Institutions in Ireland Conference 2019

PRONI – Public Record Office of Northern Ireland AND Queens University Belfast

13 – 15 June 2019

#PAWIreland2019

Prisons, Asylums, Workhouses: Institutions in Ireland Conference 2019

From the late 18th century, residential institutions were built in ever-greater numbers in Ireland and elsewhere. As the numbers and types of institutions for care, confinement and/or reform multiplied during the 19th and into the 20th century, critics questioned their effectiveness, the living conditions prevailing within and their very humanity, questions that still loom large in Ireland, north and south, today. #PAWIreland2019 brings together researchers, professionals and artists from the US, Europe, Britain and Ireland, to discuss three centuries of institutional life in Ireland and the voices and spaces of the marginalised in Irish society. The conference promises to be thought-provoking, enlightening and truly memorable with 42 speakers from the US, Europe, Britain and Ireland covering institutions in all their historic diversity.

Co-organisers: Dr Gillian Allmond (QUB) and Triona Waters (University of Limerick)

PRONI Liaison: Dr Glynn Kelso

Committee: Dr Max Meulendijks, Dr Wills McNeilly, Clare Privilege, Oonagh Murray, Susan Clarke, Cathy McCusker, Dr David Bell

Supporters: We are very grateful for the financial and ‘in kind’ support of the School of Natural and Built Environment “Culture and Society” Research Cluster, Queen’s University Belfast and the following bodies, without whose assistance, this conference would not have been possible:

We would also like to thank Alison Lowry, artist, for the art installation that she has created specially for the conference, and which can be seen in the foyer of PRONI. The installation will remain in PRONI until 4 July 2019. Alison is currently also exhibiting her work at the National Museum, Collins Barracks in Dublin.

Postgraduate/ECR Bursaries: Congratulations to Victoria Pearson and Michael Robinson who have been awarded bursary funding. This was made possible through a conference organisation grant from the Royal Historical Society.

The call for papers is now closed and a provisional programme has been issued to all contributers by Dr Gillian Allmond and Triona Waters and is also available on this website. Please do not hesitate to contact irishinstitutions@gmail.com for any further queries.

The conference will take place over three days, 13th to 15 June 2019 at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), which is located in the Titanic Quarter of Belfast and Queen’s University Belfast, on the final day.

Conference events will include:

A wine reception and tour of Clifton House (former poorhouse for Belfast)
A conference dinner at Crumlin Road Gaol (including a tour of the former prison)
A walking tour of West Belfast led by former republican and loyalist prisoners.
PRONI staff will lead tours of the building during the conference and present selected archive records.

Thursday 13th to Saturday 15th June 2019

Public Records Office Northern Ireland (PRONI) and Queen’s University Belfast

Thursday 13th June (PRONI)

8.45-9.00	Arrival and welcome
9.00-9.10	Introductory remarks – Gillian Allmond
9.10-10.30	Session 1: Prisons Memory Archive Lorraine Dennis, Queen’s University Belfast Introduction to the Prisons Memory Archive Kate Keane, Queen’s University Belfast Archiving Conflict: Challenges and opportunities of cataloguing the PMA Collection Laney Lennox, University of Ulster What role do archives play in societal participation in the peace process? Sarah McDonagh, Queen’s University Belfast Creating Access to the Prisons Memory Archive Video Tours: Challenges and opportunities
10.30-10.50	Tea break
10.50-11.50	Session 2: Institutional lives through the archives Pauline Prior, Queen’s University Belfast (retired) Hospital or Prison? Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum for Ireland, Dundrum Brett Irwin, PRONI Throwing the Book at the Records: Voices from the Prison archives in PRONI Jayne Hutchinson, PRONI and Michelle Kelly, PRONI Understanding patient/inmate experiences through Board of Guardians and Asylum records in PRONI
11.50-12.50	Session 3: Institutional lives: art, craft and poetry Alison Lowry, Artist The Art of Remembering: the role of artwork in an emotional history of institutions James Ward, University of Ulster Writing the Asylum: Literary lives and after lives Erin Hinson, Queen’s University Belfast Craftwork, Cooperation, and Community: Loyalist handicrafts and welfare in the Maze/Long Kesh compound prison system Robert Niblock, Writer and Ex-Prisoner The practice of creativity in a prison environment
12.50-1.50	Lunch
1.50-3.10	Session 4: Health and Mortality in the Institution I Emer Dennehy, Archaeologist From incarcerator to saviour: Richmond Penitentiary and the cholera epidemic of 1832 Michelle McCann, Queen’s University Belfast ‘Swarming with vermin’: Investigating and managing inmate death at the gaol (1846-52) Aoife Bhreatnach, Independent Researcher Without a friend to mourn or cry: institutional burials in Cork city 1860-1950 Michael Robinson, University of Liverpool Forgotten Fatalities of the Great War: Irish asylums during the First World War, 1914- 1918
3.10-3.40	Tea break
3.40-5.00	Session 5: Health and Mortality in the Institution II Georgina Laragy,Trinity College, Dublin Workhouse burial grounds 1847-2019: historyand continuing significance Jennifer Pope, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick A “disastrous outbreak”: The 1908 Food Poisoning Epidemic at Mount St Vincent’s Orphanage, Limerick Patricia Marsh, PRONI ‘Sleepy sickness spreads’: encephalitis lethargica in Belfast Ruari-Santiago McBride, University of Limerick Contemporary prison healthcare reforms in the north of Ireland
5.00-6.00	Keynote speaker – Dr Olwen Purdue, Queen’s University Belfast Reframing welfare institutions: the workhouse in Irish urban life 1850-1914
7.00-9.00	Drinks Reception and tour at Clifton House
9.oo till late	Drinks at Sunflower bar

