A Lesson Unheard
5:45pm - 9:30pm /
Thursday 15th October 2026
/ Venue: Lesley Hearnshaw LT Eleanor Rathbone Building
Type: Other /
Category: Department
- Viola Segeroth
- Admission: Free registration requested at [https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/2002212311923]
- Event website
- Book now
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Premier of film documenting the life of Mother & Baby Home survivor Shirley Hartman, followed by a panel discussion
A Lesson Unheard is the story of Shirley Hartman. Shirley lived as a boarded-out child in the Irish Midlands during the 1940s and 1950s, and survived the traumas of Castlepollard Mother & Baby Home in the early 1960s. The film makes important and striking connections between these two phases of Shirley's life, as her narration makes the consequences of other people's actions heartbreakingly clear. It combines Shirley's powerful and vivid storytelling, relayed to Dr Eleanor Lybeck across a series of interviews, with atmospheric impressions of the places where she grew up captured by filmmaker Monika Koeck.
A Lesson Unheard is the story of Shirley Hartman. Shirley lived as a boarded-out child in the Irish Midlands during the 1940s and 1950s, and survived the traumas of Castlepollard Mother & Baby Home in the early 1960s. The film makes important and striking connections between these two phases of Shirley's life, as her narration makes the consequences of other people's actions heartbreakingly clear. It combines Shirley's powerful and vivid storytelling, relayed to Dr Eleanor Lybeck across a series of interviews, with atmospheric impressions of the places where she grew up captured by filmmaker Monika Koeck.