Creative workshop for people affected by Tuam mother-and-baby home

A special creative workshop designed to promote healing among people affected by the Tuam mother-and-baby home story is being held in the Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, later this month. Facilitated by Holly Mullarkey, the ‘Healing Clay’ workshop takes place on Friday and Saturday, September 20 and 21.
The team at the arts centre is extending an invitation to anyone who has been affected by the sad history of the institution, or anyone who wishes to partake in a healing response to the anticipated exhumation of the bones of the 796 infants buried there. One-third of the mothers that passed through the home – approximately 600 women – came from Mayo, leaving a significant societal wound.
Described as ‘an opening-up and gentle healing through clay, through memory, through openness, through the welcoming of a hidden story’, Mullarkey’s workshop aims to ‘share story, share grief, share in the strength of the communal’.
Holly Mullarkey is an artist, a teacher, an activist and a social-justice advocate. Her workshops are delicate and sensitive. A number of her recent exhibitions have explored grief through artistic connection with survivors of the Tuam Mother and Baby home. She made porcelain baby shoes for the 2016 Commemoration of Tuam Baby Burials.
With Clay Galway, Mullarkey exhibited ‘Tumulus’ (‘Burial Mound’), a piece comprised of porcelain bones, in 2019. As part of Galway European Capital Of Culture 2020, she exhibited ‘Deora Dé’, a poem and video installation about the outcast mother featuring clay ‘tear boats’, made with ceramic artist Emma O’Toole.
The upcoming Linenhall workshop will also be facilitated by the PRO of the Tuam Mother and Baby Alliance, Breeda Murphy. With a master’s degree in public advocacy and activism, Breeda has voluntarily devoted her time to the human rights of survivors of institutional abuse and the rights of people with disabilities.
The Friday workshop will start at 11am and finish at 4pm (with a break for lunch at 1pm), while the Saturday workshop will start at 11am and finish 5pm (also breaking for lunch at 1pm).
Attendance at the Healing Clay workshop, which is supported by support by The Arts Council’s Artist in the Community Scheme managed by Create and Mayo County Council, is free. However, advance booking is required.

• For more information on the ‘Healing Clay’ workshop, or to book a free place, visit www.thelinenhall.com or contact the Linenhall box office on 094 9023733.