Mar 2Last night at The Hist: ‘This House Would Make the Catholic Church Pay Reparations’Last night I joined students of Trinity College Dublin and Neil Fox in a debate organised by The Hist on the following motion: ‘This House Would Make the Catholic Church Pay Reparations’. In preparing for this debate I relied heavily on an excellent article by Colin Smith BL and April…Human Rights9 min readHuman Rights9 min read
Jan 26, 2022The silencing of those subjected to forced family separationThe Government continues to stand by the deeply flawed findings of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation while publishing its Birth (Information and Tracing) Bill. Click here to read my related post focusing on the Bill’s contents. In order to understand the rationale behind the Birth (Information and…5 min read5 min read
Jan 21, 2022Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: An AnalysisHaving spent months scrutinising the Government’s General Scheme of the Birth (Information and Tracing) Bill, on 14 December 2021 the cross-party Joint Oireachtas Children Committee recommended 83 changes to the Bill’s provisions and its underlying policy. The Joint Committee members (uniquely for an Oireachtas Committee, predominantly female) worked thoroughly and…15 min read15 min read
Jun 1, 2021Children’s Rights and Alternative Care: Council of Europe’s Contribution to the UNCRC Day of General Discussion 20211 June 2021 Programme available here. Presentation by Dr Maeve O’Rourke, Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland Galway Good morning and thank you to the organisers of this day of discussion and to the other contributors. I am going to focus my presentation on the issue of…Gdpr12 min readGdpr12 min read
Mar 24, 2021Presentation slides for Irish Association of Social Workers / UCD webinar on 24 March 2021‘Protecting nursing home residents’ rights to family life: lessons for Ireland’Human Rights2 min readHuman Rights2 min read
Feb 24, 2021Dáil motion to #ExtendtheCommission24 February 2021 Last night, Minister Roderic O’Gorman announced that the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation has ‘retrieved the backup tapes containing the audio recordings from the Confidential Committee from their off-site storage’ and ‘agreed to deposit the audio recordings with the Department’. …Ireland9 min readIreland9 min read
Feb 21, 2021A Letter to Patsy McGarry, Joe Humphries and Sarah CareyA Letter to Patsy McGarry, Joe Humphries and Sarah Carey 21 February 2021 [From a woman who wishes to maintain her anonymity] To Patsy McGarry, Joe Humphreys (both Irish Times), Sarah Carey (Irish Independent) and any other media nay-sayers whose contributions on Twitter are far from enlightened and are contaminating…Ireland5 min readIreland5 min read
