We are pleased to announce that Dr Lorraine Grimes has joined the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) team as a Postdoctoral Researcher/Archivist for the Wellcome Trust-funded project ‘Digital Preservation of Reproductive Health Resources: Archiving the 8th’ (‘Archiving Reproductive Health’).
We are pleased to announce that Dr Lorraine Grimes has joined the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) team as a Postdoctoral Researcher/Archivist for the Wellcome Trust-funded project ‘Digital Preservation of Reproductive Health Resources: Archiving the 8th‘ (‘Archiving Reproductive Health’). This project will provide long-term preservation and access to the many at-risk archives generated by grassroots women’s reproductive health movements during the campaign to Repeal the Eighth Amendment. Dr Grimes will be a core member of DRI staff, based at our partner institute Maynooth University, where she will assist in the development of a strategy for archiving data from sensitive social movements and reproductive rights campaigns, and pilot this strategy through the preparation and ingest of the In Her Shoes Facebook page data, as well as data from academic research projects and civil society organisations, to the Irish Qualitative Data Archive (IQDA) and DRI Repository.
Dr Grimes’s PhD research focused on the thousands of women who left Ireland from 1926 to 1973, often travelling on their own in secret, while pregnant. It sought to find these women whose stories have been lost or hidden within the archival records, to find out what happened to them once they landed in Britain. Her thesis was titled ‘Migration and Assistance: Irish Unmarried Mothers in Britain 1926-1973’. She has worked on a number of projects including the World Health Organisation funded project; ‘Reproductive Health: The Implementation of Abortion Policy in Ireland’ which developed policy recommendations to the Department of Health, Health Service Executive (HSE), and other key bodies on developing women’s access to abortion in Ireland.
Dr Grimes made the following statement concerning her new role, research interests, and aspirations for the project:
This is very important research which explores storytelling, archiving and the ethical considerations of this. Given my experience with survivors of institutionalisation and forced adoption from Mother and Baby Homes, I am particularly interested in exploring women’s stories for activism and advocacy.
The In Her Shoes stories are a follow on from the recent (and current) restrictions in relation to reproductive healthcare. Sharing women’s stories allows us to explore the impact of patriarchal society as well as other diversity issues such as class and race. The In Her Shoes personal accounts were instrumental in changing public opinion concerning abortion. I hope those who shared their experiences feel a sense of empowerment in knowing that they were conducive in changing legislation.
By the digital preservation of these stories, we are acknowledging the suffering that these women so cruelly faced. The preservation of their narratives will contribute towards the de-stigmatisation of abortion, will encourage further research in the area and will hopefully influence policy change. Furthermore, it will acknowledge the work of the collaborator of these stories and most importantly, ensure that these women are remembered. I am very much looking forward to working on the project.
Lead Principal Investigator Dr Aileen O’Carroll welcomed Dr Grimes to the project team:
I am delighted that Dr Grimes has joined the Archiving Reproductive Health project, her research experience and ethical expertise will be invaluable in ensuring that we use best ethical practice in this project and, importantly, help those working with datasets containing sensitive or traumatic material ensure that their archiving processes do not cause harm to those involved, from the archivist to the community.
We look forward to working with Dr Grimes on preserving the social and cultural record of women’s reproductive health movements in Ireland.
