Irish Centre for Human Rights Blog

My Background and Why I Decided to Study the LLM in International Human Rightsith  

My name is Mary Harney. I was born in February 1949, at the Bessborough Mother & Baby Institution, in Co. Cork. I spent two and a half years in the institution, I was taken to be illegally fostered from there. At age 5 years, due to neglect on the part of the foster parents, I was taken to court by the ISPCC and was subsequently sentenced to be incarcerated until age 16 and a half in the Good Shepherd’s Industrial School, Sunday’s Well Cork.

In spite of my inauspicious start, I have a BA in Human Ecology, and an Honorary Master’s Degree in Philosophy from the College of the Atlantic in Maine, USA, I also have two postgraduate degrees from NUI Galway: one in Irish Studies and one in International Human Rights.

For the past fifty years I have been an activist for various causes, including but not limited to equality for women in the workplace, LGBTQ rights, and the rights for people living with HIV/AIDS. Currently, I am working for justice for the women and children formerly incarcerated in Ireland’s Mother and Baby Institutions. I am working with others to argue that these survivors of institutional abuse should have free and unfettered access to their identity records and to their human rights which successive Irish Governments denied them.

The ongoing violation of human rights perpetrated on this population of Irish citizens led me to become involved in the Irish Centre for Human Rights. I was determined to further my education by adding knowledge of international human rights to my experience of activism.

Human Rights Law Clinic

As part of the LLM in International Human Rights programme I had the opportunity to take part in the Human Rights Law Clinic which is a 10 credit module and is open to applications from students on all LLM programmes at the Irish Centre for Human Rights. Dr Maeve O’ Rourke, director of the Human Rights Law Clinic provided the grounding I needed to improve my practical advocacy skills. As part of the law clinic activities, I advocated in the Dàil to repeal proposed legislation to seal the records of thousands of survivors of the institutions for 75 years. The Bill was withdrawn. 

Since graduating in 2020, I have increased my activism by joining with other grass roots campaigners on submissions to various UN bodies regarding the findings of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation. I recently applied to the High Court for a judicial review and was granted leave to proceed.  I have also been invited by the President of NUI Galway to join an international advisory panel on truth recovery best practices for those that have suffered human rights violations.

As an alumna, and a survivor of the institutions I continue to be involved with the Centre as a tutor to the Human Rights Law Clinic students. This year the students created a pilot lesson plan for secondary school students on the human rights history of the institutions.

Find out more about the Human Rights Law Clinic at the Irish Centre for Human Rights