Dr Sinéad Ring was an invited contributor to Liveline on the 23rd April. The entire programme was dedicated to remembering Mr Michael O’Brien who passed away this week. Mr O’Brien created one of the most important moments in Irish public life when he spoke on live television in May 2009. With dignity and courage Mr O’Brien detailed his experiences of sexual violence as a child at an industrial school in Clonmel, and his treatment at the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. Sinéad spoke about the importance of young people learning about the industrial schools and the ways in which the State has responded to survivors’ calls for recognition and redress. Sinéad has created a module exploring this topic, and the State responses to the Mother and Baby Homes and the Magdalene Laundries. Historical Gendered Violence and the State is offered to students on the LLM programme and is one of the most popular modules. One of Sinéad’s former students, Caoimhe McGuinness (now a Judicial Assistant) called Liveline and spoke about the impact learning about Mr O’Brien’s intervention in 2009 had on her understanding of institutional abuse and State responses to survivors.
You can listen back to Liveline here, Sinead’s segment starts at 17:52.
Sinéad has written a piece for The Journal which is available here.
The School of Law and Criminology sends our deepest condolences to Mr. O’Brien’s family.