Testimony

update, 26th november 2025

JFMR Statement Regarding a Significant Error in Testimony Documentary

JFMR Statement: Testimony Documentary to be released in Irish and UK Cinemas

Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFMR) welcomes the forthcoming release of Testimony in Irish and UK cinemas from 21st November. The documentary centres the voices and experiences of people affected by Ireland’s institutionalisation and forced family separation system.

Everyone who views Testimony will undoubtedly recognise it as a powerful and deeply moving documentary, made so by the extraordinary women at its heart: Angela Fahy, Mary Harney, Philomena Lee, Madeleine Marvier, Gabrielle O’Gorman, Elizabeth Riordan Coppin, and Catherine Whelan. The film also honours the strength and commitment of family members Frank Brehany, Carmel Cantwell, and Jane Libberton. For decades, these individuals and others like them have demonstrated exceptional courage in challenging entrenched misconceptions and speaking truth to power.

Testimony also features the final powerful interviews with our beloved co-founder Mari Steed, who passed away last October.

The Testimony documentary captures several of the key milestones in JFMR’s campaigns. Our work is underpinned by two central principles that define JFMR’s core ethos: first, all our efforts centre the interests of survivors and affected people, and second, we adhere to a commitment to do no harm. Bound by that ethos, we are obliged to relay that despite the progress we have achieved to date, the pursuit of truth, justice and accountability remains unfinished.

Over the past twenty-five years, the State has maintained a system that perpetuates a hierarchy among forms of abuse. The State’s ‘official’ record denies and ignores the extent of abuses in institutions and in the boarding out and adoption systems. Survivors and affected people, including those living abroad, are denied the enhanced healthcare they deserve, while thousands are excluded from accessing redress. Moreover, these individuals still experience difficulty accessing records about what happened to them and to their family members. Additionally, although the graveyard at the former Mother and Baby Home in Tuam is being investigated, several other sites around the country relating to a range of institutions have been ignored, and family members left without answers. Furthermore, although it is now thirty-two years since the events that would bring JFMR into existence, most of the 155 women who were exhumed from High Park laundry and subsequently cremated to make way for a property development remain unaccounted for.

These examples represent merely a fraction of the many ways in which justice continues to be denied to the people affected by so-called ‘historical’ injustices in Ireland. A full account of JFMR’s campaign and the myriad unresolved justice issues can be found in our book, Ireland and the Magdalene Laundries: A Campaign for Justice, as well as our other publications, available here: https://jfmresearch.com/book-table/.

JFMR understands that the Testimony team is currently in discussions with Patricia Carey, the Special Advocate for Survivors, with a view to organising special screenings of the documentary for survivors and affected people.

We extend our thanks to Aoife Kelleher, Rachel Lysaght, Farah Abushwesha and all those who worked behind the scenes of Testimony, including the wonderful crew and Sheila Ahern, the late great Mary Raftery’s former collaborator.

The trailer for Testimony can be viewed at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5_AA2h6dAM

Details of upcoming screenings are provided below. More venues to be confirmed.

(Click links for further information)