineaux of AWO data rights agency, and Claire McGettrick of Adoption Rights Alliance to research, design and publish a mini website within the www.datasubject.ie website entitled Mother and Baby Homes data protection hub https://datasubject.ie/mbh/. The project aimed (1) immediately to empower people affected by the Mother and Baby Homes and related unlawful adoption practices in their search for information, and (2) to emphasise for the public and those in power the relevance of GDPR to the questions of legislating for information access, and affected people’s immediate access to the archive of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation. In an accessible manner the site provides guides and templates to help individuals make subject access requests of all relevant bodies, and it further explains the legal framework of the GDPR and the factual background (including personal narratives, updates and news, and ways of participating in the public advocacy campaign for identity rights). The Irish Examiner published an opinion editorial by the students explaining their work.