
Children on the Move: A Past and Present Conversation for Culture Night 2023
Free |On Zoom| Register here and a link will arrive in your inbox in advance of the event | Culture Night 2023
By Museum of Childhood Ireland/Músaem Óige na hÉireann
Date and time
Fri, 22 Sep 2023 18:00 – 20:00 IST
Location
Online
About this event
A link to access the event will be emailed to registered attendees on Culture Night.
Children on the Move: A Past and Present Conversation on Refugee and Migrant Childhoods

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, there were 108.4 million forcibly displaced people in the world at the end of 2022 and approximately 40% of this number were children. The refugee and migrant crisis is one of the most pressing conversations in contemporary societies, grabbing significant media attention and inciting public debate.
On Culture Night, the Museum of Childhood Ireland will host an online discussion to illuminate the historical and contemporary experiences of refugee and migrant children. From the story of Ireland’s first refugee camp, set up at Knockalisheen near Limerick to accommodate fleeing Hungarians in 1956, to the experiences of children seeking safety and community today, this online event brings together a panel of experts to discuss their research, experiences, and the complex realities of life for children on the move in the past and present.
Speakers:
Dr Vera Sheridan worked extensively in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Her research interests have focused on identity in higher level education, in institutions and nations and she has published extensively in these areas. Recent research has concerned refugees with a particular focus on 1956 Hungarian refugees and she is the author of Suitable Strangers, the Hungarian Revolution, a Hunger Strike and Ireland’s First Refugee Camp.
Dr Patricia Brazil is the Averil Deverell Lecturer in Law at Trinity College Dublin where she teaches family and child law and refugee and immigration law. She is also a practising barrister with 20 years experience specialising in migration and child law including representing migrant children and their families.
Dr Shirley Martin has been a lecturer at the School of Applied Social Studies University College Cork since 2004 and is currently Deputy Director of the BA Early Years and Childhood Studies. Prior to working in UCC, she worked as a School Completion Coordinator with the Collinstown School Completion Programme in Clondalkin Co. Dublin. Her main research interest is in the well-being of children and the focus of her research relates to key areas in children’s’ lives such as early childhood studies, child and youth participation and integration and inclusion. She is the Irish Primary Investigator for a five year Horizon 2020 Project IMMERSE (Integration mapping of Refugee and Migrant Children in Schools in Europe) which commenced in December 2018 https://www.immerse-h2020.eu/
Dr Ailbhe Kenny is an Associate Professor of Music Education at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick. She is author of Communities of Musical Practice (2016), co-editor of Musician-Teacher Collaborations: Altering the Chord (2018) and Sonic Signatures: Music, Migration and the City at Night (2023). Ailbhe is a Fulbright Scholar, EURIAS fellow, Irish Research Council Laureate and holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge. Ailbhe is currently PI on the IRC Laureate Project Music in the Intercultural School: Uncovering Spaces for Agency and Belonging (2022-26).

The event was moderated and organised by Lorraine McEvoy from the museum’s history team.








