“The Ireland that we dreamed of, would be the home of a people…living the life that God desires”– Éamon de Valera, 1947
The Ireland We Dreamed Of is a new performance by visual artist Sinead McCann in collaboration with sociologist Dr Louise Brangan.
In Catholic Ireland, moral purity and virtue had become the national motifs. The problem was, you can’t claim purity if you know otherwise. The dirt and sin that defied it had to be scrubbed from Ireland’s national consciousness.
Work, work, work. Pray, pray, pray. That was the only way to keep the devil and your secrets at bay. Those who did not fit in, who deviated from the well-worn grooves of this regime, were liable to be removed. Should they return, a life of shame and silence was their penance.
The Ireland We Dreamed Of brings the audience through a series of unsettling dreamscapes. This powerful performance explores what it was like to live with the unbearable weight of self-denial, how silence seeped into our homes, and the bravery it took to break out from this world of secrets.
After the Friday performance there will be short post-show discussion:
Silence, secrecy and shame:
Remembering institutional injustice in Ireland with journalist Conall Ó Fátharta, adoption rights activist Noelle Brown, historian of women and modern Ireland, Deirdre Foley, and writer and academic Louise Brangan. Chaired by Mark Coen, editor of A Dublin Magdalene Laundry: Donnybrook and Church-State Power in Ireland.
PERFORMED BY Vitor Bassi, Kate Finegan, Fiona Quilligan
WRITTEN BY Louise Brangan and Sinead McCann
DIRECTED BY Sinead McCann
LIGHTING DESIGN BY Sebastian Pizarro
SET DESIGN BY Ciara Murnane
COSTUME DESIGN BY Laura Fajardo Castro
MUSIC COMPOSITION & SOUND DESIGN BY Jack Foster
MOVEMENT DIRECTOR Kate Finnegan
PRODUCER| PRODUCTION MANAGER Elizabeth McHugh
STAGE MANAGER Dee Finn
AERIAL RIGGER Merlin Stone
Funded by Economic and Social Research Council, UK (ES/V007165/1)
Age suitability: 14+