We Don’t Know What’s Buried Here
We Don’t Know What’s Buried Here was a vitriolic new piece I made in 2018 about class, value and work
The last Magdalene Laundry in Public Ownership was being sold by Dublin City Council to a Japanese Hotel Group. This site was promised to the Magdalene women as a memorial in the Quirke Report. Dublin City Councillor Gary Gannon called for a halt to the sale because in light of the Tuam babies case: “We Don’t Know What’s Buried Here”. Gary said that the sale of the site is the last act of a cover-up by church and state into the torture of The Magdalene women.
Gary’s statement became the inspiration for my play, in which two Magdalene women, Tina and Bernadette are digging a hole in Liberty Park in the shadow of the Sean McDermott St site. They have heard about Tuam on the radio, and have taken it upon themselves to dig for their babies bones, as they can’t trust the state. The church told them work would purify their souls. They imagine a neon sign on the back wall of their labor camp which reads “Arbeit Macht Frei” and now this is their work; to dig up the whole park, and find out the truth about what happened to them. Were the church their Nazi captors, or where they just saving their souls? Should they listen to people who say it wasn’t really that bad? How can they take control of their future, when they can’t all agree on the past?
But unfortunately, Tina and Bernadette, like the Irish people, keep burying everything they find.
Written by Grace Dyas
Starring Grace Dyas and Doireann Coady
Directed by Barry John O’Conno
Designed by Barry John O'Connor & Eoin Winning
Lighting Design by Eoin Winning
Composed by Barry John O'Connor
Costume Design by Gemma Collins
Sound Design Eoin Murphy
Stage Manager Barry O'Donovan
Production Manager Séan Dennehy
Producer/Dramaturg: Joanna Crawley
Associate Project Manager Maria Fleming
It was funded through an Arts Council Theatre Project Award, commissioned by TreeLine Project and it ran at
Civic Theatre, Axis Ballymun, Mermaid Arts Centre, The O’Reilly Theatre
It was presented by THEATREclub