Friday 14^th June (PRONI)

9.00-10.20	Session 6: Institutional Landscapes and Buildings Patrick Quinlan, Architect The landscapes of Ireland’s pauper lunatic asylums Gillian Allmond, Queen’s University Belfast Bringing down the asylum walls: buildings and landscapes at Purdysburn, Belfast (1902-1913) Arlene Crampsie, University College Dublin Life at the edge: geographies of institutional landscapes in 19^th Century Ireland Glynn Kelso, PRONI Landscapes to confine and discourage: institutional buildings on the Ordnance Survey map
10.20-10.40	Tea Break
10.40-12.00	Session 7: Womens’ Lives and the Institution Grainne Blair, Independent Researcher Aspects of the Salvation Army in Ireland, 1880-1980: A different Institutional ‘Care Model’ Elaine Farrell, Queen’s University Belfast ‘They are prison companions’: nineteenth- century imprisoned women’s relationships Bridget Keown, Northeastern University Boston Psychological effects of the Easter Rising on female patients admitted to Richmond Asylum Lucy Simpson-Kilbane, University of Liverpool ‘Are the girls free?’: Containing ‘fallen women’ in post-independence Ireland
12.00-1.00	Session 8: Institutions of confinement and care: ideal and reality Coleman Dennehy, University of Limerick The house of correction in seventeenth- century Ireland Triona Waters, University of Limerick Darwin’s Epileptic Idiot and the Irish District Lunatic Asylum, 1827-1887 Rita McCarthy, University of Limerick From Workhouse to Mother and Baby Home: a County Clare institution
1.00 – 2.00	Lunch
2.00-3.20	Session 9: Institutions as ‘Dark Heritage’ Erin Gibbons, Archaeologist Re-branding the Misery: Some Connemara examples Niamh NicGhabhann, University of Limerick World Within Walls: presenting the history of St Davnet’s Hospital within a local authority museum context Laura McAtackney, Aarhus University, Denmark The contemporary politics of activist research on Magdalene Laundries Chris Hamill, Architect The Case of Armagh Gaol: Northern Ireland’s prisons, heritage dissonance and contestation
3.20-3.50	Tea Break
3.50-4.50	Session 10: Engaging with voices from the institution Gareth Mulvenna, Independent researcher The Orange Cross, 1972-76: An oral and documentary history Dieter Reinisch, Universities of Vienna and Salzburg Uncovering archives: Combining oral history and private archives in researching Irish Republican prisoners in Portlaoise Prison, 1973-1985 Sean O’Connell, Queen’s University Belfast The oral historian as ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’: approaches to researching mother and baby homes and Magdalene laundries
5.00-6.00	Keynote speaker – Dr Catherine Cox, University College Dublin – Title to be confirmed
6.45-late	Evening tour of Crumlin Road Gaol followed by three course dinner

Saturday 15^th June (Elmwood Building, Queen’s University Belfast)

9.40-11.00	Session 11: Religion, the State and Institutional voices Victoria Pearson, University College Cork ‘In my Father’s House are Many Rooms’: The foundation of Roman Catholic charitable institutions in eighteenth century Cork Sean Barden, Curator Armagh CountyMuseum Patient Voices at the Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum, Dundrum Olivia Frehill, Trinity College Dublin ‘Encourage and Reward Virtue and you Strike at the Heart of Vice’: The Catholic institutional response to the aged single female in Dublin 1836–1922 James M Smith, Boston College Knowing and Unknowing Tuam: Ireland past Ireland present
11.00-11.30	Tea Break
11.30-12.30	Session 12: After the Institution Damien Brennan, Trinity College Dublin Family Care provision in post institutional Ireland Tom Roberts, Community Worker The work of EPIC (Ex Prisoners Interpretative Centre) and the re-integration of former prisoners Patrick Quinlan The future for Ireland’s former lunatic asylum buildings
12.30-12.40	Closing remarks – Triona Waters
1.00-2.00	Lunch
2.00-5.00	Post-conference walking tour (starting at Divis Tower)

Institutions in Ireland Conference 2019

Institutions in Ireland 2019

Conference Programme