‘THE TRIAL’ OPENS AT SPIKE ISLAND CORK

A new national touring exhibition called ‘The Trial’ is launching at Spike Island Cork Friday 26^th July which examines health care and human rights with the Irish prison system.  The multi-screen art installation sees actor’s voice extracts from prisoner experiences and demonstrated how they can sometimes conflict with the statements of prison officers and officials.  Some of the content relates to prisoner accounts as far back as the 1850’s, right through to modern times.

Over the course 22 minutes, the stories of prisoners from as far back as the 1850’s up to the present day are brought to life through in a series of engaging and provocative monologues by well-known actors from stage and screen, Tommy O’Neill and Neili Conroy, (both of whom currently star in RTE soap, ‘Fair City’) and up-and-coming actor Charlie Hughes Farrell.

One of the actors gives his own account of prison life is Fair City star Tommy O’Neill, who spent 3 years in Mountjoy prison in the 1980’s.  He has since turned his life around to become a successful actor and his recollections of prison time and vivid and powerful. 

The contrast between the accounts of the prisoners and the official line taken by professionals who have worked in the prison system over the years is vividly illustrated by the multi-screen, surround sound, format of The Trial.

Visual artist Sinead McCann led the project in collaboration with UCD historians Catherine Cox and Fiachra Byrne as ex-prisoners from The Bridge Project in Francis Street, Dublin shared their stories with writer Sarah Meaney and Tommy and those stories are brought to life.  Dr Sinead McCann regularly met 5 former inmates over  eight months with five men from The Bridge project for former prisoners from Dublin’s south inner city.

Archival material used in the film is based on research gathered by UCD historians Catherine Cox and Fiachra Byrne. Contemporary accounts of what it is like to serve time in Irish prisons is based on a series of creative workshops conducted by the creator of The Trial, visual artist, Dr Sinead McCann, over the series of eight months with five men from The Bridge project for former prisoners from Dublin’s south inner city.

“Some of these men were more than 30 years in prison.  To be honest with you I had no idea what they did.  I never asked them.  They were just a group of men,” Tommy O’Neill commented.

 “[These children] were taken off their mothers and fathers, some were as young as 7 or 8, and they were brutalised in the most horrendous ways, sexually and physically,” says Tommy.

Island manager John Crotty said the island was the perfect place to hold the immersive exhibition, which is being shown within the former children’s prison. 

“The accounts of prisoners from both modern and Victorian times are very appropriate for an island that held a prison from 1847 to 1883 and also from 1985 to 2004”.  “It is so important that we hear both sides of the story as all too often men labelled as criminals were at one time victims of crime themselves  that has led them to this point”. 

The Trial runs from 26 July to 26 August at Spike Island off the coast of Cork before moving to the Old County Courthouse in Lifford, Co Donegal from 29 August to 12 September and on to Dublin Castle from September 26 to November 3.

Boats to the island depart daily from Kennedy pier, Cobh and the exhibition is included in the standard entry ticket.