A challenging task: conducting Northern Ireland’s Mother and Baby homes and Magdalene laundries inquiry

In 2018, a research project on mother and baby homes and Magdalene laundries in Northern Ireland (MBHML) set out to conduct oral histories as part of an official report on these controversial institutions. 1 Various audiences with different expectations awaited this research, heightening the project’s intricacies. They included the Interdepartmental Working Group (IDWG) established by Northern Ireland’s Department of Health and the Executive Office to oversee the research and its conclusions; victims and survivors; Amnesty International; the religious and state institutions historically responsible for the mother and baby homes and laundries. Moreover, a news-hungry media was keen to add a Northern Irish element to horrific stories that had emerged about similar institutions in the Republic of Ireland.