Taken from the "Women Who Dared" publication as part of the Tuam Herald celebration of International Women's Day 2021. Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland, pays tribute to Patricia Burke Brogan.
On International Women's Day we have a special opportunity to celebrate acts of courage and determination by women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities. They are women who have overcome adversity, broken down barriers, agitated for justice and righteously raged against inhumanity and discrimination; women who have refused to avert their gaze from systems and actions that are unjust, patriarchal, authoritarian and excluding.
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President Michael D. Higgins
Photo provided by Áras an Uachtaráin |
This year as we once again pay tribute to those who have demonstrated courage and determination in their pursuit of justice and equality for women we celebrate in particular those women who persevered in uncovering truths, and evasions around the violation of the fundamental rights of so many in Ireland by the State, a Church and by a complying society — actions of commission and omission — that contradicted the values of any real republic built, as it should be, on equal rights of citizens, care, true freedom, solidarity and compassion. Earlier this year the publication of the final report from the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation, though far from a conclusion on such issues, may be a step on the journey towards an understanding of what occurred in an Ireland that so badly failed tens of thousands of young women and their children.
The Commission was, of course, established following, in particular, the revelations by historian Catherine Corless about the deaths and burials of hundreds of children on the former mother and baby home site here in Tuam. Catherine has demonstrated laudable courage and perseverance in her pursuit of historical and moral truth, and as a society we owe her an enormous debt of gratitude.
May I also take this opportunity to express my appreciation of all those who have worked tirelessly, and with courageous vision, in quest of justice for the vulnerable women and children abandoned, forsaken, and abused by a society that had come to privilege property over life, and by a version of respect that was misogynistic, turning, for the most part, a blind eye to the irresponsibility of natural fathers, while it claimed to be a truly democratic republic. Included among that group is the writer and artist Patricia Burke Brogan and I am delighted to have been asked to pay tribute to her on this International Women's Day.
It was on 14th February 1992, in a converted garage near Galway's Spanish Arch, that Irish society began the process of throwing its unflinching gaze on a most dark chapter of our nation's history.
The occasion was the premiere of Patricia Burke Brogan's seismic play 'Eclipsed', which courageously brought to life the stories of the women abandoned, rejected and hidden by their families, their church and their fellow citizens in the now infamous Magdalene laundries.
Patricia was one of the first people I met when I came to Galway in 1961. We both were, with John Hoskin, founding members of a discussion group, Tuairim. My wife Sabina and I have had the pleasure of calling Patricia Burke Brogan a friend for many years now. She has been a practitioner as well as an advocate for all of the arts, as artist and teacher. We have, across those years, admired and been inspired by the way she has both calmly and courageously shone a light into some very dark corners of our shared past. In doing so, Patricia has always demonstrated a profound understanding of the importance of wrestling with the legacy of the past in ways that allow us to move forward towards a future not weighed down by animosity, hurt and hostility.
Her work does not seek to provoke hatred, bitterness or blame, but to shatter the secrecy, denial and passive complicity that enables the rejection of truth, the whitewashing of history and does so in the full knowledge of the possibility of that history repeating itself.
By forcing us to face and contemplate that which for some members of a younger generation may seem so unbelievable, but is also such an important part of our recently lived past, Patricia forced us to reflect on a great failure of shared humanity; a failure that not only led to the taking of actions that were wrong, but to the failure to take actions of revelation, exposure and acknowledgement that were right and necessary and that might break the great silence around the women incarcerated in the Magdalene laundries.
As a young novice in mid-20th century Ireland, Patricia was a witness to the reality of the Magdalene Laundries. Describing what she saw as `Dante's inferno', she shared that reality through her great gift for writing, and by doing so brought us deep into the individual stories that are such a critical part of our shared history and our shared humanity. Having chosen convent life in order to help those who were vulnerable, she eventually found a different way to carry the torch of light into lives darkened and diminished by intolerance and prejudice. When Patricia first met the women of the Magdalene laundries in the Summer of 1963, she chose not to regard them as 'penitents' or 'outcasts' but as fellow women with whom she wished to walk in solidarity. Across the decades she has continued to journey alongside those women, ensuring their stories are told to our own and future generations, their children remembered, their voices heard.
Patricia is, today, recognised and indeed renowned for that strong sense of social justice. Those of us fortunate to know her are also familiar with her wit and generosity, her sense of humour, her quiet determination. As a talented poet, artist, novelist and playwright she has contributed profoundly to the cultural life of our nation and to the viable democracy contained within the cultural space. As with all good artists, she uses her gifts to challenge us and enrich the wider public discourse, drawing on enormous wells of inner courage to do so.
For let us not forget that it took great artistic courage in the 1980s to tackle a subject that spoke so loudly of the terrible inhumanity inflicted on those who were so vulnerable by the agencies of the State and a misogynistic Church, and by many society forces who were part of this inhumanity or who silently colluded by looking the other way. There were some exceptional writers of course, who had the courage of revelation. I think of Padraic O'Conaire's story 'Nora Mhar cais Bhig'.
 | Sabina Higgins with Patricia Burke Brogan at the launch of her book, Memoir with Grykes and Turloughs, at the Galway Education Centre on July 1st 2014. The book was officially launched by Sabina.
Photo: Joe O'Shaughnessy
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Her work was not always welcome within that society, as Sabina and I can attest, and theatre after theatre had rejected 'Eclipsed' as being too controversial for its audiences before fledgling theatre company Punchbag began auditioning for the all-female cast that would bring to life the atrocity of the Magdalene laundries.
I was in the audience in Spanish Arch on that February evening almost thirty years ago when Eclipsed premiered to a shocked and electrified audience. As the play drew to a close and the cast took their bows, as we rose to our feet, we were aware perhaps of a social paradigm shift beginning to stir in the highly charged air of the theatre that night.
On this International Women's Day it is a privilege to have the opportunity to pay tribute to Patricia Burke Brogan, who has helped force reluctant members of an Irish Republic to face the truth of what prevailed in the Magdalene laundries.
I thank her for the solidarity, understanding and support she has offered to the women whom Ireland failed; for respecting thier dignity, and for drawing attention to the many stories that together articulate the ordeal of the Magdalene women. As a society we can be grateful to Patricia for using her visual, lyrical and dramatic gifts to help shape a better future for the women of Ireland and in doing so, for us all.
