How do we learn about what is screened and hidden from view? And, when what lies behind these screens can be so hard to come to terms with, how can we better understand the stories that help us see it?
Over the past five decades, Ireland has published a number of state reports detailing endemic problems with its institutions of coercive confinement. Parallel to this official discourse, writers, dramatists, documentary makers, filmmakers and visual artists have produced an important body of work that exposes these institutional abuses as well as the ways in which they often remain unseen. These creators make visible coercive confinement – in other words, they screen it – in order show us how it has remained invisible, or screened, in Irish society.
Screening Coercive Confinement: Ireland’s institutions in word and image is a digital exhibition created by Dr James Little in collaboration with the Museum of Literature Ireland. The exhibition features the work of six creators who have made coercive confinement visible – from industrial and day schools, to psychiatric hospitals, to centres of direct provision. In this podcast series, we feature in-depth interviews with each artist.
The three-part documentary series States of Fear (1999), produced by Mary Raftery, provoked a state apology from the Taoiseach to survivors of industrial school abuse. Researcher Sheila Ahern, who worked closely with Mary Raftery on the making of States of Fear, speaks in this episode about the impetus behind the series’ creation, the challenges they faced in getting it screened on RTÉ and what – if anything – Ireland has learned regarding institutional abuse over two decades later. This conversation took place in October 2023.
This project was funded by the EU and mentored by Prof. Emilie Pine at UCD’s School of English, Drama and Film. MoLI’s digital programme is supported by Ebow Digital. This podcast was produced by Ian Dunphy and Benedict Schlepper-Connolly.
