Six students from the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway have launched a podcast series titled ‘My Country is My Prison’.
The 5-episode podcast series highlights human rights violations perpetrated against women and children in Ireland’s institutions in the 20th century, using international human rights law as an illustrative framework.
The Master in Laws students who developed the podcast series are Emily Williams, Fernanda Souza, Holly Hayes, James Spillane, Maria Tapias Serrano and Shauna Joyce.
The aim is to provide a comprehensive overview of the institutions, the human rights violations (including how they continue today) and how transitional justice can be used for Ireland to respond to these systematic human rights violations.
All five episodes, along with two bonus episodes that feature the full length interviews conducted with survivor Elizabeth Coppin and Dr Conor O’Mahony, Special Rapporteur on Child Protection to Government of Ireland, 2019-22, are now available to listen to on Spotify.
The students will also host a conference for Irish secondary school teachers in October 2022.
Hosted in partnership with a group of academics, activists and teachers, the conference will focus on why this history should be taught in schools and how it may be implemented in Transition Year classrooms.
The conference will be an all-day event hosted on the NUI Galway campus, with a range of speakers and workshops throughout the day.
