THE IRISH star of a new BBC drama that examines the legacy of Ireland's Magdalene Laundries says it's important to talk about the scandal now rather than 'wait for the dust to settle'.
Philippa Dunne from Co. Mayo stars as Niamh in the fictional six-part series, The Woman in the Wall, which began on BBC One on Sunday.
Set in the fictional Irish town of Kilkinure, it centres on Lorna Brady (played by BAFTA winner Ruth Wilson) who finds a corpse in her house after waking up from a bout of sleepwalking.
As Detective Colman Akande (Tipperary actor Daryl McCormack) investigates a seemingly unrelated murder case, Lorna tries to uncover what happened to the daughter that was taken from her at a Mother and Baby home decades earlier.
'It can never be forgotten'
The gothic thriller, which was filmed in Northern Ireland, comes just 10 years after then Taoiseach Enda Kenny apologised to the Magdalene victims, calling the institutions 'a national shame'.
Meanwhile, it's just over two years since the Church and State apologised for the treatment of mothers and children following a damning judicial investigation prompted by reports of a mass grave at a Mother and Baby home in Tuam, Co. Galway.
With the last such institution closing relatively recently in 1998, Dunne says it's important to continue to highlight the scandal to honour those survivors who are still alive.
"[It] needs to be spoken about forever, it can never be forgotten. And what the women endured can never be forgotten," she told the BBC.
"We have to be aware of how dark this country got so that nobody would have to suffer that way again. It's inexcusable, unforgivable.
"Plus, the fact that it was still in operation up until so recently is absolutely shocking. It's still too fresh. And when it's fresh, let's not wait for the dust to settle, let's keep talking about it.
"Because there are people still alive who went through this awfulness, and we need to honour them. They need to be listened to and they need to be heard, their stories need to be told.
"You can't let the memory of this fade because it's an injustice to the women and it's putting us at risk of something similar happening again."
'The context is real'
Co-star Wilson agreed, saying the research she carried out for the part was an eye-opener, having not known much about it beforehand.
She hopes the series will prompt others to further explore the real-life story behind the fictional drama.
"It's only been in the past 10 years that the truth has really started coming out," she told the BBC.
"It was shocking to me that the last Mother and Baby home closed in the '90s, such recent history.
Wilson's character is searching for information on the daughter she was forced to give up as a teenager in a Mother and Baby home (Image: BBC)"Our show is fictional, the characters are fictional, but the context is real and much of the material is inspired by true events.
"It feels important to make work that can platform the stories of these women and my hope is that people enjoy the series, but more importantly, go away and dig a bit deeper, learn a bit more."
The show's London-born Irish creator Joe Murtagh admitted to being equally shocked when learning the details of the real-life scandal.
He added that most people outside of Ireland were unaware of it when he mentioned it to them and so he was 'inspired to do this [show] just by a sense of outrage'.
McCormack plays Detective Garda Colman Akande (Image: BBC)Murtagh believes that despite the apologies and compensation schemes, there hasn't been enough done to address the issue.
He believes it should be included on the Irish curriculum and hopes his own series can educate people who may just tune in expecting a traditional crime drama.
He said: "My hope is that someone in a random corner of the world, someone who's never heard about the Magdalene Laundries is going to sit down to watch this show because they want to watch a heightened type of murder mystery, and it will totally deliver on that and they will be engaged by it but then by the end of all, they've also learned all about the Magdalene Laundries too."
The first two episodes of The Woman in the Wall are available in Britain on BBC iPlayer. The series will continue on BBC One on Sundays at 9pm, starting with epispode three this Sunday, September 3. Each episode will be available on iPlayer after airing on BBC One.
The series will later air on Paramount+ with SHOWTIME in the US and exclusively on Paramount+ in Canada, Australia, Latin America, Brazil, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and South Korea. The series will be distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution in additional international markets.
For more information on the series, click here.
