This semester, I had the opportunity to undertake a 60-hour work placement with the organisation, Fréa, specifically their Renewing Roots project.
Fréa represents the combined efforts of Irish Community Care Liverpool, Irish Community Care Manchester and Leeds Irish Health and Homes, with the Renewing Roots project specifically dedicated to supporting survivors of institutional abuse in Ireland now resident in the north of England. The institutions they offer support for are County Homes and Mother and Baby Homes, but with many survivors having been in a number of institutions, such as the infamous Magdalene Laundries and industrial schools, their expertise is wide and varied.
Having spent years consuming media relating to the abuse suffered at these institutions, including the 2024 Seamus Heaney Lecture by Professor Clair Wills (University of Cambridge), I was fascinated when the opportunity to intern at a charity that offers support for survivors arose.
Anyone who has watched Steve Coogan and Judi Dench in Philomena (2013), Ruth Wilson in the BBC’s The Woman in the Wall (2023) or even just heard about the Tuam scandal will already know why the work of Fréa is so vital.
For those less familiar, thousands of women were incarcerated, abused and separated from their children over decades, with many children dying or being sold in illegal adoptions. Although both the Pope and the Taoiseach have apologised on behalf of the Catholic Church and the Irish state respectively for their complicity in this abuse, survivors are still fighting for justice, with many still too afraid to even come forward for support due to the lasting stigma. And with much of the administration required to seek financial redress often rather complicated, especially for those less familiar with the internet, Fréa’s work is all the more necessary.
The first and one of my favourite parts of the placement was having the chance to attend the opening night in Britain of Caitriona Cunningham’s sold-out play, The Marian Hotel, at the Unity Theatre in Liverpool in February.
Based on Cunningham’s own experiences in the Marianvale Mother and Baby Home in Newry, the play follows Kitty as she navigates life in Marianvale and the aftermath, reflecting the experiences of thousands of women and their children in Ireland in the 20th century. Without spoiling it, the play managed to integrate moments of both humour and great tragedy, and I doubt there was a dry eye in the theatre by the end, with one memorable moment causing an audible gasp from the audience.
The play was also interesting from a historical and political context, being set in 1979, and so featuring regular references to the Troubles, with one of the characters being a staunch defender of the IRA. With contemporary music from the time throughout, these relatively modern references contrasted sharply with the archaic notions that the characters found themselves being judged by.
I also had the opportunity to attend the reception before the play and the Q&A after, during which we heard from John McQuaide (Chair of Sole Purpose Productions), Cillian O’Kelly (Consul General of Ireland in Manchester), Emma Smith (Artistic Director of the Liverpool Irish Festival), Patricia Byrne (Artistic Director of Sole Purpose Productions) who directed the play, and Cunningham herself.
The reception also featured an exhibition of two survivor led projects, We Have Arrived and The Sunflower Project. Produced by Sole Purpose Productions, the latter brought together five women from Derry to explore their memories through writing and art. Meanwhile, the former exhibited the poetry and art of the Crann Sailí group in collaboration with artists Aoibh Johnson and Olivia Rowan. Crann Sailí, Irish for ‘willow tree,’ is a community group run by Fréa since 2025 which seeks to create a space for survivors to meet and connect; an instrumental part of regaining their identities which the institutions thrived on denying them.
The exhibition also featured brief testimonies from survivors, including Cunningham, revealing that one of the most poignant moments of the play, when Kitty is handed a rosary by a nun in exchange for her baby, was modelled after an experience of her own.
Since the play, I have had the chance to complete a variety of tasks, from social media, including doing the research for and recording a video on the payment schemes related to the Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Act of 2025, to attending home visits to help with paperwork for such schemes.
I have particularly enjoyed the people facing work, especially shadowing a genealogy session. As part of this, I assisted a member of the team in analysing the results of a survivor’s Ancestry DNA results in order to find their relatives online, working out how closely related they were and reaching out to trace further familial roots. I have long been interested in genealogy (becoming very excited when reminded about the release of the 1926 census on April 18th) and so it was a great experience to see the practical applications of sites like Ancestry to help survivors track down unknown relatives.
Whilst this was specifically for finding records of family members, Fréa can also help track down records of institutionalisation, which is especially helpful for survivors who, for a range of reasons, may not know where or for how long they were institutionalised.
Lastly, I have greatly developed my knowledge of Irish institutional abuse over the course of this placement, including on Philomena’s Law, a bill currently going through parliament which will ensure survivors do not lose access to their means tested benefits due to receiving financial redress. Having managed to obtain an invite to the Labour Party Irish Society’s St Patrick’s Day Reception in the House of Lords, I was delighted that Philomena’s Law was frequently referred to and supported throughout the evening, and proud of the work that Fréa has done campaigning for it.
Overall, the placement has been a great experience and one I am proud to have undertaken. Thanks to everyone involved, especially Patrick Rodgers, Ciaran Connolly and Natalie Hughes-Crean.
Fréa Renewing Roots offers free confidential support to survivors of Irish institutional abuse now resident in the north of England. If you or someone you know spent time in a County Home, or Mother and Baby Home, and would like support, Fréa can be contacted at renewingroots@frea.org.uk or https://frea.org.uk/contact-renewing-roots.