The Mother and Baby Homes Commission released its final report in January, concluding a five year investigation into historic abuses in institutions that forcibly housed unwed pregnant women. The commission was created following public outcry over the documentation of a mass grave of babies and children at Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Galway, discovered and highlighted by local historian Catherine Coreless. Despite finding that one in seven children in Mother and Baby Homes died, and documenting incidents of torture and medical experimentation that violated the Nuremberg code; the report minimised the responsibility of the State and absolved the religious orders and hierarchy of culpability. Furthermore, the commission has engaged in bizarre and shocking behaviour in how it has treated the survivors of these institutions; limiting their access to their own records and engaging in extremely questionable research methods. Interview recordings have been illegally deleted, data consent procedures have been violated, and ongoing access to information gathered has been curtailed. To talk through some of these ongoing issues and what they tell us about how little has changed, Tommy Gavin spoke to Caelainn Hogan, author of Republic of Shame: Stories from Ireland's Institutions for 'Fallen Women.'

When Ireland first went into lockdown a year ago cultural venues were among the first to close and they will probably be among the last to re-open. This has meant that for almost a year, Ireland’s galleries, theatres, concert venues, and other cultural spaces have been emptied of crowds coming together for shared artistic experiences. Instead, many arts organisations and artists have presented their work online, to be experienced privately, with one’s own bubble, at home. Nervous State was curious about how well these networked events have worked for artists and audiences alike, and whether they have created any new opportunities that can be carried on post-pandemic. To investigate, artist Kerrry Guinan spoke to Michelle Doyle, a Dublin-based artist and musician whose work critically explores the relationship between culture and technology, with a particular focus on DIY broadcasting and alternative methods of exhibition. 

The recent documentary Framing Britney Spears got a lot of people talking about “conservatorship”, as the pop star’s father has legal control over most of her financial and professional life due to Britney being deemed incapable of managing her affairs. The equivalent system in Ireland is called the “wards of court” system, and until very recently was based on something called the Lunacy Act of 1871, with much the same attitude to disability as would be expected. There’s a court case ongoing at the moment which caught Nervous State’s eye wherein a ward of court is challenging the law so as to be allowed to marry his partner, and Martin Leen got in touch with Rob Murtagh of Inclusion Ireland and Mary Farrell of Justice for Wards to find out just what a ward of court is, and what the system says about attitudes to disability and access to justice in the Irish legal system. 

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