Director: Frank Berry

Stars: Monica Dolan, Ian McElhinney, Ruth McCabe

Based on the New York Times article by Dan Barry, this involving true-life drama recounts the lengthy and painstaking unearthing of a troubling moment in Irish history by a dogged civilian. Dolan is Catherine Corless, amateur historian and one half of a farming couple in County Galway. When, in 2010, she begins researching St Mary’s, a former institution for unmarried mothers and children in Tuam, run by the Bon Secours sisterhood, she is struck by the absence of burial records. Digging further, talking to the initially reluctant locals while struggling with evasive authorities, she uncovers a shocking history of neglect and abuse. Her husband Aidan (Bennett from ‘The Quiet Girl’) is broadly supportive but weary of the effect it might have on his wife, who has a history of mental health issues. This is a straightforward but nonetheless powerful tale of one woman’s brave attempts to force the country to confront its past. Working to an eighty-four-minute running time, Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s script elegantly sketches out the Corless’s marital history and domestic life, with some lovely moments of lived-in humour and warmth. Dolan is excellent, her character’s evident mental fragility rendering this an uncomfortable watch. Most eloquent are the weary faces of those affected, captured in muted light by cinematographer Kate McCullough.

David Willoughby

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