My work is in response to a burial site marked in memory of “special babies” in my local community, Fermoy. The overgrown grave lies on the grounds of the town’s old workhouse, where a section of the building was used as accommodation for unmarried mothers and their children. Today, most of the original workhouse has been demolished, the grave for “special babies” is unkept, and despite strong calls made in the Dáil by local TDs, what was known as the Nursery Rescue Society was never investigated. Through extensive archival research and the display of gathered natural and neglected material from the surroundings of the burial site, I unravel what little information remains about the Fermoy Nursery Rescue Society. The installation, 'No Stone Left Unturned', creates a space of encounter for viewers to consider this neglected history – one that has been sitting, unacknowledged, on the doorsteps of countless communities, waiting for us to let it in.
