This special evening of words and song live-streamed from the stage of the National Concert Hall presents personal responses from a range of leading Irish writers, musicians and artists to the ongoing legacy of Ireland’s mother and baby home institutions.

Until alarmingly recently, religious orders and the Irish state operated a network of institutions for the concealment, punishment and exploitation of women called 'fallen' and 'offenders', a secretive system that forcibly separated families. Through breaking silences and sharing testimonies, survivors of Ireland's religious-run institutions have become catalysts of change. In the search for answers, their voices must continue to be heard.

Working with generational survivors of the institutions, this one-off event is curated by acclaimed  author of acclaimed Republic of Shame, Caelainn Hogan.

Presented by the International Literature Festival Dublin and the National Concert Hall.

Elaine Feeney
Poet, novelist and playwright who is Director of the Tuam Oral History Project.

Terri Harrison 
Musician and survivor who was forcibly separated from her son through the religious-run institutions.

Loah
Sallay Matu Garnett, an artist and performer of Irish and Sierra Leonean origins who starred as Mary Magdalene in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Jesus ChristSuperstar.

Noelle Brown
Actor, writer and adoption rights activist who co-wrote and performed in the play Postscript about searching for her origins.

Jess Kav 
Singer, writer and poet who speaks about the generational impact of the institutions.

The Mary Wallopers
Folk group from Dundalk who have travelled Ireland singing and collecting songs.

Philomena Mullen
Writer and academic who grew up in Ireland's institutional system and is working on a book for Skein Press.

Majella Moynihan
Author of A Guarded Life and was forced to give her son up for adoption, charged with breaching Garda regulations for being pregnant outside of marriage.

Alison Lowry 
Award-winning and internationally-renowned glass artist from Co. Down. She uses an ancient technique called 'pate de verre', casting antique christening robes to recreate them in glass

Peter Mulryan
Born in the early 40’s in the maternity hospital in Galway and was sent to Tuam Mother and Baby Home with his mother. ‘Boarded Out’ to a farming family, he suffered both physical and mental abuse there. His mother died in The Magdalene Laundry in Galway and his sister is possibly in the sewage system at the site of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home. He is still waiting for the babies and mothers to be exhumed.

Breaking the Silence