This week saw the first of 29 tourist groups visit Galway to view Survivor Stories: Tuam and Ireland’s Institutional Past, an installation focusing on the stories of survivors of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home. The installation, the first of its kind in Ireland, opened to the public last week.
The exhibition, which runs in Galway City Museum until September, resulted from the Tuam Oral History Project, which began seven years ago. That project, led by Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley, placed survivors at the centre of the commemoration of the people who had lived and died in the Tuam institution. The stories of 18 of those survivors are featured in the installation.
“The main goal was to make sure that we archived the testimonies of the individuals, and that they were kept in a safe place,” Dr Buckley said of the project this week. “We’ve been trying to disseminate that over the last few years, to get as much material out as we could, to keep raising the issues that haven’t been addressed, and we’ve done that in this exhibition as well.”
The installation has been attracting a steady stream of visitors since it opened last week, including the first tour groups which have placed it on their itinerary as part of an ethical approach to tourism.
Adam Stoneman, director of Galway City Museum, sees this as an important move towards acknowledging parts of our history that, potentially, make us uncomfortable.
“There’s sometimes a misunderstanding, I think, that tourists don’t want these histories,” he said. “They want the easy-to-digest history, or the heroic history. Some people do want that, but not all tourists, and I think a museum has to show the full picture.
“I like to think that tourists shouldn’t be patronised, and are well capable of engaging with the full kind of spectrum or full picture of history,” he added. “I know when I’m away in another place, that’s what I look for. I don’t want the whitewashed version of history. And so, I don’t see it as mutually exclusive that we have our tourism exhibitions and we have our exhibitions that only locals would be interested in. And this is an important exhibition, primarily for the survivors.”
Those tourists filed in this week, met by Dr Buckley for a short presentation on Ireland’s institutional history, the Tuam Mother and Baby Home, and the work between researchers and survivors before viewing the exhibition which has grown out of this work.
Most were aware, at least in passing, of Ireland’s history of institutional abuse. Michael, who had travelled from San Francisco, felt it was “about time” that survivors’ stories were publicly acknowledged. His wife, Sharon, knew a little but was moved by what she discovered viewing the installation.
“I thought the unfair stigma that they had to carry was sad,” she said. “It was heartening to read that many of them went on to have families of their own and happy lives, but you can tell that they always carry that.”
Survivor Stories: Tuam and Ireland’s Institutional Past runs at Galway City Museum until September. See www.galwaycitymuseum.ie for more information.
