Welcome to the Spotlight Series, where we put the focus on the talented individuals who contribute to the School of Social Sciences and Philosophy here in Trinity College Dublin.
Each month, we sit down with a member of our research team to learn more about their areas of expertise, what the turning points have been in their career, and what inspires them in their daily lives.
Dr Philomena Mullen
Philomena Mullen was born in Dublin and grew up in the Irish industrial school system. Returning to education in her 20s, she graduated in English and Philosophy from Trinity. Her M.Phil. in Women’s Studies analysed the role of women as perpetrators of violence during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. After an 18-year gap to raise a family, she returned to Trinity where she completed her PhD as a Government of Ireland PhD scholar. She examined the racist and racialised aspects of how Black mixed African-Irish women, who grew up in the Irish institutional care system without families, construct their identity.
What is your current area of research?
I study the impact of being racialised as Black within the institutional care system in Ireland of the 1940s-1980 and the presence of Black people in Irish history and prehistory.
What question or challenge were you setting out to address when you started this work?
The challenge I set out to address was that since Black people like me, who were here before the Celtic Tiger in the 1990s, don’t exist in the historical record until the category “Black or Black Irish” was added to the 2006 Irish Census, how do I find their stories and integrate them into the narrative of Irishness?
Share a turning point or defining moment in your work as a philosophical researcher?
A turning point for me as a researcher was recognising that each Black Irish story I recover helps build a picture of a longer and more significant Black presence in Ireland than people realise.
Briefly, what excites you about your research?
If you asked most people did hundreds of Black children like me exist in Ireland in the 20th century, the answer would have probably been no. Only Phil Lynott and maybe Paul McGrath seem to register as being Black and Irish.
My research is exciting as it uncovers long neglected, but widely understood at the time narratives of Black people in Ireland, the enslaved, abolitionists, princes, doctors, stage performers, country market snake oil salesmen, Gaeilgeoirs, scholars of world renown, and so much more. Oh, and Phil Lynott and Paul McGrath, of course. Every day is a new discovery.
What do you like to do when you are not working?
I love to walk long distances listening to podcasts. I also love doing jigsaws, I am absorbed by them, spending hours lost in the challenge of fitting together thousands of tiny pieces. It is a peaceful escape, a way to step away from the intense and often contentious discussions that arise when confronting issues of racial injustice. Jigsaws allow me to focus on the tangible, that methodical fight to create order from chaos—a small, yet deeply satisfying victory.
What are you currently reading?
Anything I can get from Saidiya Hartman, I love her concept of critical fabulation, so important in my field when orality is king and there is very little official record. I invariably go back to Caelainn Hogan’s book Republic of Shame, which tells the story of children like me who grew up in the institutions. I am lucky to be a board member of Skein (a Dublin-based publishing company) and so I get to read new voices such as Melatu Uche Okorie and Rosaleen McDonagh.
If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would it be and why?
James Baldwin, the American writer and civil rights activist, who was a refuge for me growing up. Immersing myself in the intensity of his words, I found that some of my own anger eased just enough for me to navigate my day on the streets of Bray.
What would people be surprised to find out about you?
I was born in Ireland before the Celtic Tiger era brought in a significant Black population. I grew up in an industrial school, a place many assume incarcerated only white Irish children. Before returning to education, I worked as a kitchen porter, cleaner, and chambermaid, not all fine minds wend their way to college in a straight line.
October 2024