Campaign highlights history & experiences of one-parent families

Posted on: 21 March 2025

To mark international Single Parents Day, Trinity College Dublin has partnered with One Family and Glasgow Caledonian University to launch a new campaign highlighting the history, lived experiences and misconceptions facing one-parent families, and to call on governments globally to develop better policies to support one-parent families.

The #SingleParentCommunity campaign includes an international group of historians, policymakers and NGOs, led by Glasgow Caledonian University and Trinity College Dublin, and funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council in the UK. 

Trinity historian Lindsey Earner-Byrne, an expert in contemporary Irish history, provided historical background to the challenges faced today by single parent families.

To launch the campaign, a powerful new short animation Time for a New Chapter, produced by Media Co-op, has been released, reflecting the history and the lived experiences of single parents, the pride and strength in single parenthood, and the misconceptions that many lone parents face.

This new campaign is calling on government in Ireland, and internationally, to develop adequate policies to support one-parent families including: affordable childcare; secure housing and financial stability; and fairer social security and greater respect.

The project was co-produced with network members including Dr Janet Greenlees, Reader in Health History at Glasgow Caledonian University, Professor Lindsey Earner-Byrne of Trinity College Dublin, Karen Kiernan, Chief Executive of One Family Ireland and Terese Edwards of the National Council for Single Mothers and their Children, Australia.

Lindsey Earner-Byrne, Professor of Contemporary Irish History, said:

 “Bringing historical research together with contemporary policy and NGO expertise was extremely powerful in enabling us to see the roots of the contemporary challenges faced by single parent families. We could track the punitive response of the workhouses of the 1830s through to the stigmatisation of lone parents in need of state support now.

"It became very clear to us that if Ireland centred the single parent in its policies, then all other families would benefit. In essence, this collaborative animation came out of our collective insights about the resilience of single parent families and the degree to which the historic shadow of stigma, blame and marginalisation persists. We want to stress that it is time for a new chapter!” 

Karen Kiernan, CEO of One Family in Ireland said:

"We are delighted to have collaborated on the development of this important animation highlighting the joy and challenges of parenting alone. We plan to use this video to inform policymakers working to change hearts, minds and policies so that one-parent families can be supported to move out of poverty and into lives of dignity. 

"One in four families with children in Ireland are one-parent families, including over 356,000 children. One-parent families across Ireland continue to face severe financial hardship, as demonstrated by recent CSO figures, and deprivation is increasing for many families who are struggling to survive. On International Single Parents Day, we are calling on our government, and specifically Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary, to use evidence-based decision making and targeted payments for the poorest children who live in one-parent families.”

Members of the public are also encouraged to share their ideas of how governments can better support one-parent families at https://www.vopfn.org/timeforachange.

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