REDRESS: Ireland’s Institutions and Transitional Justice (Paperback)

REDRESS: Ireland’s Institutions and Transitional Justice By Katherine O'Donnell (Editor), Maeve O'Rourke (Editor), James M. Smith (Editor) Cover Image
By Katherine O'Donnell (Editor), Maeve O'Rourke (Editor), James M. Smith (Editor)
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Description


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).

About the Author


Katherine O’Donnell is associate professor of the history of ideas at the University College Dublin School of Philosophy.

James M. Smith is an associate professor of English and Irish studies at Boston College.

Praise For…


"Redress should be read by anyone who cares about the vulnerable and those who can influence how they are treated today."
— Irish Examiner

"This edited volume of essays is a valuable contribution to that truth-seeking process and how the right to truth can inform redress in a scheme of transitional justice (from darkness to light)."
— Village Magazine

"This book is a committed work of academic activism."
— Critical Social Policy

"This truly outstanding academic endeavour convincingly argues for its timeliness. . . . Overall, this is an excellent, interdisciplinary book which will surely be discussed and made use of in the years to come in Irish studies and beyond."
— Review of Irish Studies in Europe

"Substantive. . . this book makes an impression."
— Historical Dialogues

"A powerful account of abuse in Irish institutions. . . . Questions of how archives are accessed and who gets to access them should be at the forefront of historical scholarship, and this volume provides a compelling and powerful discussion about how academics, the state, and the wider public engage with concepts of narrative authority, control over knowledge, and the varying value placed on different types of evidence."
— Women's History Review


Product Details
ISBN: 9781910820896
ISBN-10: 191082089X
Publisher: University College Dublin Press
Publication Date: February 24th, 2023
Pages: 550