ReCollecting the Irish Family: RIFNET: Reconstituting the Irish Family Research Network

RIFNET is a major international research collaboration that aims to reconfigure meanings of family in an Irish context. Funded by the ESRC and IRC, RIFNET aims to tell the story of Irish families that sit outside of what we perceive as the ‘traditional’ norm. We are interested in capturing the messy realities of Irish family life and we aim to create a more inclusive picture of what it means (and has always meant) to be part of “the family” in Ireland. The project is co-led by Dr Leanne Calvert (UH) and Dr Maeve O'Riordan (UCC) and includes collaborations with researchers across 7 different institutions, as well as museum and heritage professionals.

This website brings together the outputs from a public engagement event where RIFNET collaborated with members of the public to co-produce a living archive of material relating to the Irish family. We invited members of the LGBTQ+ community to share objects that told their story of family and family life. The event was held at the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, in April 2022.

The RIFNET project was funded by the UK Research and Innovation-Economic and Social Research Council and the Irish Research Council under the ‘ESRC-IRC UK-Ireland Networking Grants’ (Grant numbers ES/V008269/1 and IRC/V008269/1).