Guest Lecture: Monica Brandis, M.A. (Free University of Bolzano, Italy), "The Children of 'Operation Shamrock': Diverse Experiences and Long-Term Influence of the German Children's Stay with Irish Families Post-WW2"

All 450 “Shamrock children”, who were fostered or adopted by Irish families, were to some degree traumatized by the war, some having lost one or both parents, in addition to suffering from hunger and disease. The circumstances the children encountered in Ireland, however, were vastly different, depending on the economic status, the composition and disposition of the family and the family’s place of residence.

This lecture gives an overview of “Operation Shamrock” and takes an exemplary look at the circumstances that four of the children encountered. It also focusses on the long-term effects that “Operation Shamrock” had on both the German children and their Irish families and friends.

Monica Brandis, M.A., is a journalist, a writer, a contract lecturer at the Free University Bolzano and a Gestalt therapist.

She has researched the history of the “Children of ‘Operation Shamrock’” and exhibited the outcomes at the Glencree Center for Peace and Reconciliation, the Irish Embassy in Berlin, Kulturkirche Köln-Buchholz and the University of Limerick, among other places. In 2020 she published her findings in a book entitled “The Children of ‘Operation Shamrock’” – Historical Context, Testimonies and Fictionalized Memory Fragments”.

During a Böll residency on Achill Island, Monica Brandis wrote 18 short stories about specific incidents in the life of each of the “Children from ‘Operation Shamrock’”. Whereas the interviews are focused on facts, the stories convey the children’s’ intense feelings in situations during the war and during their stay in Ireland.

Monica Brandis interviewed nine Irish friends and family members of the “Children from ‘Operation Shamrock’” in 2022, thereby inviting a closer look at the Irish perspective.

Registration
If you are interested in participating in this online event, please sign up by sending an email with the subject line “SHAMROCK” to irishstudies@uni-wuerzburg.de by November 23, 2022. Please include your full name and affiliation or address. All participants will receive a zoom link to the event in due time. 


Please note that the above given email address is used solely for registration purposes. If you want to contact ISWÜ, please use the contact information given below.

Contact

Irish Studies Würzburg (ISWÜ)

Prof. Dr. Ina Bergmann & Prof. Dr. Maria Eisenmann

ina.bergmann@uni-wuerzburg.de, maria.eisenmann@uni-wuerzburg.de