EXHIBITIONS

HUNGER STRIKE IRELAND, 1877-1981: KILMAINHAM GAOL, 2017/IRISH EMBASSY, INDIA 2018

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In 2017, I co-convened (alongside Prof. Laura McAtackney (Aarhus University/University College Cork) and Ciara Breathnach (University of Limerick)) a high-profile exhibition on hunger strike history at Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin. Public perspectives on hunger strike history focus pre-dominantly on a small, but historically significant, number of individuals (e.g. Terence MacSwiney and Bobby Sands). Hunger striking is also considered as peculiarly Irish.

 

As part of its educational aims, the symposium and exhibition examines both Britain and Ireland, encouraging greater appreciation of the transnational nature of food refusal, the inter-connectedness of different hunger strikes and the experiences and motivations of female hunger strikers. It explores female suffragette and republican hunger strikers, as well as the medical ethical issues raised by their protests. 

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The exhibition formed an important part of Ireland's Decade of Commemoration. Its opening co-incided with the centenary of Thomas Ashe's death following force-feeding while on hunger strike.

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'LOOKING AT MY SHADOW IS PROOF THAT I EXIST': A PHOTOVOICE EXHIBITION BY PEOPLE LIVING WITH SEVERE MENTAL ILLNESS. 

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In 2023, as part of the multi-disciplinary CHOICE team, I was involved in helping create a PhotoVoice exhibition by people living with severe mental illness in Northern Ireland. This was held in the exhibition space at 2 Royal Avenue in Belfast's busy city centre. The exhibition consisted of a series of photographs and narratives developed over the course of six weeks by people suffering severe mental illness.