Dr Halliday Sutherland (1882-1960)

The uncensored draft of Dr. Sutherland’s “Irish Journey”.

Dr Sutherland’s 1955 visit to the Mother and Baby Home at Tuam and the Magdalene Laundry at Galway

In 1955, Dr. Halliday Sutherland visited the Mother and Baby Home at Tuam and the Magdalene Home/Laundry at Galway. He wrote about these visits in Irish Journey (1956).

Dr. Sutherland visited the Bishop of Galway to get permission to visit the Magdalene Home/Laundry at Galway. A deal was struck: if Dr. Sutherland wrote about it, his account was to be vetted by the Mother Superior of the Galway Home/Laundry prior to publication. Subsequently, the account published in Irish Journey was censored.

In 2013, 57 years after the publication of Irish Journey, the uncensored draft was found in a suitcase in Britain. The story of how the book came to be censored and the rediscovery of the manuscript is told here.

Below are links to scanned images of the uncensored draft of Irish Journey. These include the letter from the Mother Superior to Dr. Sutherland dated 13th October 1955 as well as the marked-up draft, so you can read the parts that were removed from the book.

In January 2021, the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation recently released its Final Report.

Note that these documents are copyright so do not publish them without permission. Permission can be obtained by contacting me on using the form on the “Contact” page of this site.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions (click the “Contact” tab on this website).

Mark Sutherland
Curator, hallidaysutherland.com
November 2025