Getting back to it...

Where to begin?

Photo by Gabriel Beaudry on Unsplash

I’ve been busy since Issue #4 ‘Getting back on the soapbox’, which is a good thing for me. Firstly, here are the links to the recordings of the presentations I gave: ‘Mastering Mastodon: Another Tool in a Genealogist’s Toolbox’ and ‘Mother and Baby Homes: A Tour through Time’.

But while I’m on the topic of speaking and presentations, as I’ve developed my skills more, I’ve enjoyed speaking in public and delivering presentations more. Since Issue #4, I’ve given another presentation, in this case on using Podia: a platform similar to Wix/Weebly as it allows you to have a website which can also double as a storefront, should you need it to. But, one thing that separates it from the rest is the ability to build a community, its interface is simple to use and is similar to Facebook but it also has many more functions at your fingertips. Want to know how to use it? Click here. [Just wanted to mention, if you want to give my community a try, go here.]

On the topic of public speaking, you may remember that back in July 2022, I started Project Infant, an eventual database of those who died and what’ll hopefully be a helpful resource for those who would like to learn more about the homes. I’ve been given the go-ahead to share this but I am going to be speaking about my work at the Bessborough mother and baby home commemoration this year. The poster for it is below, please feel free to share it on your socials and if you’re in the area, it’d mean a lot to everyone connected with it in whatever shape or form that may be!

The campaigning side of me hasn’t done a whole lot in recent times. We (myself and Carmel) are still working on raising awareness on protecting the Bessborough mother and baby grounds from being developed. But watching the Seanad discussion three days ago, was absolutely rage-inducing. As it stands at the moment, 40% of survivors of mother and baby homes (~24,000 people) are being excluded based on the fact that they did not spend more than six months in an institution. Safe to say, there was uproar among those 24,000 survivors (of which my relative ‘Beth’ is one of those 24,000 excluded.) and there had been repeated calls across social media for Minister Roderic O’Gorman to address this and explain what the reasoning behind it was. Three different senators had pressed Minister O’Gorman for an answer however he wouldn’t give one.

See here for the excerpt.

I think that’s me for now so, thank you for reading! If you’re new here and never want to miss a post, consider clicking the red button below.