Institute of Art Design + Technology
Dún Laoghaire
On Show 2020
Sara McCarroll

The Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home known locally as “the home” operated between the years of 1925 to 1961 in the town of Tuam, County Galway, Ireland. Run by an order of Bon Secours Catholic nuns this home, and many others like it, existed as housing and punishment for the unmarried mothers of Ireland and their children. My project titled Intermingled is a mixed media representation of the crimes committed by the church and state and their involvement and subsequent coverup of the deaths of 796 children in this home and the further disappearance of others. The bodies of the children remain in the grounds of the now-demolished mother and baby home awaiting full exhumation. Through documentation of the experiences endured by the families of the victims this project seeks to visually relay the tragic history of the home and the present miscarriage of justice for the victim’s families perpetuated by the Irish government. By employing the use of photography, moving image, evidentiary documentation and sculptural elements, Intermingled attempts to illustrate the true unthinkable scope of this ongoing tragedy.