Laura Angela Collins

Laura Angela Collins is a London-based Irish Traveller activist.

Early life

Collins was born and raised in Bermondsey, London to Irish parents and attended the Brit’s schools for performing arts.

Her grandmother, Angelina Collins renamed Angela, lies in a mass grave in St Finbarrs cemetery in County Cork with 72 other women after working for 27 years in a Magdalene laundry. Collins campaigned for her grandmother's exhumation and for the crimes of the Irish government and Catholic Church to be acknowledged.

Her mother, Mary Teresa Collins, is a survivor of an abusive industrial school, and a child resident of St. Vincent’s Magdalene laundry [1][2][3][4] and a county home. It was run by the Sisters of Mercy. That group is not within the terms of the investigatory commission's scope although it was named in the Ryan report.

Career

Collins has published her research regarding Irish travellers and the Tuam Mother and Baby Home in Galway where 800 babies are in a mass grave in Tuam Galway.

Collins has done independent research on Irish institutions such as Industrial schools, Ireland’s mother and baby homes and the Magdalene laundries. She has been a critic of the mother and baby home Investigation commission and past investigations into child abuse conducted by the Irish government.

Collins wrote The Tinker Menace. She chairs the organisations Justice 4 All Women & Children and Travelling People Worldwide.[5]

Collins was interviewed on RTE Radio 1. Corks 96 FM and the Niall Boylan Show.

On March 19, 2017, The Sunday Mirror and Irish Sunday Mirror quoted her, saying she "had identified 335 known traveller's surnames in the 796 remains buried at the Catholic-run mother and baby home in County Galway."[6]

In 2019, Collins won the first ever Irish Traveller pride award in inter-sectional. She was presented with it on the day by researcher Catherine Corless.[5][1][7][8]

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References
  1. Kelly, Emma O. (30 May 2019). "Ceremony celebrates contributions made by Travellers".
  2. "Woman's petition to stop child abuse records being sealed for 75 years". 7 April 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-28.
  3. "Les «Magdalene laundries», piliers de l'ordre moral en Irlande". Slate.fr. 26 November 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-28.
  4. Fogarty, James (5 March 2017). "Woman fears more bodies could be buried in another Irish mass grave". irishmirror. Retrieved 2019-11-28.
  5. McGarry, Patsy; O'Riordan, Ellen. "Ireland's Got Talent finalist Sharyn Ward wins annual Traveller award". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2019-11-28.
  6. "PressReader.com - Your favorite newspapers and magazines". www.pressreader.com. Retrieved 2019-11-28.
  7. "Two Cork wins at Traveller Pride Awards". Echo Live. Retrieved 2019-11-28.
  8. Aodha, Gráinne Ní. "Ireland's Got Talent singer and 16-year-old Mayo activist honoured at Irish Traveller Awards". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 2019-11-28.
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