Ep. 17 - Panel 4B - Institutionalisation in Ireland - Aoife Kelly-Wixted (MU)

NPPSH Conference

This paper will examine institutionalisation in Ireland and its role in the attempt to silence marginalised groups. Drawing on policy, media sources and academic literature the presentation will examine ‘othering’ practices at play which serve to deliberately attempt to silence vulnerable groups and individuals. The paper will be divided into two distinct categories in an examination of the treatment of women and refugees in Ireland. It will provide contextual analysis of historic and contemporary institutionalisation in light of feminist and critical theory. The role of the church, health services and educational facilities will be analysed with respect to their role in silencing marginalised people. A number of key questions will be central to the paper including: • What are the foundations of institutional practices in Ireland? • Who can speak for whom? Who attempts to do so? • Who is silenced or unheard? • What impact has deliberately silencing women and refugees had on society as a whole? The main argument of the paper will be that institutionalisation in Ireland has and continues to be detrimental to an ethics of sexual and racial difference (Ingram, 2008) through deliberately silencing women and refugees. Aoife is a doctoral student in the Education Department at Maynooth University. She is undertaking research on the education of refugees in Ireland who have fled war and conflict. She is conducting her research through a decolonial lens using Arts-Based Research methods. She has worked as a teacher for over eleven years, including four in Australia where She returned from last July to begin my PhD. She completed her primary degree and post-graduate teacher qualification in Maynooth, while she graduated with a Master of Education from Notre Dame University Australia.