Boston College will host the Boston-area premiere of the documentary film “Stolen,” which features the stories of survivors of Ireland’s notorious mother-and-baby homes, on Oct. 9 in Devlin Hall, classroom 110. The free, public event also will include a Q&A with the film’s director, Margo Harkin.

Released in 2023, “Stolen” offers insights into a decades-old scandal during which more than 80,000 unmarried mothers were incarcerated in institutions run by nuns. At least 9,000 infants died in these institutions; many who survived were fostered out at a very young age as cheap farm labor in dire circumstances, or else adopted in Ireland or sent to the United States—rendered untraceable and unaware of their birth stories. 

Harkin interviews mothers and children who survived the homes, as well as survivors’ children who are searching for their long-lost siblings. She also speaks with journalists, politicians, legal historians, scholars, and other observers, assembling the story “with the skill of a high-court prosecutor,” according to The Guardian. After the film’s airing in Ireland last month, the Irish Times called it “powerful and unflinching.” “Stolen” was nominated for the Dublin Film Critics Circle Awards and Irish Film and Television Awards.

The Q&A following the campus screening of “Stolen” will be moderated by Professor of English James Smith, a member of the BC Irish Studies faculty who has chronicled and spoken about the mistreatment of institutionalized Irish women and children. Appearing with Harkin will be film contributors Sarah-Anne Buckley (University of Galway), Máiréad Enright (University of Birmingham), and Clair Wills (Cambridge University). 

Smith notes that Patricia Carey, the Irish government’s special advocate for institutional abuse survivors, will attend the event and is arranging to meet privately with survivors and family members. Carey encourages anyone interested in speaking to her to send an email to patricia@specialadvocate.ie.

The event is co-sponsored by Irish Studies with the Institute for the Liberal Arts, Jesuit Institute, English, and History departments, BC Law School, Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, and Film Studies and Medical Humanities programs.

For more information, email irish.studies@bc.edu.