News & Events

The Irish Centre for Human Rights and School of Law are delighted to announce that a new documentary, Testimony (Director Aoife Kelleher; Producers Rachel Lysaght, Farah Abushwesha), will be released in cinemas in Ireland and the UK on Friday 21st November 2025. 

There will be a daily evening showing in Salthill Omniplex from Friday 21st November to Thursday 27th November. 

Featuring ICHR staff and students, Testimony was the Overall Winner at the 2025 Law Society of Ireland Justice Media Awards; the judging panel ‘suggested this documentary should have a place on school curriculums.’ Testimony also won the Irish Council for Civil Liberties Human Rights Film Award at the 2025 Dublin International Film Festival.

Testimony places a spotlight on the experiences of several women affected by Ireland’s 20th century institutional and family separation abuses. The film follows their campaign for justice supported by the Justice for Magdalenes Research group. 

A key contributor to Testimony is Dr Mary Harney, doctoral scholar at the Irish Centre for Human Rights and School of Law, University of Galway. Mary is a treasured member of the ICHR community and tutored and acted as a community organiser in our Human Rights Law Clinic for several years. The film features Mary’s human rights advocacy at the United Nations, in which she was joined by ICHR Human Rights Law Clinic postgraduate students (including Kelly Ledoux, LLM 2020, who also appears in Testimony). 

Testimony also provides an insight into the legal work of Dr Maeve O’Rourke, Associate Professor at the ICHR and School of Law, alongside her colleagues in the Justice for Magdalenes Research group. Further information about the ethos, aims and methods of Justice for Magdalenes Research is available here. Dr O’Rourke is Director of the ICHR Human Rights Clinic, which involves postgraduate students in ‘movement lawyering’ including with Justice for Magdalenes Research and the Clann Project; read more here.

In May 2025 the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment published extensive Curriculum Resources to assist the teaching of Ireland’s 20th century institutional and family separation abuses through Junior Cycle History, CSPE and English units and classroom-based assessments. This significant development was enabled by the research of University of Galway staff and others (Catherine Corless, Dr Claire McGettrick born Lorraine Hughes, Prof Katherine O’Donell, Prof James M Smith, and Mari Steed),  alongside survivors and affected people. To access the NCCA resources and to read more about the involvement of Dr Maeve O’Rourke and Dr Mary Harney, and Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley, Dr John Cunningham and Elaine Feeney of the University of Galway Tuam Oral History Project, see here.

Note: Information and supports for survivors and affected people can be accessed at www.specialadvocate.ie/